I Have Made A Terrible Mistake

On the 31st of March I was looking at random videos on the internet and on impulse clicked on a knitting one. It was a very complicated looking shawl and I was all set to admire it and move on when I saw one of the videos on the sidebar was how to do a beginner knit stitch. So I watched it.

The next day I went out and picked up a pair of bamboo knitting needles so I could just "try it out". My test sampler looks like this now:
I can knit and purl, which is apparently all there is to knitting. Why didn't someone tell me this before? And why did the last person who tried to teach me make it seem so complicated? Clearly they were a terrible teacher and I should have tried again!

I got bored of the knit stitch (called the garter stitch when it's multiple rows), so I moved on to try combinations of knit and purl. I'm going to try a cable next and then increasing and decreasing. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to knit just about anything after that. Oh, and maybe figure out how to do a gauge properly.

It's kind of hilarious and kind of terrifying because I started out with the wooden straight needles because everything I read said that they were the easiest for beginners. I'm finding that they grip the yarn a bit too much for my liking and that casting even 30 stitches in difficult to manage. I guess I'm going to pick up some circular metal needles soon lol

But fear not, readers who are here for my stitching. I have in no way lost my love for that. In fact, I'm starting a Mill Hill ornie today since my left thumb knuckle is hurting. I think I knitted too much last night.

March Achievements and April Goals

Goals for March:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie. I finished French Horn and even cut it out.
2. Finish the castle and trees in Cinderella. I ended up frogging the metallic backstitch (and then frogging and stitching all the surrounding DMC since it got fluffy and shredded) so that I could couch it. Despite all that work it was probably faster than struggling to backstitch with the Kreinik. I'm never doing that again!
3. Put 20 hours into Autumn Winds. I put in exactly 20 hours.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Stitched a lunch bag.

Goals for April:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie.
2. Finish-finish a small from the Drawer Where Things Go To Wait (Forever).
3. 20 hours of Autumn Winds.

Carry Lunch In Style

I made a lunchbag! I followed this tutorial from Pink Penguin. This was a request but I'm really tempted to keep it for myself!
It looks huge in this picture but it's only about 12x12x6 and that 12 inches is with the handles included. It's not insulated, but it is lined with the same fabric as the brim. There's also a cover that pulls together as a drawstring. It's the first time I've done anything like that, so I didn't fiddle with the pattern but followed it exactly.

A terrible shot of the inside, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.
I was initially going to add the recipients initials but I decided to just go with a detachable flower instead. It's a kanzashi style flower based on this tutorial. It took me a lot longer than necessary because I kept missing the folded in bits when I stitched it together. But now that I have the hang of it I can see myself making them when I need a pretty embellishment. The flower is just tackled on for the photo. I need to find a pin of some kind for it.
Because I wouldn't be me if something didn't go wrong: I ran out of black thread and I have no orange, so I had to do all the stitching in white. The topstitching was a nerve-wracking job since mistakes were going to be incredibly obvious. I cut the outside in the wrong size, but was able to repurpose it for the cover which is an inch smaller. I forgot to change my needle position from my last project so the seams were 3/8 instead of 1/4 inch. And I already mentioned the flower issues.

But all in all, it was an evening well spent and I'm very pleased with myself!

And in case anyone is thinking of making this themselves, the tutorial is very easy to follow, except that her instructions on boxing corners aren't very clear.

Third Instrument

I still haven't figured out how to take good pictures with my phone, so it's a truly terrible picture of French Horn for the Smalls SAL.

Title	French Horn
Designer	Mill Hill
Start date	March 2, 2015
Finish date	March 25, 2015
Total time	3.75 hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted
Beads	MH 252, 2011, 2055, 3043

Stitch From Stash - March

Month: March
Spent: 3.32

Carryover: 35.80

I picked up some DMC that I ran out of, and some fabric and interfacing for finishing (which thankfully doesn't count for SFS because it would've put me way over budget!).

In frustrating news, I'm unable to use my camera for the foreseeable future. I'm going to have to use my phone, which as nice as it is, is very annoying to take pictures with.

Onto The Dress

I took a brief break from struggling with the Kreinik to stitch a bit of the skirt. I'm loving it so far.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana
I also got a new sewing machine and have been playing around with it. I keep forgetting to take a picture of it. This weekend, I promise.

Starting Over

When I last posted about Autumn Winds she looked like this:

Autumn Winds
28ct antique white Lugana
Since then I've managed to lose my original working copy, been unable to work backwards to figure out which parts I've stitched, kept it hidden, and finally restarted it.

I'm going with a block by block method, and now she looks like this:

Autumn Winds
25ct white Lugana

Castle And Shrubbery

I'm almost done the non-dress bits of Cinderella. I just have the metallic parts of the castle left since I'm not going to stitch the frame. Unfortunately the metallic I have is a bit thick so it's not much fun to stitch with. I'm really really looking forward to getting back to the dress!

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

February Achievements and March Goals

Goals for Febuary:
1. Finish Mill Hill Harp. Done.
2. Finish the castle and trees in Cinderella. So close. I have two colours and the backstitching to go. Apparently the castle and grounds are a lot bigger than I thought.
3. Finish Celtic Autumn if the Kreinik comes in. It didn't come in, and so I haven't finished it.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Turned Cool Christmas into a journal cover.
2. Started and finished Chocolate Needleroll.

Goals for March:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie.
2. Finish the castle and trees in Cinderella.
3. Put 20 hours into Autumn Winds.

Harping On

I stitched Harp from Mill Hill's Harmonic Holiday series. Unlike last month, I actually cut it out this month. It's missing the harp-strings, but that's because I ran out of the gold Kreinik. Maybe next month I'll have something completely stitched and cut out and ready to hang? One can only hope!

Title	Harp
Designer	Mill Hill
Start date	January 31, 2015
Finish date	February 1, 2015
Total time	4.25hours
Fabric	14 ct white perforated paper
Floss	As charted
Beads	MH 2011, 2022, 2055, 3043

Stitch From Stash - February

Month: February
Spent: 20.93

Carryover: 14.12

When I signed up for this year I kept thinking that I wouldn't use the bonuses because it sounded like too much work. What do you know I was right! I did it last month because it was easy. I took one look at what I stitched this month, tried to remember whether I had bought the chart more than six months ago, and just gave up.


As planned last month, I bought Canadian Hearts by The Victoria Sampler. It has all 10 provinces and the 3 territories. It also has the city of Victoria (because the company is based there, I guess), but I won't be stitching that. What it doesn't have is the one for the country. That's in the International Hearts I leaflet, along with a bunch of other countries that I have no plans to stitch. I don't think the kits are being made anymore, so the next part of this project is figuring out how to get my hands on the Canada chart.

So, er. Is there anyone out there who has the chart and is willing to lend it to me? I promise to stitch it asap and return it. *winsome smile*

I plan on starting these after I finish the Mill Hill Holiday Series as part of the Small SAL. So, in July :)

Taking My Own Sweet Time

Four years ago I made a "temporary" cover for my stitching journal. Today I finally made a new cover for it. I used Cool Christmas, which I also stitched four years ago. I really take my time finishing things lol
It was a bit of an adventure because I got the margins wrong, had to improvise and then got confused about the actual assembly. But all's well that ends well and this is so much cuter in person!

Pink For Valentine's Day

My attitude towards Valentine's is a resounding "meh". I think it's a ridiculously commercialized occasion but if people want to celebrate it then more power to them. It makes no difference to me (other than the post-Valentine chocolate sales, which are an excellent thing).

So of course I had to stitch hohla's latest freebie SAL "Chocolate" in pink.
It's stitched on 28ct lugana in various pinks from my stash. It feels like I've been using these threads forever in the attempt to use them up, but there's always plenty leftover!
I don't have a lot of pink beads. The first ones I found were giant ones that didn't fit into the spots at all. I was so pleased to find a ton of these smaller pink ones. In fact, as I type I have a horrible suspicion that these beads are not leftover from some other project but are meant for Cinderella. I'm too afraid to go look o_O
I feel like I'm becoming an old hand at these specialty stitches. I've done all of them before. But they're still so much fun!

Title	Chocolate Needleroll
Designer	hohla design
Start date	February 5, 2015
Finish date	February 12, 2015
Total time	8.75 hours
Fabric	28 ct white lugana
Floss	CC Carrie Berry, CC Goldfish, GA Cranberry, WDW Peony
Beads	MH 2004

A Frustrating Lack of Symmetry

I've been working on getting the castle and trees in the background. It's frustrating because there's an annoying lack of symmetry in some parts. You would think that the brown chimneys that are next to each other would be charted the same, or be mirror images, but they aren't. There's a random stitch that different. The ledge isn't uniform either. I've been fixing it as I go but it's annoying. I'll be very happy when I can finish this bit and get back to the dress!

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

January Achievements and February Goals

Goals for January:
1. Finish a Mill Hill ornie. Yes!
2. Finish all DMC stitching on Celtic Autumn. Yes. And I was about halfway through the Kreinik when I ran out and my LNS is out of stock, so I need to wait for it to be ordered in.

Unexpectedly This Month:
1. Started and finished Midnight.
2. Started Cinderella.
3. Started Mill Hill Harp.

Goals for February:
1. Finish Mill Hill Harp.
2. Finish the castle and trees in Cinderella.
3. Finish Celtic Autumn if the Kreinik comes in.

January Smalls SAL

I'm not taking part in many SALs this year, mostly because I'm getting too lazy. But I am sticking with Smalls SAL since it encourages me to dig out my smaller projects that I could normally ignore.

This month's finish is Mill Hill's Drum. This is a series of six and I'm planning on stitching all of them. Hopefully by July I'll have some idea of what to stitch for the second half of the year.

Stitch From Stash - January

Month: January
Spent: 14.95
Earned: 6

Carryover: 16.05

I bought one fat quarter of 25ct white lugana, so I'm not bothering with a picture.

I'm not quite sure I've got the calculations for my "Earned" amount right, but this is how I counted it:
$2: Mill Hill
$4: Midnight. The actual stitch count is 66x192 which would be ~113x113 if it was a square. But since there has to be at least 75% coverage and I don't think this design was 75% I downgraded it to the next lowest category.

In something that bodes ill for the rest of the year, I've already picked out my February purchase. Did you know that The Victoria Sampler Hearts series is now available as a chart instead of as kits? I've been holding off on buying the kits since I wasn't willing to spend that much money on something so tiny. But I spotted the International Hearts chart at my LNS when I went to buy the fabric. The owner actually told me that there wasn't one for the Canadian provinces and territories but I checked online on a hunch and it does exist! I'm a bit surprised she didn't check herself. Lost that sale since I'll be getting it online now :)

Cindy

It's still January. There's still time for a big start :) This is my start on Mirabilia's Cinderella. (I didn't realize that her website had been updated! It's so much easier to navigate now. And there's a search function!) I plan on heading up to the manor and trees because that looks like the most boring part.

Cinderella
32 ct Charcoal Lugana

Midnight Ends

I've been listening to some very good audiobooks lately so I raced through Midnight at a ridiculous pace.
The border was an absolute pain to stitch. Most of the flowers are composed of 2 colours and then there are all those random single stitches. But it was a small border and I still have memories of Teresa Wentzler borders, so it wasn't the worst one I've ever stitched.
I love the sun. It's so cheery and those eyebrows are fantastic.
Probably one of the best things about this is that as it's a bellpull I know exactly how to finish it! Now I just need to dig out my finishing fabrics to find something suitable.
All in all this was different from most of the things I've stitched recently and it was a very nice change. Now I'm returning to ladies in extravagant dresses :D

Title	Midnight
Designer	Lavender Wings
Start date	January 5, 2015
Finish date	January 14, 2015
Total time	39 hours
Fabric	28 ct purple lugana
Floss	As charted

Impulse Start

I was digging through my stash looking for the fabric for Tradewinds when I came across this light purple fabric and thought that it might be perfect for Midnight by Lavender Wings.

It's the perfect size, so I started it. It's so full of confetti that I have to change my needle every three stitches. It's stitching up pretty fast though, so I haven't got tired of it yet.

Midnight
28 ct unknown purple LuganaI can't find the designer's website (I think she's retired) and all the pictures online are tiny, so here's a quick picture of the cover.