Wednesday, December 18, 2013

WIP Wednesday - Countdown to Christmas!

There is no way I'm finishing my Christmas socks before Christmas, but I've made some scant progress. I am not good at working on holiday projects after said holiday, so these might end up in hibernation soon. But for now, here's about half of a Skew sock in the 'Mery Mery' (yes, that is how it is spelled on the label) color way of Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks North Pole. Looks like all the colors in this line have been discontinued, and it says "Merry Merry" as the colorway on the site, but that sho ain't what it says on my ball band.. Kinda skritchy because of the metallic filament, but cute colors. This pattern is super strange, and the sock looks super long on the foot part, and I have short feet, but it seems to fit ok so far.


Next up, the project I've been spending all my free time on, and I have a slight possibility of getting this finished by Christmas. It's kind of turning into a true advent calendar with me trying to stitch one square per day. So with today being December 18th, I will be working on the 18th square. Kinda neat. I think I will eventually make it into a pillow with a Christmasy calico cloth as the backing. This is last year's Kawaii Winter Sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. If anyone cares for details, I am using DMC flosses and cashel linen in natural.



Yay for a little progress and Happy Wednesday to all.

http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Failure to load

So I failed on WIP Wednesday. I've been making progress on my sock and my cross stitched winter sampler, but like super slow snail progress that isn't fun to watch creep along. Hope to have some better progress by next week.

I did make it past the heel on my Skew sock so at least it doesn't look like a willy warmer anymore :)

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

WIP Wednesday December!


You know - there are hazards in my crafty work environment. One of the most pervasive hazards is dog farts. The dogs all plop down on the couch next to me when I am knitting or stitching and good lord do they let some gas fly!
Pee-yew! And they just snooze on through like nothing happened. Meanwhile, I am gagging and fanning and trying not to vomit. OSHA would be appalled!

At any rate, I have gotten a bit done on both of my WIPs from last week - my skew sock is coming along slowly. Yesterday, I was working on it while waiting for a doctor's appointment, and it hit me all of the sudden that my sock looks exactly like a wiener warmer! :-o

Hopefully no one thinks I am knitting a shiny, Christmas-y penis pocket.

Here it is:

Next up, my cross stitching project. I was off of work last week and finished up several more panels. This week is back to the grind, so progress has slowed...

I think it looks super cool though:


For those of you interested in the criminal element, here are a couple of the poot perpetrators looking guilty!!


(My niece Beth took this pic - check out her blog at The Pow Wow Factory)

Head on over to Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday posts!
http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/
 

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

WIP Wednesday Thanksgiving Edition


Took the week off work, so I'm getting more done on my new cross stitching project than I would otherwise. I am finished with 6 out of 25 panels - woot!

I screwed up the border on 7 about 3 times tonight. So after pulling out all the stitches in one corner for the severaleth (just made that one up) time, I decided to send it to bed early and give it a rest.



Amber and Derek won on DWTS which is cool - whoever thought at the beginning if the season that the big girl would win it all?? Pretty sweet. Also Derek is cute :)

Made a little progress on my Skew sock as well - I would say I'm working heel/gusset, but this pattern is wonky, so I don't exactly know what section I'm working. Apparently I am increasing stitches for the ankle area.


Haven't done any work on the cardi I was working on last week. Maybe soon I will pull out all my hibernating projects and assess where I am with them.

Happy WIP Wednesday and Happy Thanksgivukkah. Shalom :)

Have some crafty projects you're working on and would like to share? Head on over to Tami's Amis and share your crafty blog: http://feedly.com/k/1cuIwAs

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

I found my inspiration in an old milk crate

So... I haven't posted on here in approximately forever.


I am all the time reading other people's blogs, and I'm doing shit over here, it just doesn't usually seem very blog worthy. At any rate, I feel compelled today to do a WIP Wednesday post. A lot of crafters post their works in progress (WIPs) on Wednesday and share them around.


My efforts from one week to the next usually don't seem like a whole hell of a lot nor anything to write home about, and also, I am kind of a crappy photographer. ALSO - no one reads this blog, but you know what? Whatevs - I feel like posting, so I'm gonna.


I have a couple of projects in hibernation right now, and I'm not going to post photos of them cause they'll probably still look the same in several months as they do right now. I don't keep things in hibernation unless I intend to actually finish them someday - otherwise I just rip the whole thing out. So, they'll get done ... eventually.


So - WIPs - first up, a wool sweater I started about a month ago. I'm not good on finishing large projects, but this one's coming along ok. The yarn is mega soft Yarn Love Anne Shirley in Belgian Chocolat and Sweet Tangerine colorways. The pattern is Eilonwy by Carol Feller. I read Carol's blog here: linky


FYI - I plan to try harder on photos in the future :-o





Next up - Skew socks in a pretty obnoxious Christmas pattern. I am a bit obnoxious about holidays - I love cheesy Christmas socks and sweaters and the whole nine. This yarn is self-striping (which I hardly ever purchase), and I wanted to make the most of the yarn without just doing a plain sock (which I know I would NEVER FINISH). I've had my eye on Skew for a long time, but the lack of sizing scared me. Oh well - I just decided to jump in. I made some FANTASTIC Christmas socks for myself in 2011 out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
in the comfort and joy colorway. The yarn and pattern were part of a Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club kit (the pattern was called Joy). Anyway - long story longer - my dogs ATE. MY. SOCKS.


So the Christmas-y Skew socks are for me to try and replace my chewed up Christmas socks. Anyone with some self-striping yarn sitting around in the "I don't know what the hell to do with this, but it was super cute" pile, check out this blog entry - I read this blog regularly (and use Feedly if anyone is looking for a blog reader) - Self-striping sock patterns.


Here's the first sock in progress (the yarn is a little rough, but it's because it has a metallic strand running through it) - I like them so far :)





Last but NOT least, I have not done cross stitch in forever - probably not since 1990-ish? I recently saw a WIP Wednesday post that BLEW ME AWAY. To the max. Here it is: Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday post that started it all.


I think my brain exploded a little, and then when I followed the link to the pattern and website the sampler same from, my brain exploded a lot, and I think my wallet exploded a little too...


Here is the magical fairy land called Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. So, now fast forward to about 16 days later, and I'm working on one of their samplers. I decided to go with a Christmas sampler, because a) I LOVE HOLIDAYS and b) Halloween is over. I ordered my supplies, but later found out that the fabric will take a while (maybe 3 weeks), so in the interim (because I am super patient n' stuff), I ordered last year's Winter Sampler and all the supplies, and I started on it over the weekend! My first panel SUCKED big time, so I cut it out and started again. It's my first time cross stitching on linen, and I so much appreciate all of the tutorials and photos out there that people posted to help me along my way. Here are some of my faves:


Rosy Little Things (a blog I found during this process and now LOVE)
Mochimochi Land (I have made a few of this designer's knitting patterns and also read her blog)
Mary Beale School of Needlework


And here's my first panel (little warped looking cause it's still on the hoop):





And just because I feel like it, here are a couple of my project bags - the Christmas one was part of a Woolgirl club kit. I'm not sure what crafty person made the bags, but they're pretty awesome! Skew is riding around in this bag.





And my Eilonwy sweater is riding around in a large drawstring kitty cat bag that I bought at Cast-On Cottage. Again, I'm not sure who made it, but it is a fantastic bag. Large, durable, and cute. The inside fabric has all kinds of names of different cat breeds. It looks lumpy cause it has a sweater in it, and, not surprisingly, is also totally covered in cat hair:





OK - that's it for me. Hope I can make another post before 5 years go by.

And in a whole "circle of life" type of thing, I am linking back to the blog that inspired me to cross stitch and blog, and I'm posting my WIP Wednesday post there, too ;)

Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday