FO: some cross stitch items

Currently drip-drying in the bathroom and waiting on pressing and framing. Sorry for the rubbish angle - I added the counties to the Warwickshire one. Coventry hasn't been in Warwickshire for some time, it's a blob on the SE of the West Midlands, but never mind. I didn't come up with the kit! I am debating doing some sort of freestyle cross stitch with all the leftover cotton I have. Hmmm. A friend had started the animal one and I finished it off. Ran out of black, luckily I had some elsewhere!

Summer finally arrived on Sunday, it's sunshiney and humid here. I'm not complaining, it's lovely!

Current mood: hot

New toys and gradual progress

Well, when this came up for sale on Ravelry I managed to resist for a whole 24 hours:

It's a Dean and Bean 3d printed CSM with four cylinders and matching ribbers...

The less said about the mess I made when I tried to use the ribber, the better... Is it just me, or does the ribber arm look like the USS Enterprise?

My other current addiction is finishing this. The two buildings at the bottom are delayed because I ran out of beige. I'm not sure which is more annoying, that it was my fault for not reading the graph properly, or that I'm paying £3 postage for a 99p skein of cotton. Still, at least I resisted buying more yarn! The universe must have realised I'm doing cross stitch because an old friend had a clear out and sent me three part finished ones. Though I do now have two sleeves and a back from the Passap. Slowly but surely the cardigan continues...

Current mood: amused

Baby steps, and the struggles of a perfectionist

We had a short break in Bristol last weekend. It was ok, though the weather was decidedly blah. We ate well and visited the SS Great Britain, which was fascinating. Not sure I'd particularly visit again but it was a nice change. We walked a lot as our hotel was a good twenty minutes outside town.

Not much progress to report, but I did successfully knit a sleeve in English rib on the Passap. I managed to drop a few stitches when casting off, but they've been fixed with handknitting needles. Many thanks to jkisala on the Ravelry Passap group for giving me the pointers to understand the pattern. The other sleeve should go much quicker, and I've already knitted the back and a front once, so they should be ok.

Since picking up the cross stitch in Birmingham a few weeks back, it has been taking up a lot of my time. I find it quite soothing, except for when I go wrong and have to unpick bits. I've also made some progress on the second tunisian crochet sheep cushion cover, though it took two false starts to get the corners right on the last white section (so I ended up effectively going backwards last Wednesday when I worked on it). I didn't have that trouble with the first one so perhaps I managed to overthink it somehow.

In the meantime I've been enjoying using the fancy new pen, and feeling pretty meh about the Wing Sung 3013, which is a TWSBI copy. Not sure if it's the nib width, which appears to be extra fine, but the ink just doesn't seem to want to flow very smoothly. It may end up in the circular file, or on Ebay. A pity, I would not have wasted £10 on it if I'd known. The Platinum Plaisir is also a joy to use, and I'm dying to know if it really IS a ball bearing seal in the cartridge - though it seems fairly frugal with ink, so it might be a while before I can find out!

No more holiday for a while, and the Cog has instigated the diet again. Ugh. I wouldn't mind if I felt it was working, but after twelve months it's getting a little tiresome!

Current mood: working

Like cookie dough

Well, the Willow pattern cross-stitch is finally done, pending a gentle wash and press. Very pleased with it, despite a few mistakes. Getting that border to join up wasn't easy, in hindsight perhaps I should have stitched that first?! I defy anyone to keep track of something like that though! To be fair, it is labelled as "Adult: advanced". First time I've ever done half stitches. No knots in this at all, apart from the french ones. Ironically, I think I already have a suitable frame for this, after I managed to sew this tapestry without using a frame and it has a permanent bias to it. Lesson learned for future reference - always use a frame or hoop, don't just wing it! 

So I have already started another one, Watercolour tree, which is probably harder, being abstract. Does anyone else do this - stitch to the edge of the frame and not want to break the thread? I am finding it quite addictive. This is the progress since I started on Monday. It's so nice to be using something other than blue or white, too!  It's really quite addictive, this cross-stitch. Who'd have thunk it?

Well, Spring seems to be struggling this year. It's very windy and wet, it's pretty much finished off the tulips, except for a few in sheltered positions. On Wednesday, after a very pleasant walk at lunchtime, we got home just in time to miss a sudden clap of thunder and a downpour. Last night it was blowing a gale, so glad we tied the greenhouse to the fence, at least it's still there. Our previous greenhouse got blown over twice and got broken. Went for my first indoor meal in over four months last night - we got wet getting there, too. But it was worth it for the veggie burger, the fruity cider and the sticky toffee pudding!

Current mood: cold

FO: Cross stitch sampler

I finally finished my cross-stitch sampler. Started some time ago, during a bout of RSI. Quite a bit of embroidery cotton left over. Turns out it's a weird size - 30 cm x 44 cm - so am off on a hunt for a suitable frame after work later.

Current mood: impressed

FO: more hats

When you finish knitting garments, you always have yarn leftover. I make it into hats usually.





The two sides of the reversible hats - sorry for the rough pictures, it's a PITA to keep switching flash on and off on the Nikon, the buttons keep losing their function. The left one came out on the larger size, because it's actually donated DK yarn.



This is leftover sparkly yarns. Very pretty, came out a bit long - it's a modification of the single thickness version of this pattern, but I reduced the stitch count, and I'm glad I did because it came out on the large side.

I also knitted a T-time top but I might redo it - as I was using DK not aran it came out somewhat smaller than I thought it would, and I need to use up as much of the yarn as I can (the second size came out kind of teen sized). I also knitted some swatches, which need to go into the wash.

My current go-to project, seeing as handknitting, crochet and sewing are denied:



I also did a little more weaving, but there's not much to show for that at the moment.

Current mood: okay

FO: Another hat

I tried knitting this on the midgauge originally but it was just too firm a fabric. It used 74g of the yarn, Stylecraft Carnival.



Spent two hours working on some cross-stitch tonight, only to discover I'd used three threads not two so had to pull it all back out again. I thought it didn't look right. Whoops! Serves me right for not reading the directions...

Current mood: tired and somewhat peeved...