I have a feeling Blogger has changed a few times since I last updated: truthfully I am not sure if this is even going to work. However, I will give it a try. I am feeling the need to document my makes again. It is probably because I still feel so isolated: moving to a new place during a pandemic is not fun. Youtube is good for a quick update every so often, but I so often debate whether I am going to continue making videos or not. So anyway, for now, I am going to try to put my makes back on here as well.
April: not the nicest month where I currently live. Still no signs of Spring coming except for the huge flock of Canada Geese that have settled on the nearby pond. We even had a blizzard on Saturday night.
To look at the bright side it gives me lots of time to craft.
I set myself a couple of crochet challenges for this year: one pair of socks and one cowl per month; plus four sweaters. One sweater is complete; another on the hooks, and I have been keeping up with the socks and cowls. This month I chose some cheerful yellow-peach yarn. I purchased this at my last local yarn store from the clearance bin. I wish I had bought more: I love the gradiant colour changes, and because the skein was divided by a strip of blue yarn it was easy to match each sock.
I finished a shrug for my birthday. Still not sure if I am a shrug person, but it was good to try something different.
The pattern is from this book:
I used Premiere Cotton Fair, a thicker yarn than what the designer called for, so it came out just a tad bigger. I have started another one with a fingering weight yarn and will see how I like that size.
I had problems with the starting chain, both on the finished one and the one I am working on now. I keep skipping stitches inadvertently and don't notice until the end. Unfortunately that means I have to rip out all the way back and start over. With a fingering weight yarn I find it very fiddly, so I plan to dig out every stitch marker I have and put them into the appropriate chain before I start the second row. After that it is a breeze: for my first shrug I worked one repeat per day for a nice, stress-free project.
I made great progress on my Celtic Spring cross stitch piece by Lavender and Lace over Lent this year. When I first started cross stitching I would see ads in stitching magazines for these Celtic Ladies. I thought if I ever got to the point where I could stitch one of them I would be a real, honest and true stitcher! Really these are not difficult to stitch at all, but oh my, those borders have almost done me in! Next time I will do the borders first to get them out of the way. I have found multiple needles threaded in the colours I need is helping.
My goal is to have her completely stitched and the beading started by the end of April. If I break the stitching up into little chunks I think I can make it.
After the discipline of not starting anything new over Lent I was more than ready for a new start. It also being my birthday I had grand plans of starting just about everything! I wanted something small and quick at first: I chose the April stockings by Blackbird Designs. I actually had no intention of stitching all three this year, but I was having so much fun I just kept going.
All are stitched on 32 count Antique White Lugana with my own over-dyed threads. I found the little butterfly beads in my stash and thought they would make a fun, Spring-time accent. I also used beads in place of stitches on the umbrella stocking, though it is a bit hard to see here.
My other new start is more of a journey project. I thought I would start this Dimensions Gold kit - "Wreath Of All Seasons" - and see how much of each seasonal part I could stitch in the three months of that corresponding season. I made a very small start on the Spring section and think I will try to stitch on it one week per month. I am definitely a seasonal stitcher so I thought it might be a fun way to make some progress on this gorgeous kit.
There we have it for now. I think this took two hours to write up, so now I definitely remember the drawbacks to blogging!
