June Update. Knitting finish , 2 prpject bags and cross stitch start

 In June I worked on 8 cross stitch projects, including one new start.  I also had a knitting finish and made 2 crossstitch project bags.

I total I put in 16071 stitches.  

Alices Rabbit got 801 stitches 

 

Cat nap got 1216 stitches 

Caricature got 2017 stitches 

Gertrude got 1489 stitches 

 Pandemic got 820 stitches

Four of bees got 1381 stitches 

Mini at the steps is my focus piece and got 4016 stitches

My new start is Lady Ophelia Verre which was a Limited Edition that was only available from HAED for a very short time,   artwork by DGB creations.

This is my progress. 4231 stitches 

I also bought some new charts.  HAED had a short re release of some of their limited edition pieces.  I bought 3 minis

Chiquita

The awakening 

Mythical mermaid 

Right now HAED are having a 50% off sale and I bought this huge piece. The Trident and the Tempest. It is around 330,000 stitches.

I also made 2 project bags

 I had a knitting finish. This is the Ranunculus sweater and is the fourth Ranunculus I've made

Plans going forward have changed.  As ive added 1 large piece and want to start Trident as well that will be 2 very big pieces that I want to see some progress on.

 So each month I will do ;

Ophelia.  Half a page

trident.     Half a page

After they are done, the others are on a wheel and when spun I will do half a page.

However I want a focus for a finish piece,  so that will be entered twice on the wheel.  As cat nap is twice the size of the others that will also have 2 entries on the wheel.  My focus for a finish piece is Mini At the steps.  I have another 16640 stitches until finished.  Those that aren't haeds will get around 3500 to 4000 stitches. 

Once all the wheel spins are complete I can start another project, but keep to mini size.

Knitting ufo, stitching wips and haul

I have a few knitting finishes to show. Some I finished earlier this year and a couple I finished in May.

This is the Billie jumper,  pattern by Sari Nordlund. Knitted in peer gynt

I'm pleased how this turned out. 

The next one I'm very disappointed with.   This is the Tecumseh sweater by Caitlin Hunter.  From the photos I didn't realize the armholes were so deep.   It's about the size of a tent and I look ginormous in it.  

I also finished a pair of socks this month.  This is in gallipole in a discontinued colourway.

On to stitching.  

I made a couple of project bags for my cross stitch.

This month I've still been bothered by shoulder pain.  I have a physio appointment at the beginning of June.   At least until then I think I need to rest my shoulder so wont do any cross stitching or knitting.  Even though I made a conscious effort to not stitch as much I still managed 17296 stitches, 14942 of which were my full coverage.  I worked on 11 projects. Only cat nap did not get any stitches.

My focus piece is Mini At the steps.   I put in 4156 stitches

It is now at 40444 out of 62500 and is 66%

My daily thread is the Four of bees.  I put in 2354 stitches  and it is at 4564 out of 19785 for 23%.

I'll add a photo later.

For caricature I put in 1482 stitches

It is now at 15495 out of 80089 for 19%.

Pandemic had the 5th colour added which was 1010 stitches

It is now at 2940 stitches out of 77287 for 4%

I had a new start, this is Alice's Rabbit from Stitches Sew Beautiful.  Artist is Alisa Smith Williams. Im doing the small version. I usually start in the upper top left, but wanted to see her face, so started there. I put in 978 stitches. 

She is now 978 stitches out of 62500 for 2 %.

I decided not to aim for 6 page finishes for Fairytale.  I have enough charts i want to work on, so really no point pushing myself for the HAED sal charts.  I put in 1850 stitches. I havent got a photo to add.  It is now at 19592 stitches out of 88650 for 22%.

I had a second new start.  This is Big Smiles by Stitches Sew Beautiful, artist is Serr. Kai quill and ink.  Their charts are retiring at the end of the month and there was a sale so I bought a couple.  I put in 1666. This is going to be one of my focus pieces, replacing Fairytale. 

And a third new start was The Gold Lady by Stitches Sew Beautiful,  artist Eder Jose Rosa. I put in 1109 stitches 

This is now 1109 stitches out of 120400 for 1%.

Gertrude got 937 stitches

She is now at 3383 stitches out of 30000 for 12%

Finally Gloria and the Gargoyle got 1754 stitches 

So when im able to continue stitching my focus piece will be At the Steps. My focus wheel has Pandemic, Big Smiles and Caricature.  All others are on my non focus wheel.  So I stitch on Steps, then focus wheel, then non focus wheel and back to the beginning.  When a pattern is spun it blocks out on the wheel so wont be spun again until all patterns have had a go 

I also bought Markup rxp last week.  So far Im just doing pandemic and four of bees.  It shows backstitching so is better for Long Dog Samplers than PatternKeeper.  My plan is to do new starts through Markup. Those that have recently been started, once a complete pages is finished in PK I'll switch to markup.

This is the other pattern I bought from Stitches Sew Beautiful.  It is Bound 

HAED also had a sale and I bought a Josephine Wall pattern Heart and Soul

I also used Chatgpt to add all my pets from the last 30 years into 1 photo and then used pixel stitch to create a cross stitch chart

Woolfest happened last weekend. I bought 4 sock yarn and 2 mohair for a Stockholm vest

It's been a busy month.  If my shoulder doesnt improve I may not have much to show for June though

April update Flirtation finish 2 framed and 2 new starts

 I have a finish.  Flirtation by Long Dog Samplers. 

The design size is 115x151 and had 7643 stitches. I stitched it on 18 count Aida in Silks4U PR147. This was my one strand a day and I started it on 14 January 26 and finished on 8 April 26. Total stitching hours were 39.

As I was getting it framed,  I also framed Sans Soucis that I finished in 2020.  I used the same colour silk thread but a darker background and just don't like the look.  There is not enough contrast between the silk and the fabric. 

For the rest of my stitching month i put in 16078 stitches, 13084 were on projects other than the Four of Bees which is my one strand a day project.

The Four of Bees is my new one strand a day to replace Flirtation.

Im using these colours from Silks4u

Progress so far,  I've put in 2210 stitches. Stitched on 18 count Aida

Another new start was another Long Dog Sampler.  Pandemic was put out as a free pattern during the pandemic  and ive often thought of doing it.  I saw a lovely rainbow colored one on Instagram and decided I wanted a rainbow one.

This is the pattern

And progress so far, 1930 stitches and 4 colours

I am using a rainbow set from Silks47 and 18 count Aida

On other projects I did 2170 stitches on cat nap.  This is now  18880 out of 179000 and is 11%

Gloria and the Gargoyle got 1355 stitches, is now 12472 out of 160000 at 8%

Fairytale got 4658 stitches, now 17742 out of 88650 and 20%

I didn't do much on caricature,  just 353 stitches. Now at 14013 out of 80089 17%

I had another new start.  This is small Gertrude by Stitches Sew Beautiful. 

Progress so far,  2546 out of 30000 8%

I've gone back to stitching on q snaps with my lowery.  I really like how embroidery looks in scroll frames and loved the painting fairy stand.  However I found my right shoulder was getting very painful.  I use my right hand underneath the fabric and somehow was holding my shoulder in a way that became very painful.  Im much more comfortable using qsnaps with my lowery.

I also tried diagonal stitching on a couple of pieces, but found that slowed me right down.  So have gone back to a typewriter type method, where I stitch within a page, pick the next colour on a row and stitch until thread used up, or no more stitches on the page.

Im also going to try a new rotation in May. 

 FIRST ROTATION 

I have one main focus piece,  fairytale.  I work on this for 2 days. 

SECOND ROTATION 

Then switch to one of my other focus pieces, cat nap, at the steps,  pandemic or caricature.  Spinning a tiny decisions wheel to decide which one to do.  The wheel deletes the picked one so they will all get a turn before starting again. 2 days or minimum 5 hours.

THIRD ROTATION 

Then spin a wheel to select a category, at this stage large and small. I will add SSB freebie and HAED SAL when I have projects for them.  Again I spin a wheel to select a project within that category.

Then back to focus piece in first rotation. 

March update

In March I decided to spin a wheel to select projects and how much time to spend on them.  My focus piece was Mini At the Steps and I decided not to focus on the 6 page finish for the HAED SAL Fairytale.  

For At the Steps I put in 5712 stitches for a total of 36288 stitches, or 59%

For Fairytale I put in 1777 for 15%

On Cat Nap I put in 2023 stitches for 9 %

on Gloria and the Gargoyle i did 7404 stitches for 7%

On my 1 strand a day, Flirtation I put in 2886 stitches and 90%

I had1 new start, this caricature of me and my dog. This is what it will look like when finished

There was a lot of white around the outside which i am not stitching, so my count is wrong.  There are 11722 stitches i am not doing.  I put in 1938 stitches for 8%.  Here is what it looks now

On my full coverage I did 18854 stitches, plus 2886 on Flirtation.  

Plans

I have made changes again.  I've decided I do really want all the SAL charts, so need to do 6 pages by the end of the year on Fairytale.   I will have that as my focus piece, and put At the Steps into my rotation. Instead of spinning for thr amount of time to spend on each project, I will do 2 days, or a minimum of 5 hours or 1000 stitches.  What I mean by the minimum is, if on the second day ive done 4 hours and reached 1000 stitches, the next day I'll spin for the next project. However if  ive done 5 hours,  and not reached 1000 stitches, then I can stop.  Each week I will do the amount needed on Fairytale to ensure a finish of 6 pages by the end of the year.  At the moment that is about 850 stitches a week. 

HAUL

I spent a lot in March.  I bought a scroll frame from Painting Fairy and an embroidery stand from them.

I also bought some silk thread from Silks4u for long dog samplers.  I bought a rainbow pack to make a rainbow pandemic.  This will be my birthday start in April.

KNITTING 

I finished a couple of things. The first was a jaunty shawl.  I havent yet taken a photo.  The Billie called jumper, again no photo yet, and the Zipper vest

Until next month, keep those needles dancing.