Tag: cross-stitch

What I’m Working On: January 2021

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It’s a new year! So far my craft productivity is way down compared to some of the fall months. Could it have anything to do with caring for a two month old baby? Seems likely. I also decided this year that I am not setting explicit goals. This is a big departure for me, as I typically like to have a lot of goals written down. But I want to explore another way this year, where I just do whatever I want. Of course there are a lot of things in life that must be done, and I’m good at doing the necessities. But aside from those, I want to get back in touch with my own inner voice and, as much as possible, only do things I want to do. There is no need to feel obligated to work on a project. I want to use my limited free time on things that make me happier. So here are the things I’ve been working on this month, which most of the time I did not feel obligated to do.

Quilty Love Cross Stitch

FINISHED – There were moments where I really avoided this one. But I got a burst of desire to finish it right at the end of the month, so I put on the finishing touches of ric rac and buttons just today. And now I can use it with my Valentine’s decorations!

Cityscape Scarf

IN PROGRESS – This scarf has been a lot of fun to make, and I adore the yarn colors. I’m about 3/4 done with the main knitting, then will finish with edging. It is my first experience with intarsia, and it is really not that hard! The squares in the design make for an easy introduction to the technique. The colors change every 12 rows, so I can get in the groove for a little while and then get the next set of colors ready before I get bored. I learned the felted join technique for connecting on new pieces of yarn, and it is a game changer. I am going to have plenty of yarn left over for another project, which I’m already plotting.

Galloway Hat #2

IN PROGRESS – This one is about 75% done. I think there is too much yellow… Maybe I should have chosen the order of colors differently. Oh well!

What I’m Working On: December 2020

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I got a surprising amount of crafting done this month, considering we had Christmas and the baby takes lots of attention. I have learned how to knit while holding a sleeping baby, which is a pretty good talent to have!

Forbes Sweater

FINISHED – I finally finished this sweater! In case you haven’t followed my other monthly updates, this is the Forbes Sweater from Brooklyn Tweed, made from Ranch 02 yarn.

Baby Duck Booties

FINISHED – See my post about these booties here.

Burnaby Hat #2

FINISHED – This is another Burnaby Hat knit in bulky weight Brooklyn Tweed Quarry, this time in the Moonstone colorway. I went up a needle size from before, to US 8 and US 10.5, because the recipient has a slightly larger diameter head than the pattern specifies. I also made the ribbing a little longer than the first time. Here’s another picture of the first one, just to show off how good it looks on my sister!

Mitten Ornament

FINISHED – This is from a pattern that Brooklyn Tweed released for free this holiday season. There is no specific gauge or yarn suggestion, and the final size depends on the yarn selection. I made this out of some Quince and Co. Finch yarn (fingering weight) and size US 3 needles. It’s a fast knit that makes great use of small amounts of leftover yarn!

Quilty Love Cross Stitch

IN PROGRESS – I started this last January as part of a cross stitch along that concluded just in time for Valentine’s Day. I obviously didn’t finish in time! I’m hoping to finish by the end of January this year. I just have 1.5 red hearts and one more row of quilt motifs to go, then the finishing details of sewing on buttons and adding the ric rac borders. The pattern and thread kit are available from Fat Quarter Shop.

Rowan Felted Tweed Swatch

FINISHED – I quickly knitted up this swatch of Rowan Felted Tweed in preparation to make the Cityscape Scarf from Modern Daily Knitting’s Field Guide 16. For Christmas, I received a kit of all the suggested yarn colors for this scarf. This yarn is awesome and I can’t wait to get started on the beautiful scarf. The colors!!!

Galloway Hat #2

IN PROGRESS – I have plenty of Peerie yarn left from my first Galloway Hat. This one uses white as the main color, and I went down one size for each needle to make it a little bit smaller. I’ve finished the ribbing and started the first few rounds of colorwork.

What I’m Working On: October 2020

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Cross-stitch Christmas Stocking

IN PROGRESS – This is as done as it can be until the baby comes! By mid-October, I had finished everything except stitching the name and the final construction. It didn’t take as long as I expected – only about 3 months. It required really buckling down and focusing on it, though!

Albizia Hat and Mittens

FINISHED – This is the Quince Quarterly Fall 2020 project that I wrote about here.

After completing the Albizia hat and mittens, I had enough yarn leftover to make a toddler hat (left in above picture). I adapted the pattern to make it a little smaller than the original hat, and to account for having very little of the oatmeal-colored yarn left. I cast on 5 fewer stitches to shrink the diameter and worked about 8 fewer rounds. The pattern has 3 colorwork charts to make up the full pattern. I worked the first and last chart as written, and for the middle section I took inspiration from the second chart. I like how the toddler hat turned out, and I’m glad I made it right away while I still remembered my gauge for this pattern and yarn. I still have a little bit of the blue and yellow yarn, so maybe I’ll whip up a tiny baby hat, too!

Forbes Sweater

IN PROGRESS – I finished the main stockinette body and both sleeves. The next step is to join the sleeves with the body, then work the circular yoke, which has a charted pattern. I’m excited for this step, as I’ve never made a circular yoke sweater before.

Kahawai Cowl

FINISHED – This is the Kahawai Cowl from the Darn Good Yarn subscription box.

Some Not-So-Recent Cross-Stitch Projects

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When I was a kid, my mom made several beautiful, complex cross-stitch projects. I saw her working on these, and eventually I wanted to try. I don’t remember what I started with, but I got into making very small projects, like candy cane Christmas ornaments and tiny wall decorations. These were fast to make and fun to give as gifts. It had been years, though, since I did any cross-stitch projects at all.

Then a few years ago (maybe 2016?) I got the cross-stitch bug again. I saw a cute owl cross-stitch kit at a craft store and decided to pick it up. It was during a Christmas vacation when I had plenty of time to work on crafts, so I finished it pretty quickly. It helped that the design was simple, with contiguous blocks of color and no backstitching, and only 4″x6″ overall dimensions.

The owl picture lives in my closet on the dresser, where it brightens my day whenever I see it. I love bright colors, and this has plenty of them. I also like the rustic look of the canvas background. In the past I had typically done projects that used white canvas, so this was a fun change.

Right away, I bought another kit, this time a Halloween design. I worked on it for a week or two, and then just stashed it away for a couple years. I finally picked it back up last fall, determined to have it completed by Halloween. I just barely made it in time! I think I completed it with about a week to spare, so it wasn’t part of my decorations for long. But this year, it has been on display since October 1, so we’ll get to enjoy it all month!

Like the owl, this design has big blocks of color that worked up relatively quickly. However, it took a surprisingly long time to fill in the whole black background. I like the way the backstitch orange stars break up the background with pops of color. The finished dimensions are about 5″x7″.

After completing the Halloween picture, I had good momentum for cross-stitching, so I started working on yet another kit. During the month of November 2019, I made a whole Christmas picture, which was more complex than my other recent projects. Each of the ornaments required several color changes. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but the center of each ornament is in lighter colors, while the edges are darker colors.

This kit is from thestitchery.com, a great resource for cross-stitch and related needle arts. (They have some really lovely kits for table runners that I aspire to make in the future.) The finished dimensions are 12″x5″, which is not a standard frame size. I ended up buying a custom frame and mat from https://www.matboardandmore.com/. They have many colors and options to choose from, and I am really happy with the result.

I have really enjoyed getting back into cross-stitch. It is definitely a tedious hobby, with some bigger projects taking several months to complete even when I’m making daily progress. When they are done, it really boosts my happiness to have cute decorations that I made myself, especially when they are holiday-themed and part of my annual decorating process. I intend to make more for other holidays (Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, etc.) Stay tuned for more completed cross-stitch projects in future posts!

What I’m Working On: September 2020

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Cross-stitch Christmas Stocking

This stocking is for the new baby, and it comes from a Dimensions cross-stitch kit. I started working on it in July and I’m about 70% done. I’m hoping to finish before the baby comes in November (except for the name, since we haven’t chosen yet)! It would be fun to have everyone’s stockings up for Christmas this year.

Forbes Sweater

It’s been a while since I made a large item like a sweater, since I tend to prioritize accessories that fit well even if my gauge is a little off. I’m currently obsessed with Brooklyn Tweed yarns and patterns, and I thought the Forbes Sweater looked perfect for late fall, when I’m hoping to have it finished. It uses the limited-run Brooklyn Tweed yarn Ranch 02 in color Natural. I’m around 10% done so far.

Cowl

This cowl is from Darn Good Yarns subscription box earlier this year. The pattern is the Kahawai Cowl by Ellen Bergmann, and the yarn is Lace Weight Silk in color Sparkle Sandy Beach from DGY. I’ve been working on it off and on since around April. It is finally almost finished: the last step is to seam the two ends together. I just need to find a half hour or so to finish it up.

Planning

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been planning more projects and ordering all the supplies. Just last night, I ordered some fingering weight yarn and a pattern for a colorwork hat for my husband. I know it’s going to be hard to keep up with all these projects once the baby comes, but I’ll get to them all eventually.