Still Playing with String

I've been hunting through my craft room, because I absolutely cannot find 'Snowing'.  I don't know what I've done with it, at all!  I know I didn't take it anywhere because it was too small and fiddly - I need my lamp and all my gadgets when I work on it!  But it has vanished.  I'm going to have to replace it in the Turtle Trot, at least until I find it.  Then I may switch back, or put it on the waiting list.

Anyway, while digging though ancient project bags, I found one with some specialty yarn in it - a very fuzzy green and black that is supposed to be self-patterning.  I made a very interesting crocheted hat with it a few years ago and I apparently had decided to use the little that was left for a small scarf.  In the interest of finishing things up, I got it out and did some more rows.  I'm not much of a knitter, but this is just garter stitch.

It has no pattern at all yet, but it should soon.  I think this will be a quick finish, and I can use it; it is really cold here!!!  We've been spoiled by some recent mild winters but this one is a doozy!  Not a whole lot of snow, but it's so cold... brr!

Anyway - that's project #27 (the kumihimo braid is #26).

For #28, I got out my brother-in-law's Christmas present - yes, totally didn't finish it! What else is new?  Anyway, it's a 'Kittens in a Row' afghan, and I was going to start with black, shade up through two or three colors of grey to white, and then shade back down to black.  But my sibling asked me not to - they are decorating their first house in Natural shades, I was informed.  This, from two skinny Goth kids who wear almost all black, have too many piercings to count, and shred their new clothes to make them more interesting!  But I was happy to agree.  They requested that each set of 'kittens' be in a different color, ones that cats might actually be.  So here it is:

And today!  #29 - I finished up the last of the puzzles!  No pieces missing, woo hooooooo!

I thought I would immediately be offering these for sale or trade, but they've all been kidnapped by my Mum - she wants to work the rest.  She's really fast, though, so I'll be offering them soon!

For tomorrow I'll be getting out whatever takes Snowing's place.  Whatever shall it be?  I have no idea!  Only two projects to go, though!

Agh! The pictures!

Lol - most of my pictures have vanished!  That has never happened to me before!

I use Photobucket instead of Blogger usually - last post I used Blogger.  I may upgrade, or I may wait until the end of the month when my bandwith levels are supposed to reset - three days or three bucks?  HAHAHA!

EDIT:  I'm going to wait.  I was informed if I paid now, I'd still have to pay again for next month.  I'm a miser, I guess!  The pictures will be back in a few days!!!

EDIT AGAIN:  Apparently, mine rolls over on the 28th, since that's the day I joined.  Pics are back!

Playing With String

I ended up not getting an afghan out yesterday - I went to get a project bag, and went right past them to get this.  It is my kumihimo box.  I don't have much braiding stash compared to the rest of my stash!  Everything fits in here.

I laid a skein of floss on it for sizing.

Here's what's inside:

A box of craft cord, a stack of kumihimo disks, two braids that need 'rolling', two braids in progress, and a baggie of plastic 'string' and a really thick foam disk that I recently found at a yard sale - it has a few bits of already braided stuff in it, too.  And my notebook full of pattern ideas.  That's a full sized notebook, which might be a better idea of the box size.  I love my box!

Here's my two almost-finished braids.

The top one is the 'hearts' pattern and the bottom is a single diamond pattern.  They need 'rolled' which is where you put something on the TV to watch and sit and roll them between your hands for what feels like forever but is usually about ten-fifteen minutes.  Then they lay perfectly smooth and lovely.  When you're really, really good at kumihimo, you supposedly don't have to roll anymore, but I haven't reached that stage yet, though these aren't as lumpy as mine used to be!  These are both destined to be key chains for my Mum, who likes to put her key chains around her wrist so she doesn't drop them.

These are my two in progress, and I worked on them yesterday.

The left one is the 'flower' pattern and I'm making it to look like daisies.  The right is my own pattern, a set of four diamonds in fire colors that I call 'Ember'.  The daisies will be another key chain, Ember will be a lanyard for an employee ID.

This is my newest addition to the box - it is a little Christmas prezzie I got and love!  I will be making a lot of braids this year - it is supposedly for young girls but there is not a single kid I know who would have the patience to sit down and do these!  But I love to braid and always have, and these instructions are pretty good.

The book has the spiral knot braids that I always wanted to learn to do - like the pink one on top right.  It does say to tape down the ends while you are working but I'm going to rig myself a little frame, instead.  Make life easier!

Today, I really did get an afghan out so progress pics of that coming soon!

PS - My apologies for the bad formatting.  Blogger doesn't like me today!  It will not adjust!

Mostly Caught Up!

Project #23 - the fifth puzzle!



One piece missing but my Mum worked this one first and says there were no pieces missing so she's searching her house for it!  Hopefully it turns up.  Although she was a little iffy if this one or the next one is the one she worked on, lol!

Project #24 - A Whole Lotta Latte



I got the rest of the light pink done and almost all the dark pink on this cup and saucer.  Started the border, too.  My Mum was going through a box of greeting cards looking for a birthday card for her sister-in-law, and she found this - I was at her house working on Latte when she did!  It boggles the mind, haha!



Project #25 - this one is crochet!  I bought this 1973 pattern book on etsy:




These are just some of the pictures - there are 36 hats in it! and I've decided to try and crochet them all (even though some have knitted bits and my knitting skills are bad) I think these old patterns are awesome, even if they are also occasionally weird!  I started with #1, the funny star-shaped one in the larger picture.  I don't know if I will ever get the nerve to wear it, but I'm making it in colors I like, just in case!  Otherwise it will go on etsy for someone who is more adventurous than me!

The original colors listed are taupe, yellow, and tangerine - very 70's, indeed!  I'm making it in dark brown, cream, and light brown and I got this far yesterday:



So now I just need to get something out for today!  Maybe I'll work on an afghan.

Catching Up Again

I'm behind! Again!

Project #19 - the fourth puzzle:



It was missing two pieces.

Project #20 - Mary Wigham:



I started the next motif.  This is the last one down the side, I will be almost to the bottom!  The next one that goes across the bottom has its tip on the side, if that makes sense!  So when this motif is done, I will be within 1 1/2 inches of the bottom.  Or thereabouts.

Project #21 - Angel of Grace:



I got a little more of the two long, curling ribbons done.  There's one on her skirt and one coming from her other side.

Project #22 - Rooster Welcome - a new start!



This is an older kit by Design Works and it took forever to sort out the colors - they were just by name with no hint of how many strands like the newer kits have, and some of them were almost identical (like the three shades of grey)  Then once I got them sorted, I discovered that the three shades of gold, which make up a lot (the border, the sign, the eggs, and the head & neck of the rooster), have the wrong symbols on the chart.  The pale gold has the symbol for what is regular gold in the picture, the dark gold has the pale gold symbol, and the regular gold has the dark gold symbol - in case someone has this in their stash!  The rest of the symbols looked fairly correct; I didn't check them all that well because I was so very sleepy by the time I figured out what was wrong.  So this is all that got done!



Back soon with the rest of my projects - now I am only 3 behind to show you!

Yiotas and Janlynn

I've wanted a kit from Yiotas for the longest time - I've seen them on so many blogs and they look awesome!  I finally got one last year, but I wanted to start it before I posted!  I also had a Janlynn kit I was dying to do, so I thought I might show the differences :D

Here's my two new lovely starts (these are also the two missing slots in my Turtle-Trot list).

'Princess of Sun' by Yiotas and 'Funky Cat' by Janlynn



I adore two things about Yiotas' kits - the way she does the floss and the soft, soft, lovely soft fabric!

Here's the Yiotas' kit's floss - all neatly wrapped and ready to go.  They are stuck a sturdy bit of paper, but not by the floss - there's a bit of tacky glue on the top of the bobbin.



Just for comparison, this is Funky Cat's floss:



Yiotas' nice, smooth fabric, and then the usual horrible kit stuff - although if you dunk kit fabric in warm water before you use it, and iron it dry, it gets nice and soft.  It's full of starch to keep it flat in the packaging.  Which I will admit, is better than it getting all torn up during mass production.  It's no fun to stitch on unless it's washed first, though.





Janlynn's stood up all by itself - I was very amused. I got some odd looks (I took these at work, on break. Coworkers think its odd when you're laughing like a hyena at something they can't see. I dunno why.)

The patterns actually weren't too different - both nice and big, easy to see, and just a little bit awkward to work with unless you fold them or make working copies.  But I like working copies, anyway, so that doesn't bother me!





My grandmother has a saying 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating'.  Means don't judge something until you've tried it.  So I used that as my excuse for two fairly large new starts!

Princess of Sun is as nice to stitch as I thought it would be.  I'm still petting that lovely fabric!



And Funky Cat is still a bit stiff after the washing but I love the design!



So there are starts #17 and #18 for January, and I think they are actually #7 and #8 on Turtle-Trot.  Weird.

A Finish!

I finished this on Friday, January 17th - just wanted to get past IHSW before I posted it :D

A Cook's Guide - I think this is kinda cute, my Mum thinks it is hee-lar-i-ous!  So I stitched it for her.  It made a nice, quick, fun finish!



It's also one already knocked off of these new projects I'm adding to my overcrowded WIP list!  Now I just have to decide how to finish it.  Mum likes framed pictures, but she's got a lot!

January IHSW

I worked on Lovers for IHSW, of course!  I have put Nostlagy away until this is done.


Before:



After:



It may get some more love before next month; I don't know!

This also is project #16 for January :D

Projects #14 and #15

I probably won't post again until after IHSW but here are the next two I've worked on this month!

#14 - Started 'The Cold Snowman' by Bent Creek.  Didn't get very far yet!



#15 - Got out my WIP, Chang Wu Fei.  I took a close up for the before pic, of the area I plan to work on:



and the first day I got this much done.  The colors in the second picture are much more accurate!  My goal on him before the February Turtle Trot is to get the next big chunk of 775 on this page done, and maybe more of the stitches around it.

Projects #12 and #13

My next two January Projects were new starts.  They both came from a 1988 free Christmas project booklet by Gloria and Pat.  It had ten or so projects in it - you'd never get that for free now, lol!

Anyway, there are three or four in it that I want to do, but I these were my two favorites and I've had them kitted up for a while!

They are both in this picture - the tree made of hearts and the Wise Men.



#12 - The Heart of Christmas - got this far:



#13 - Three Kings - got this far:



Not huge amounts but they are started!  Both of these are to be finished this year - I want to decorate with them.

January Projects #10 and #11

I am up to number 16 in my January projects, but I am way behind on my posts!  One of my coworkers has her mother in the hospital and I've been covering her shifts.  I'm not going to flood you with bunches of pictures all at once, though - so here are two for today.

#10 is my Princess Palace.  It did look like this:



I got it this far - finished the Princess, started the Prince, did a wee bit more wallpaper and some of the magic harp, stitched the champagne bubbles, and stitched a vase of floating roses sitting on a floating table (really need some backstitch!)  My goal on this one, by the February Turtle-Trot, is to have the right side of the room done and start filling in around it so I can backstitch the whole room at once.



#11 is the next ornament in my kit of 30 Christmas Stocking Ornaments - this one will grow up to be one with white poinsettias.  I got more done on it than most of my other projects.  Pic is a little dark so the white would show up.



I'll post two more tomorrow - today I am getting out Lovers for the IHSW, and it will be project #16 - so I am waaaay behind, see?

The Turtle Trot

I made a page with these, but I thought I would go ahead and repost them with what they will look like finished.  The Princess Palace is the only one I'm working on so far, but the others will get some love before February's post!  Turtle Trot rules and sign-up are HERE.

1. Cut-Thru Princess Palace, Bothy Threads kit





2. Chang Wu Fei, Gundam Wing Pilot #5 - made with PC Stitch





3. Angel of Grace, Lavender and Lace




4. Mary Wigham, a formerly free pattern from Needleprint



5. A Whole Lotta Latte, a Dimensions kit



6. QS Lovers, by HAED





7. info coming soon


8. info coming soon


9. Yarr, by HAED




10. Snowing, by Witchykitt Designs