Not Missing Miss Mary

I came very, very close to forgetting about Mary Wigham's November motif - I realized today that I hadn't stitched one.
So I totally cheated :D



One tiny baby yellow motif for November. Normally I would have done this one and a big one, but at least she got some attention!

I finished my Bride's Tree ornament for the month, too.
It's one of the Lavender and Lace Christmas Angels, done up in brown to look more like an Autumn angel.



Have you guys heard about the Crazy January Challenge? Talk about something I totally do not need to join and did anyway!

Here's my first few choices for the challenge:


Already kitted and ready to go :D


I'm only stitching the Santa with the red box around him for the challenge. The others will be done later.

Two chosen, thirteen to go! I'm going to mix in some knitting, crochet, and other crafts, too.

I am so far behind...

My job - yes I'm thankful for it, but still! - has been murder lately.

I've been working six days a week, 10 hours or more a day.

Yes, the money is nice. The chance to put it in the bank and all would be nice, too. (My place of work doesn't offer direct deposit yet.)

So stitching has been really, really slow.

And there is no end in sight - my direct supervisor had carpal tunnel surgery on one wrist, and has to have the other done before the end of December so she won't have to pay her deductible next year.

Until she's back, my job will remain like this. I don't know if I'll be able to get my Christmas prezzies done, forget about my poor Angel of Grace. I haven't finished my SIL's shawl because I ran out of beads - I did start (and nearly finish!) my Mother's shawl. I've also barely started my grandmother's shawl. I have no pics of any of those yet.

But I do have some small amounts of stitching to show!

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For example:

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A very small Gingerbread Cottage as my November ornie. It was supposed to have French Knot snowflakes, but I like it better without them. It's busy enough as it is.
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When I asked my brother what he wanted stitched for his present, he actually had an answer!

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A very weird one...

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I'm stitching a logo from something that I don't even know what is, called Demonhunter? I think.

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So yeah.

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A cross-stitch demon...

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"Boys want the weirdest things," she said, ignoring the large pictures of Vash the Stampede and Spike from 'Buffy' that are hanging on her wall...

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Here are my last Crochet-Along afghan blocks:
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I'm about two blocks behind - the next one is super simple, a big granny square. I just haven't gotten around to it. Then the last blocks are a flower block. After my sister's wedding necklace, I shouldn't have trouble, but I've never crocheted a flower block before. I've got to catch up! I still need a few of those mitered squares, too.

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And I have decided to stop wishing I could knit, gather my books and needles, and make myself really do something besides a scarf.

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I'm going to try Bernat's Knit-Along afghan since I'm also doing the Crochet-Along.

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Here are the very badly knitted, in desperate need of blocking, three squares done to the first pattern:

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The middle one was the only one that showed the pattern in the picture. I decided to do every block in a different shade of blue - if my stash of blue yarns holds out!

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The crochet and knitting I can actually do at work, during lunch, but taking the cross stitch is tougher. It's so much smaller, and yet so much easier to get dirty... I dunno why.

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Thanks for visiting my blog!

~Tama

A Wee Pine Tree

This is my October Bride's Tree ornament - the theme was 'Pinecone, for motherhood, fruitfulness, or eternity.'

Patterns with pinecones are surprisingly hard to find; I cobbled this one together from bits and pieces of a freebie... I can't remember where I found it. I think it may have been on the Bride's Tree blog. The pic is not that great, but I think it's cute :D

And since it's Wednesday, here's my Mystery SAL blocks for the week:


Ugh. I hate this block. It looks okay, but 1. it's single crochets, 2. the sc3tog at the end looks messy, and 3. it refuses to be square, even though I tried about a dozen different things. I think blocking is going to be the only answer. I have to make ten more of these, but I'm spreading them out over the next two weeks because... I hate them XD

At least they look kinda neat. It's their only redeeming quality.

Two More Goals Down!

I finished two more projects!

Here's October's Christmas ornament - it's been done for a few days, actually, but I kept forgetting to take a pic of it:




And I started & finished 'She Sings' (I haven't washed or blocked it yet, obviously)



This is for my baby sister for Christmas. The pattern is from the last issue of The Cross Stitcher. I changed the dog's colors & stitched the moon in - rayon? Whatever the shiny (not sparkly) floss is called.

This is the sweetie I stitched it in memory of:



I changed the dog from speckled to as close to her coloring as I could without it looking odd. She was the first puppy my baby sister ever had as 'hers', even though she was really everyone's. My sister was 9, I think, and insisted on calling her Princess even though me & our brother held out for Annie - so her name ended up Princess Annie and quickly became Prin or Prin-Prin. She was a doll! She looks a little insane in the pic, doesn't she? Lol!

Here are my Clue #4 Afghan squares from Bernat's Mystery SAL:



I had to leave off the last TC row to keep my squares from being rectangles.

The next clue came out today so I thought I'd post these. I have to make 16 (!) of the next one. And it's all in single crochets... ugh! Not my favorite as they make my hand cramp. Oh well. I shall perservere! I'm already 2 down.

Mary and the Angel

Here is the motif for Mary Wigham that I stitched this month - this is the closest I have come in having this color of floss show up in the picture like it does in real life. It's still not quite this faded, but it's better than the other pics have been!



And here's the motif with the rest:



Color's still fairly good in this one; I wish wish wish I could get it right but oh, well. I can't get it with any of my camera settings... no matter what light it's in...

And here's my angel as she was last time I stopped working on her:


SIDE A

SIDE B (lol! I know the sides don't match but I hadn't worked on this part any more since.)

And as she is after 10 hours:



Ten more to go this month!

I've finished all the crocheting on my SIL's shawl, now I'm working on the beaded fringe... here's a not-very-good pic of it.



I'm only using pony beads because this shawl will see a lot of use and they're easily replaceable. The diamonds look oddly misshappen in this pic but they're not that bad for a first time trying this. They'll straighten out a bit more when I block it.

Mermaid Progress

Here's my Mermaid of the Deep after last month and this month's combined 10 hours - I think about 4 last month and 6 this month:




I have completely finished the first page (finally!) and isolated most of the confetti stitches on the second page. I'm hoping to finish her up next month. For now I'm going to stitch Mary Wigham's motif and work on my Angel.

I also did Clue #3 of the Myster Afghan at the Bernat blog - it was a V-stitch square, of which there was supposed to be 8 in color E. Since I'm trying to use up leftover yarn, I had to use two different colors. I don't have 20oz. of one leftover green. The dark ones are Light Sage and the light ones are Frosty Green.



Pardon, please, the fact that I have yet to weave in my ends :D Next clue comes out on Wednesday - I'm looking forward to seeing what it is!

I also decided to try and improve my very, very basic and shaky knitting skills by going back and doing the Mystery Knit-Along Afghan. I'm still on the very first square, though. This could take me awhile :D

October Goals

These were my SEPTEMBER GOALS!

1. Start & finish another Christmas ornament - done! Two, actually :D
2. Start & finish the August-theme ornament for my Bride's Tree SAL - done!
3. Start & finish the September-theme ornament for my Bride's Tree SAL - done!
4. Add a motif to Mary Wigham - done!
5. Work at least 10 hours each on Angel of Grace, Mermaid of the Deep, & Sunny - not done - got 5 hours on Gracie, 3 on the Mermaid, and never had time for Sunny
6. Choose either Kuruma, Chibi-Sev or Wufei and work 10 hours on him - done! 10 hours on Chibi-Sev

Since I didn't do toooooo badly - I think I'll try some October Goals:

1. Start & finish another Christmas ornament
2. Start & finish the October-theme Bride's Tree ornament
3. Start & finish 'She Sings'
4. Add a motif to Mary Wigham
5. Work 15-20 hours on Angel of Grace - I want to finish her this year if I can
6. Work 5 hours each on Chibi-Sev, Mermaid & Sunny
7. Stitch the Mystery Afghan squares as they are posted
8. Finish my SIL's shawl & start Mum's

We'll see how I do! I just wish I had more time to stitch.