A mouse tail appears!

Before

After

My field mice are coming along very nicely.   Now that I've added in the detail of the husk, you can clearly see that the pink strips are not (as I originally thought) part of the husk of the wheat, but a cute mouse tail curling around the sheath.

After

Before

Yay, knitting progress!  Last week it felt like my sweater had barely moved despite my spending several nights doing a line or two - but this week, despite the abundance of Christmas parties at wrok and home, I've been able to dedicate some serious stitching time and almost doubled what I had last week.  I'm only a little way away from finishing the front too now! I'm very excited.  Depending on whether I get the chance to knit on the train, I might even have the piece finished by Christmas (and get to wear it!).

December Updates

First of all, I bought a beautiful bunch of flowers from the reduced bin on Tuesday after work, and this is how they look today (Sunday) with only a bare minimum of TLC.

As you can see, I've put them next to my monitor, on my desk, because they give me so much joy (and it's nice to glance away from pixels and see something beautiful).

I know they won't last forever, because they are cut flowers and all, but personally I think I got my £1.25 out of them.  I even took a stem into work to have on my desk there too.

Harvest Mice

Before

After

I bought a few things shown in the photo below to help me cross-stitch:

1. A 'scrolling' frame
This is awesome. The set up was a little confusing (I don't know what to do with the metal-circle-with-a-hole-missing for a start!) but once constructed it works really well. You stitch the fabric to the wooden poles top and bottom, then centre the part you want to work on in the middle. It's really sturdy, and seems to leave a lot fewer marks than the hoop frames I've used previously.

2. A desk stand for said frame
I'm not so keen on this. It holds the frame relatively well, given that the frame is the top-end of acceptable sizes listed, but it's not a very good height when placed flat on my desk. I find myself straining to reach my work. Tieing off and cutting threads is also an issue - I have to align myself with the fabric where before I could just turn the frame over! However, it is allowing me to try out cross-stitching with both hands; that is, one above the fabric where I can see it (my non-dominant) and the other underneath.
3. A chart clip.
This is quite cool, as it allows me to leave the chart out with the stitching. I haven't included the chart in the photograph, but the cardboard shown is where it normally rests; the clip did not come with this, but without it the chart flopped gracefully to an angle I could not read the symbols at.

Altogether not a bad haul from the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate.

The Jumper

I've done so much work on this!  When I started the last time I posted, I'd only done maybe twice of the current piece on the needle - now I've done a whole back, and half the process again on the front!  I feel amazing.

I did decide to do the jumper instead of the cardigan; this is because I looked at the cardigan specific pattern and chickened out...

One of my housemates is a midwife for the local hospital, so once I've finished this jumper, I will start making a baby hat.

I hope you're well,

Home (Not) Alone

Hi guys,

The end of the week draws ever nearer.  The weather in the North of England has been reportedly atrocious (my family keep me abreast in a typically British manner), but up here the weather I have seen from my window has been mostly grey, marching clouds, in between which you can occasionally glance blue sky.

Cross Stitching Updates!

I have two finishes to report!  How exciting.  The first is this Santa Clause.

Last Time

With black back-stitching

Finished (but not secured)

I originally tried to do the back-stitching as directed by the magazine in black, but it looked dark, heavy and not very Christmas-y, so I had to unpick it all and backstitch the tree leaves with a lighter green (going for a more multi-dimensional look).  I also added some purple seed-beads I've had in my stash forever.  I can't remember the original reason for buying them, I believe it was something to do with hating french knots; but they look good as baubles, which is the main thing.

I changed the text, too - it is written in gold metallic thread, not black, and says "God Jul" - Swedish for Merry Christmas (I hope!).

Next up is R's Christmas present:

Before

After

Yay it's finished!  If you can't tell much difference between them, that's because there was only a few colours to shade below the hearthstone and in the grey-purplish area.

I intend on sending this off to be framed in a blue circular hoop, possibly with some blue card to help it as I stitched it far too close to the top of the fabric (because I'm stingy).

I did make some changes from the lovely Mateline's design - I used a blended thread of metallic colour and the suggested one for the light-grey-blue shade, and a deep purple instead of grey in the shading, but I think it worked out well.  The sparkle in the metallics is really interesting to me.

Finally, we have a new start!

This is "Harvest Mice", a (hopefully) Christmas present for my lovely father (and if not, a birthday present).  I bought this piece on adia, having had bad experiences in the past with evenweave, but I do regret it as evenweave makes a piece look more rustic.

However! The number of special and unusual stitches (half stitches side by side, whole stitches over the middle) make the piece challenging enough on it's own without adding in my personal difficulty in telling where the whole stitches are supposed to go!

So far we have this:

Where the red stitch to indicate the middle of the chart and will eventually be removed once I can see recognisable patterns from the chart on the WIP.

Life Updates.

I am still ill.  My throat is completely better now - my manager got sick of looking at me (his words, not mine, but imagine them said very gently and kindly) and took two hours out of his day to drive me to the nearest walk in surgery.  I'm not yet registered with a doctor down here, despite moving in early July, because I have no "proof of address".  All my bills go back up to my "permanent" address.

However, I believe I am allergic to, or certainly experiencing all of the symptoms of being so, the medicine.  I have the tight chest, sometimes mucusy, sometimes dry cough, the other, less glamorous side-effects, and on top of it all, the lack of appetite.  So I'll be starting the diet today whether I like it or not.

Due to the chest pain, and a rapidly developing numbness in my left arm, I went down to A&E just in case.  They did an ECG but then kept me waiting for three hours - at which point I assumed I wasn't serious and self-discharged.

I'm relatively happy, despite these inconveniences.  I managed to get some really good process on "keeping my flat habitable" - the bathroom gleams with bleach, and the desk is almost clear of water glasses, so I feel emotionally ready to go back to the office.

Everyone has been so lovely to me while I've been sick, and I'm just so thankful that I've been blessed with such wonderful friends (and a self-proclaimed "acquaintance") to tend for me.

Alright, it's past my bedtime.  Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you all had and have a wonderful week.

Much love,

Kat

Baby Steps of Progress

Cross-stitching Update

First and foremost: the cross-stitching!  I'm still working on the final shading in the hearthstone (you can see I've done a few stitches below the black)

After

                                                                 

Before

And the santa:
As you can see, only the facial hair and small grey detailing on the wool have appeared.

















I guess I was just really worn out last week after London, and I just didn't have the stitching bug.  Hopefully she'll come back soon, as these projects are on tight deadlines!

I think it is good to have a break sometimes though, otherwise what you love might turn into a chore.

Life Update:

Last weekend I went to London (again) for two parties in a row that my housemate, Z, had very kindly invited me too.  I really enjoyed spending time with her shopping on Saturday, too, although I spent far too much on makeup and jewellery - let alone clothes!  The full "hoard" is shown below, although I haven't included the jewellery I bought for others' Christmas presents.

On Sunday I woke up at 4.30 am (after having gone to bed at midnight) with a really bad migraine/sore throat.  Despite painkillers, the sore throat has remained, and my manager has now gotten so concerned over my self-diagnosed "tonsillitis" (said with a smirk and a half-laugh to show I'm not too serious, of course) he's spending his lunch break tomorrow driving me to the nearest walk-in clinic to get my throat swabbed.

Also, most exciting of news, I bought a car!  I've been driving her to work for two days now, with her L-plates firmly attached, and I'm thrilled.  She really is a pleasure to drive.
My mum isn't too happy with the plates though...

Amike,

Kat

A Foggy Monday

England is embraced in fog.  It was so bad last night that while walking back from the train station to my house (20 minutes tops!) my hair was dripping by the time I was home.

Had such a lovely weekend in London with my friends.  I dressed up as a "cat" (because my name is Kat, and also because I have no imagination) and went out with my friends to a nightclub in Camden (no, that isn't my normal scene).  It was actually really good fun to dance, and there was even a stripper/fire dancer/fire-eater performing inside the club!

I have worked on two pieces, the Christmas card and the Hearthstone Home gift.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

I find these very rewarding to work on, although it's easier to work on the Santa because I see the finished product so much faster.  With the hearthstone it feels as though I am forcing myself to focus more.  I changed a few of the colours from the recommended, once because the local craft store didn't have the colour and the other time because I wanted to add some sparkles (as a Hearthstone is a magical key which takes you home).

All in all it's been a very productive week.  Happy Halloween everybody!

Autumn Begins

And of course I've caught a cold/fever/bug - so instead of being at Comic-con as I had anticipated I am at home, wearing a coat over my comfortable clothes (which are almost pyjamas...) and shivering despite the furnace my room is slowly becoming.

Ah well, in order to cheer myself up, I've been able to concentrate on my stitching and other crafty things (as well as complete another chapter of Resident Evil 5).

First we have my recent finish - "Popcorn Bouquet" which I bought as a kit.  My mother has expressed a desire to have the finished product as a Christmas Present, so I suppose that's where this wee lad will end up.  As you can see, it took me a rather long time to finish (around 16 months) but I did take two breaks from stitching as I have moved around a lot since 2014.














My longest running WiP is this to the left.  I really dislike the colours I've chosen (I mean, who has a yellow house with an orange roof?) but R (the boyfriend) seems to like it.  However, as I don't really enjoy working on it, it will be some time until it's completed I imagine.  This was a project from Helen Philipps' "Cross Stitch Samplers and Cards".

This one is my main squeeze - and a present for my main squeeze too!  The chart I purchased from SFStitch a long time ago, but didn't get a chance to work on it until the 12th October 2015.  Since starting on this project, I have been bitten hard once again by the stitching bug (not just the virus one!) and hope to finish this as a Christmas present for R - we met playing World of Warcraft, the game from which the shape originates, and has recently moved house so I think it's perfect.  Not much left to do now.

This is the Christmas card for R's parents.  Wow I'm working on a lot of R-themed stuff currently... but in my defence, they live overseas so I have to finish their cards/presents first or else I'll never get in the post on time.  I picked this design of a Santa holding a christmas tree (what do you mean you couldn't tell yet! ;) ) from "The World Of Cross-stitching" 235, not only because it matched the shape and colour of the card I'd bought but also because it was a quick-to-stitch piece.  And I needed something I could work on in R's presence, as I certainly couldn't crack on with his Christmas present while he could see!









I hope you, my dear reader, are enjoying the autumn (or fall) season - the leaves are certainly yellow or red around my neighbourhood!