Well I started Aredhel for the 5th weekend SAL *bounce* got in over 1000 stitches, I think it was closer to 1500 but can’t be sure and the pattern is in the other room at the moment… rough translation “I am too lazy to go look”. I only stitched 310. lol It feels odd spending a weekend stitching on a HAED chart and doing over 1000 stitches of the one colour but I did. It was rather nice really seeing as I have been feeling a bit blerghy lately and something nice and simple without having to re-thread or park or battle with the little detail stitches was great. Fudgey made some great progress and with more than just 310. I don’t think anyone else ended up participating though. It could be too wearly to say though seeing as the weekend was only ending today in the US… silly dateline thingy. As for my friday over two stitching, it didn’t really happen for long. I managed a little on rose of sharon but not enough for a new pic so I will hold off tormenting Sue with another headless lady picture for now :p

My rotation has finally reached one round through (not counting this weeke St Nick Installment). The last slot was Ian Daniels Dragon Lore and I must say I am really stoked with how this one is turning out. I have done the first two columns of ten stitches wide all the way to the bottom of page 1 and started on the second two. The shading is amazing and the colours through the universe swirly bits in the background look so much better irl. I think this will be beautiful when finished… even if that is years away.

In other news (yep it was a busy little weekend this week) I finally caved to my knitting urge. For some time now I have been fighting off the ever increasing desire to knit. Not that I knew exactly what I wanted to knit, hell I haven’t knitted anything since I was a teenager (about 13 I think). Originally the urge came about from looking at blogs. There is so much more variety in yarns and patterns these days. What has really taken my eye is knitted lace. While I plan on doing some eventually I have decided to try a few small things first and see if I could still work through a patternor even hold the needles. In true Me fashion this means I have started knitting socks. Of course somewhere my brain decided that teaching myself to knit again would best be done with socks that require the use of double pointed needles and have all that foot shaping stuff going on lol. It has been fun though and I think I could even enjoy this sock knitting thing. I will post pictures of my deep purple socks of doom if and when I ever finish them. For now though I go to see if I can be productive for what remains of my evening.

Not a huge amount of progress this week about 400 mostly single stitches with a little bit of the blue background added in. Slowly but surely I will fill in those little dots.

Well it’s the fifth weekend of the month coming up which means new start! Marc Potts SAL time and I even got the date right this time. I have my oodles of 310 waiting, the chart printed and I am rearing to go. I am still a bit daunted at the idea of adding yet another start to the mix but Ihave been dying to stitch a marc Potts design for ages.

I am going to be stitching Aredhel as my favourite “blue fairy” was never charted. That’s ok though because I love Aredhel even if it is pink (not my usual preference for colour). All I need ot decide now is what fabric (currently leaning toward the trusty staple 28ct Jobelan) and if I should grid or not. I am reluctant to grid as it just eats up more of my valuable stitching time. Anyway here is a pretty picture of what my start is going to be *bounce*. I am still waiting on floss for Ian Daniels return of springwhich will be the only new start I am planning after this one… I just can’t resist that face any longer.

In other (less dramatic words) I finished page one of St Nick! *does a little happy dance*
I was finally able to have a quiet weekend at home which meant more stitching time than usual. While I had hoped to get 1500 + stitches in on St Nick over the weekend I kind of got distracted by other things and pottered around a lot. I did manage around 1000 though and filled in all those pesky little holes on page one. It took so long. I think I need to go back to parking because it takes me ten times as long to go back filling in single stitches when I don’t. I have been semi parking on page two so far but will finish the blocks i am working in completely before moving on . No more entire pages worth of single stitches to do for me.

I am really happy with the way it is turning out so far. There is a little show through here and there and as always I am not happy with my stitching in some areas (it’s bumpy). Three and a half more years to go before I have to get this done. It seems like such a long time but already I feel I am running short lol. Oh well maybe her 65th birthday present Or perhaps Di over on the BB will swap wips with me…. but I doubt it.

Ho Ho Ho … Santas!
I can officially say I am over 50% done on my Whimsical Santa Afghan. I finished panel 6/12 on Friday night and so far I am really happy with the results. I am almost back to only needing to one a month to get it done in time for this christmas. I always find it surprising at how long one of these guys actually takes me to finish. Enough rambling though now for the piccies

Panel 6/12

And the completed top two rows:

Stitched 4 threads over two on the reccommended Tannebaum (sp?) Afghan fabric from Zweigert. Whimsical Santa booklet for the patterns… Still feels like drawing with crayons after stitching on HAED,

Ok so I have been slack lately I promise to try and improve

On that note here is Fire from Wednesdays SAL I have filled in more gaps from page one and got a bunch done on her face. It seems like more than I actually did though because I forgot to update her last week, making this 2 weeks progress not just the one. I love how she is coming out and the colours are really intense in person. I finished another Santa for my obligation piece last night I will post piccies later. For now I am off to stitch away on St Nick for the BB mid season SAl. I am hoping to get over 1000 stitches in on him over the weekend (page 2 here I come)

Seeing as Nic pointed out yesterday that my lack of updates has left her with less lunchtime reading and piccies I thought I should rectify the situation.

I have been stitching just not much … I have even been keeping to my rotation though most weeks I am not getting many stitches in at all (these weeks seem to predominately fall on the weeks I am trying to get serious progress made on St Nick. Anyway… last week was Metas turn in the rotation, I am still not back to where I was before I had to restart but she is progressing. Being all background at this point and with some significant blocks of colour I can get more stitched on this in my limited stitching time. I think it adds up to about 1000 stitches since I last worked on it which nicely completes my goals for this month for this design. I have also added updates on the BB for devil and Fire. Fire I will update here as soon as I can.

So there we go Nic something to look at even if it is just blues and no fishy yet

I have already posted this weeks progress on fire on the BB but thought I would show her here too. Mostly I filled in some of the gaps in page 1 and some hair on page two right hand side. The colours are much more intense than what they appear in my dodgey washed out photo too.

Well June has flown by and July is already here Eeeep! As expected June was flat out socially and work wise so there was very limited stitching time. Virtually no Fridays were free which played havoc with my over 2 obligation stitching and St Nick Still haunts me. The new rotation means things will change a bit now too. so….. how did I go?

Junes Goals in Review

1. Finish the top of the arch on Rose of Sharon (the stone face etc) Nope not even a single stitch
   
2. Complete that damned page of St Nick (this is a must an no other HAED stitching will be done other than Fire until this is done) heh well I lied but the new rotation means I got very close, just some detail stitches and a little patch in the corner to go
3. QS SAL - Continue with fire minimum 1000 stitches Yep though I did miss one or two weeks
4. 1000 into the Devil Sure did I am past the half way mark across the top now the BB SAL helps keep me putting in stitches when I can.
5. Start and complete 1 more Whimsical Santa Panel (obligation piece for Christmas) I stared a new one (making 6/12) but only got half way
   
6. Make a final decision on my RR Maybe… Not willing to commit to this yet, which is probably my main problem I am just hopeless with decisions

So that leaves me looking down the barrel at July. I am liking my new rotation still but realistically if I am ever going to finish my oblgation stitching on time I will have to spend more time with that, more weekend stitching time would be good but is likely to be as rare a sight as it was in june.

1. St Nick 2000 stitches (including those last pesky pg one meanies)
2. Meta at least 1000 stitches (next up after St nick in the rotation)
3. Dragon lore 1000 stitches (my other rotation project for this month)
4. Stitch on the devil for the Tarot SAL the weekend before next pics are due
5. 1000 stitches in Fire ACEO (wed QS SAL)
6. Finish the current Santa and start another (hopefully get at least half way done)
7. Get at least two lengths of thread into Shaz

Ok so I am still plodding along with my new weekly rotation thingy. Last week was of course Hermit (by popular vote). I had limited stitching time over the week but have managed to make some obvious progress. To be honest I was worried about how this design has been stitching up and th more stitches I put in the more concerned I became. It looks green, very green much more so than the original artwork. I am persevering though because I have faith in those more talented than myself and at this point I am willing to believe in kerrys charting skills. The other Character creations wips and finished works really do support me in this faith too I htink. So next time he comes around in the rotaztion I will continue on and hopefully the greys I have started adding in now will start to tone out some of that green. I also concede that the area I am working on is the top left hand corner which is actually in shadow so I will just have to be patient.

The chart is the Hermit, Charted by Character Creations, Original artowrk by Lisa HUnt from her Celtic Dragon Tarot. It is stitched 2 over 2 on 40ct antique white linen (yes i am mad)