teachers` thank you cards - finished!

The weekend is not even over and I have all five thank you cards finished for Gregory`s teachers and the driver... Is that efficient or what? I`m well-chuffed, especially that it means now I can get back to my other stitching/knitting :)))

bear madness continued

This week Gregory is in "cops and robbers" mode and gave me the orders to make these outfits for his teddies. So far my task was easy - wish me luck with the policeman uniforms...!

La Scapigliata update

The past week or so I haven`t had much time to stitch: Gregory`s turned 7 this Monday, so last weekend was about the family celebration, then on Monday they had some birthday cake in the school, plus I`m fighting a serious addiction to Bejewelled at the moment... but yesterday I managed to squeeze in a whole day`s worth of stitching, so my lady now has a neck!

La Scapigliata on 6 June 2012

Since it`s almost midnight, this is just a quick photo update from bloodshot-eyed yours truly, who today swapped her knitting needles for her tapestry needles for a change (a sure sign of my exhaustion is when I start to talk about myself in the 3rd person). So here`s the photo, which I`ll try to put in the middle this time (just like last time, but Blogger seems to have a mind of its own - yup, I`ve just checked the preview and the picture`s on the left again... why? Oh, this is even better: checked it again and now the pic`s in the middle but it divides the paragraph! Grrrr! When will this stupid man-made computer stop trying to think FOR me?!? And by the time I finished typing this little rant of mine, it pushed the photo to the right! Aaaah, I give up... better go to bed anyway). So here`s the photo:

apple with toothpick

Just a quick post to show how much DPNs do NOT intimidate me any more: I started to knit a wee green apple with toothpicks! I`m using two strands of embroidery (or crochet???) thread and it`s pretty slow going, not only because it`s fiddly to work with toothpicks (plus they don`t slide) but also because they`re so short, they dig into the fleshy bit under my right thumb so I have to take regular breaks. Yes, I know (or at least I think) that there are proper DPNs this size but I`m all for using whatever I can find around the house. Another topic: last Friday we, parents were invited to the kids` Jubilee Garden Party at school. They were so sweet, singing their little songs while covered in Union Jacks, plus I finally had the chance to meet all the other parents, and quickly discuss the details of next Saturday`s Jumble Sale. Since Gregory took the stegosaurus to school the other day for Show & Tell, word has started to spread that I can knit a dinosaur, so I decided that I`d make another one as a raffle prize (I can`t really take anything else: as I explained it to the mum organising the event, by the time my son`s finished with his "unwanted" toys/books/clothes, they`re usually pretty useless and only good for the bin). Anyway, so here`s the other steg I knitted for the sale:

Stegosaurus

I have to say, with this weekend`s project (which I found here: http://jwgh.livejournal.com/475358.html) I have entered the dangerous territory of knitted dinosaurs - Gregory already picked a T-Rex as the next candidate for my to-do list. So the fruit bowl is on hold for the moment, since the last update I`ve only made a lemon and a tangerine - of these I don`t have a picture at present but here`s the "steg":

Oh, and a totally unrelated subject: Gregory`s lost yet another tooth on Saturday, the second one within ten days - if it goes on like this, the Tooth Fairy`ll go bankrupt! :)

first encounter of the DPN kind

The major story of this day: Bigyi, who was lost, has been found! The silly fluffless bear disappeared last night (on account of being thrown about in the garden, where he managed to disappear in the hedge). I`m half-asleep while I`m writing this, since we looked for him till about half past eleven last night, but the main thing is that this morning Bigyi finally reappeared, with not a scratch on, so Gregory`s world is a happy, safe place once more. Elsewhere, in the normal (?!?) world, thanks to a lovely visit from a friend of mine, I had my baptism of fire with the dreaded double-pointed needles. So far I avoided any knitting pattern that involved these and tried to opt for the "flat" version, made with straight needles - like the closed banana on the second picture below. But thanks to Jo`s tutorial, now I have knitted my very first item "in the round", a peeled banana! Yay!

The fruit bowl is coming along nicely, by the way: now I have an open and a closed banana, plus a slice of watermelon:

EDF Energy`s ZINGY

This week the Little Man`s "all time favourite EVER" is the EDF Energy advert, where Zingy`s first all sad behind the rainy window, then gets uber-cheerful and dances in the birdbath. Gregory finds it hilarious, so much so that he just got home from school but we already had to watch the ad 3 times on YouTube. So how did I spend the day, instead of cleaning the house? I knitted a Zingy for my son, of course! And what was his first reaction? "This is pink, not orange..." Well, I guess it`s time I stocked up on some more shades of yarn - then maybe I can make a Zingy #2...

another pear and a Rudolph

Just a quick post (while Blogger`s still working, ha!) to show you yesterday`s crop: another wee pear for my never-rotting fruit bowl and a Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer head Christmas decoration (don`t ask me why!):

new project(s)

A few days ago (on Thursday, 17 May 2012, to be exact) I started on La Scapigliata (`The Tousled One`) by Leonardo Da Vinci - or, in this case, by Maria Diaz, since she designed the cross stitch pattern I`m working from. Here`s the original:

And this is where I am just now:

Not too impressive yet, I know, but 1. I`m working on evenweave, which to me always means slower progress then aida, and 2. in the evenings I`m knitting wee projects so that by the end of the day I can feel that I accomplished something. At the moment I`m knitting a fruit a day: I found the patterns in the June 2012 issue of Knit Today for this pear and apple, and following Gregory`s suggestion, I`m going to create my own patterns for other fruits as well (next on my agenda is an orange). I thought I`d create a never-rotting fruit bowl as a centrepiece for my table. Updates to follow!

Celtic birds - finished!

Today, the 16th of May, 2012 is a special day for 2 things: 1. Gregory has lost another tooth (which reminds me: one pound off housekeeping money to reimburse Tooth Fairy...), and 2. I finally finished the Celtic bird cushion that I started months and months ago, although in fact I only worked roughly 10 days on it in total. Now all that`s left to do is to turn it into a cushion but I have plenty time for that, since I decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Christmas. And here`s the last photo that looks like all the previous eight (I promise I won`t post any more of it):

coastal fridgies

Here are the first four of my Coastal Fridgies series (4x5 cm fridge magnets worked on plastic canvas):

Mothers` Day prezzies

I`m writing this on 30 March, the day before we`re going on holiday, but just in case my husband wipes our computer (again) while we`re away, I thought I`d better save these pictures that I promised ages ago. So here are the presents I made for my Mum and my Gran for Mothers` Day, which in Hungary is the first Sunday in May. For my Mum I made a new glasses case to replace her old, tatty one; it`s my own design, based on the eye chart you have to read at the optician`s (the letters make the word GLASSES CASE in Hungarian).

And for my Granny I made a bell pull, not that she`s got any bells to pull in her house, but because I had this mini-doweling and some patterns for alpine flowers that I thought she`d like. In other words, it is something she can hang on her wall but it`s not the traditional framed picture either. I can`t wait to find out what she thinks of it!

another wee flower

Since I`ve been patting my own back for the past hour, I thought I`d better share it with the rest of the world: I`ve finished the 25 cards! Although I can`t post pictures for another month, the main thing is that they`re done - now I just have to cross my fingers/toes so that they won`t get lost in the post. I`m so happy that I thought I`d "surprise" myself with another knitted flower - here it is:

Elsewhere, in the crazy world of our teddies: I can report that our Bigyi family is growing, thanks to the two new Ikea bears we found at a car boot sale on Saturday (plus there`s an "honorary Bigyi" with the blue T-shirt on, he`s the baby):

little knitted flower

The cross stitch related posts are still on hold but in the meantime, here`s a little flower I knitted last night while watching Midsomer Murders (it was the one with the orchids AGAIN, I mean, why? How many more times?), anyway, here`s the pic:

Earlier yesterday I registered on the Let`s Knit Magazine website, and that`s where I found this 5-petal flower pattern, free to download. It`s supposed to be a brooch but I crocheted a wee brown strap and put the flower on a keyring instead. Actually, this little flower represents my (almost) ultimate crafting dream: a bit of knitting, a bit of crochet, a few stitches with a needle, and in just a couple of hours you`ve created something that`s not only pleasing to the eye but useful as well. What more could you ask for? I know, I know... something to do with CROSS STITCH, for crying out loud! Actually, I`ve been toying with the idea of stitching Da Vinci`s La Scapigliata by my favourite designer, Maria Diaz - maybe I`ll give it a go just so that I could FINALLY put some photos up here of cross stitched stuff... Mind you, my Celtic birds are not finished yet, either... Hmmmm, decisions, decisions - and all the while I have stupid cards to mass-produce, arghhhh!

just call me Miss Organised

I know that it has not much to do with cross stitch AGAIN but the xstitching I`m doing these days is top secret, i.e. I can`t post photos until my Mum hands them over to the recipients (for those who don`t know what I`m talking about - and that includes me - I can leak this info: my Mum`s retiring and she wants to give some farewell present to her colleagues (ALL of them!) and this means I have to stitch 25 identical cards). I`ve been working on these for almost 2 weeks now and have only 10 more to go but if I`m honest, I can barely look at the design now - and it`s my own too! Anyhoo, the past couple of days I made this as a let-me-get-away-from-the-cards project:

"Oh, very nice... but what is it?", I hear you ask. Well, let me unroll it for you:

Ta-dah! It`s a knitting needle and crochet hook holder, based on the chefy-knify-thingy idea - now is that anal or what?

Ellie, the elephant

Finally, after 5 days of on-and-off knitting and sewing up, Ellie is finished! She`s 28 cm (11") tall and I found the pattern among the free craft project ideas on the Woman`s Day website. I have to say, I only made it because I was curious to see if I could, but I don`t think I`ll make a lot more of these big cuddly toys: Pandy and Ellie gave me way too much sewing to do and - believe it or not - I HATE sewing: as opposed to cross stitching, where you create a picture with your sewing, the mere binding of two pieces of fabric together by hours of stitching seems such a waste of time to me; after all, that`s what a sewing machine is for, isn`t it? OK, philosophising is over, here`s the picture:

Ollie, the owl

Just a quick post for my boxes are waiting: last night I wound down in front of the telly (Shakespeare`s As You Like It from the Globe on SkyArts2 - if you haven`t seen it yet, watch it if you can!) and I knitted this little owl:

The design is from Issue 27 of Let`s Get Crafting, subtitled "Toddler Knits". I also got the patterns for the turtle and the rocket ship from here.

holiday snapshot...

I`m back! And so is the phone! Finally, after spending 5 days in the new house without any means of communicating with the world, we`ve got the phone line fixed and we have internet access once more... Bliss! I feel like I`m not only back to Scotland but in the 21st century as well! As you can imagine, after moving home, there are plenty boxes to empty and cupboards to clean - however, I`ve decided that they can wait another half an hour while I have a cuppa and quickly post this (rather reddish) photo of all the little cutesies I made in Hungary (of course, I couldn`t take any needles, embroidery or knitting, in my hand luggage but nothing can stop an obsessed crafter like me: I just raided my Granny`s stash). So here they are: a curly-haired teddy (sponsored by Dr. Oetker), a rather morose penguin, a bumble bee and a snowman (with no hands, as my eagle-eyed son had spotted who, by the way, was well-chuffed with his Mr. Bean Teddy), the latter inspired by a whimsical snow-flurry in the middle of our Easter celebrations... April weather, eh?

last 24 hours

Yes, it`s the last 24 hours before our flight and I have not just a couple of suitcases to pack, but all of a sudden a whole house, since I don`t want to leave my poor Hubby to do it all by himself, alone...:( Still, last night, before I fell asleep exhausted, I managed to finish another boy turtle (I`m told, tortoise), like Stripey, and I also made a pink girly one for a friend`s granddaughter.

And for another friend, who has a grandson, I made this wee rocket:

Stripey, the turtle

I`m beginning to feel a bit guilty about all this knitting... Although I guess I could say - with a generous amount of liberal use of the word - that I`m still using stitches, I just don`t cross them at the moment :) Besides, I could have stopped ages ago; problem is, every time I knit something to take with us on Sunday (as a lot of my friends have children under the age of 5, so I thought fluffy toys would be ideal for not-arriving-empty-handed), but as soon as I finish one, Gregory claims them. Thus "Pandy" has already become a member of OUR household (which, by the way, is moving! I only found out yesterday that we got the house we picked, yay!), so anyway, I made this turtle last night:

Gregory just got up and he instantly declared that it`s his, and after some inner debate regarding names (a toss between Cottontail, Berryhead or Stripey), he decided to choose the latter, after instructing me to make another one for my best friend`s wee boy. So I know what I`ll be doing today: pack boxes for the removal men (the move might happen in my absence, so I want to leave everything in order - so strange to think that I might come back to a different home from Hungary!), and, of course, I`ll be knitting turtle #2 which, hopefully, will indeed end up in my suitcase: unless Stripey suddenly develops an overpowering need for a BFF...

Bear-knitting continued

After the Mr. Bean Teddy I embarked on something a little bit more ambitious: a giant panda! OK, he`s not that "giant", only about 23 cm (9") tall... but he`s sitting, isn`t he? I just finished sewing up (which, by the way, I hate doing, so it took me longer than the actual knitting) and we`re basking in the lovely sunshine at the moment.

My next project will be an ordinary teddy bear, following the panda`s pattern, only this time I`ll use brown wool instead of black and white. As soon as I`m finished, I`ll post a picture - until then, cheerio!

Mr. Bean`s Teddy

One of my son`s favourite sayings is, "Mummy, I know I`ve said this a thousand times but this time I mean it: if I ever say that I want to be something else, don`t believe me coz I only want to be one thing, and that`s a ...", and here he names the profession that happens to fascinate him that particular week. Thus he`s wanted to be a builder, a farmer, a fireman, a ship`s captain (NB not an ordinary sailor, oh no, not my executive Wee Man!) and numerous other things so far. However, I think that, apart from all these passing phases, he`s true calling and secret aspiration is to become Mr. Bean, or as close to being a Beanesque (?) funny man as possible. If you`re familiar with my previous posts, you might remember Bigyi, his favourite teddy, a rather weather-beaten Ikea bear that`s almost the same age as Gregory. I think my son`s been slightly traumatised this past week because according to a new ruling at the school, he can`t take his teddy in any more. Since he only started at this school at the beginning of the school year, he needed some moral support from Bigyi, which he sorely missed this week, especially that the two wee girls who became the closest to Gregory (as Bigyi`s two Mummies) dropped him like a hot potato as soon as their "baby" disappeared from the scene. So much so, that by Thursday Gregory developed a mysterious illness (mind you, this is not too hard these days when the weather`s warming up and all kinds of bugs spread, especially among the children), so anyway, his fever shot up to 38-something, but luckily he`s feeling much better now (actually, he started to feel better almost as soon as he found out he didn`t have to go to school...). Thus it took me a bit longer than expected to make this surprise for him for Easter (since he was constantly hovering) but I managed to finish it just now. I`ll quickly wrap it and put it in the suitcase, so I can take it to Hungary on Sunday, and give it to Gregory as an Easter prezzie - maybe with a wee note from Mr. Bean himself...?

Mousey

I can report (mind you, only report and not illustrate) that I finished both my Mum`s and my Gran`s little present for Mothers` Day, which I can take with me when Gregory and I fly to Hungary in a couple of weeks` time. And when the girls can open their prezzies on the first Sunday in May, then I can FINALLY post some pictures here... Well, a long way to wait until then but just so as not to leave y`all without a photo, here`s a wee mouse I knitted last night:

He`s a wee bit nose-heavy and I realised too late that white mice usually have red eyes, not black, plus I forgot to secure the whiskers so they`re just sitting there at the moment (until Gregory casually pulls them out) but, as far as prototypes go, I think it`s not too bad. By the way, this is one of the first tentative steps towards changing my profile a bit; a few weeks ago I posted my Woody-story to the cross stitch forum I`d joined on Facebook, and you wouldn`t believe the debate it sparked! Silly little me, I just wanted to brag a bit about my achievement, but a few members of the forum went into battle with all guns blazing about illegal pattern distribution and other nasty things. While I was gutted on the one hand, I also had to admit they were right, so I started to look more closely into copyright issues. Up to a couple of weeks ago, I thought that I can just stitch anything I like in my magazines and then sell the pictures in my Etsy shop; naturally, I was aware that the actual pattern in the magazine is the designer`s intellectual/artistic product but I thought the stitched, finished picture is MINE - however, now it turns out that that`s NOT the case: even though I created that work of art, sometimes with several months` worth of work, it`s still not my property and I can`t sell it, unless I ask the designer`s permission first (which, let`s face it, would be a bit cumbersome). So I decided to take every such picture off my Etsy shop (nobody`s interested in buying these big, and expensive, cross stitched pictures anyway), and from now on I`ll concentrate more on smaller items, such as keyrings, bookmarks, kids` toys, etc., that will be all designed by me. And the big patterns I still fancy from my magazines, I`ll stitch for myself. Now, I think my Mum wouldn`t try to read this far with her English (she`s following my blog but I think she`s just looking through the photos) so, without attaching any pictures, I can tell you that I made a new glasses case for her (also my own design), and for my Gran a bellpull with some alpine flowers on it - I hope they`ll like their prezzies! If I don`t write for a while now, it`s because I`m on holiday - oh, and the Celtic birds are still waiting to be finished!

Nana`s gift for Mothers` Day

Just a quick update on today`s update - since I`m feeling rather prolific! The shamrock is not a mere sheet of plastic canvas any more: it`s a necklace-with-medallion type of thing that my son will probably VERY categorically refuse to wear but I`m sick of making badges for him for every occasion. And (drum roll, please) I managed to finish Nana`s prezzie as well:

Actually, this wasn`t too big an achievement after all, considering how tiny the stitched motif is... to be quite honest, it was a bigger challenge to a) find a photo in which all three of us look more or less normal and b) try to squeeze said photo into this limited space. Oh, and in case you think the stitching is SOOO tiny you can`t even see it, here`s a close-up:

St Patrick`s Day

Now and again I seem to arrive at such a busy phase in my life that I almost hyperventilate with panic. Take this week, for example. I just put my Mum on a plane on Sunday (after spending her last day here frantically stitching my Granny`s birthday present!), but not before she dropped a bombshell on me: why don`t we spend the spring holiday in Hungary? So Gregory and I are leaving on 1 April - while my poor Hubby has to stay and work - for ten days in Budapest, including Easter, yay! ("Yay", except for the part where my Hubby`s not coming with us :((( ). Someone a bit less anal retentive than I am would probably not even blink if they were told that they`re travelling in less than 3 weeks; me, I`m blind with panic. I just spent the last two days booking tickets, confirming passport numbers, printing boarding passes, then sending e-mails to a number of friends to inform them re: arrival... and then the REAL panic hit: what prezzies to take, and what`s to be made for here before I go? Well, to keep them in chronological order: the first thing was an Irish shamrock for Gregory for St Patrick`s Day at the school on Friday:

It took me almost a day to get the chart right, I basically copied a tattoo on graph paper and I only realised when I started stitching that I had to put quite a lot of fractionals in it, which otherwise would not be a problem but this time I was working on plastic canvas so that I can turn the design into a badge... well, you see the result, my knotwork is a wee bit wonky at places but hey, at least it`s done, one box can be ticked. My next task will be to stitch something to go in the lovely little poppy-decorated frame that came as a freebie with one of my magazines a couple of weeks ago - this I`ll make for my mother-in-law for Sunday. And then I`ll have about two weeks to make something that I can take in my suitcase (as opposed to posting, cf. my earlier rantings) for my Mum and Gran for THEIR Mothers` Day present - for here`s an interesting (albeit useless) piece of information for you: in Hungary, Mothers` Day is the first Sunday in May, then the last one is Children`s Day, and the first Sunday in June is Teachers` Day - I think this latter is especially recommendable, although we don`t have Fathers` Day and that`s pretty shameful... On the other hand, we still celebrate International Women`s Day on 8 March when men give flowers to women and generally try to be a wee bit nicer, if only for a day... Och, well, that`s the way of the world but enough of this blah-blah, time to go back to my stitching!

Gran`s Book of Memories

This morning I realised in panic that a) my Mum is going back to Hungary tomorrow and b) that 10 April is my granny`s birthday. Now, if you`ve read my older posts, you know that I don`t exactly trust the Hungarian postal service (sorry, I know I shouldn`t generalise but they`ve lost so many of my painstakingly stitched prezzies over the years that I simply don`t send anything to my family any more, I rather wait until we meet in person either in Scotland or in Hungary). Anyhoo, I decided to make something for my gran and make it quickly too. I had this photo album with A5-size pockets (=ideal for not only photos but all kinds of scrapbook-material), and the blue and black leather binding I thought was rather lovely too, so I started to chart "Book of Memories" in Hungarian, plus a border, on some graph paper. And here is the result which, I`m happy to say, I just finished by 7 o`clock tonight:

I don`t know if you can see it in the photo but I used dark blue DMC Variegated thread:

We have made it through the Food Festival - actually, it was great fun and somewhat of a success, i.e. we hardly brought anything back home leftover-wise. The past few days I made a total of 6 more baby hats and this key-fob for my Mum... at her special request, may I add before you think there`s something wrong with me (there MIGHT be but that`s beside the point). So anyway, she wanted a cricket for reasons only known to herself, and after raking through about 200 of my magazines plus all the images I could find on the internet that I thought I could turn into a chart by using just a pencil and some graph paper (Ha! How naive I sometimes can be!), I finally settled on this one. If I`m honest, I think the eyes are rather horroristic but my Mum likes it and that`s the main thing!

Woody

I`m rushing to post this because it`s 11.55 p.m. and I want to be able to say: it took me ONLY 3 days to make this Woody doll for Gregory. Tomorrow (today?), anyway, so THURSDAY is World Book Day and the teachers asked the kids to come to school dressed as a character from their favourite book. At somewhat of a push, my son decided that Toy Story HAS BEEN published as a book so he`d dress up as a cowboy (with no actual resemblance to Woody). Last weekend I was browsing the Cross Stitch Forum page on Facebook and found this site recommended there with all these cartoon character patterns, so I made this doll for him to take along. My mum is arriving tomorrow... today... on Thursday from Hungary, among other things to help me prepare for the International Food Festival of St Monans - an annual event for which I should be, if not actually preparing anything yet, at least organise my thoughts, and what do I do? I spend 72 hours stitching like a madwoman, then sewing up, thus creating an even bigger mess with bits of thread and cotton all over the carpet... Tomorrow (now definitely today!) I`ll have 3 hours to clean and tidy up a bit before it`s time to go to the airport - but who cares? My Mummy`s coming, YAY!!!

silver bells

No, it`s not about Christmas - I just had to wait until now to show you this card I made over two weeks ago for my parents` 25th wedding anniversary. Finally, this Tuesday the big day arrived - and, surprisingly, so did the card which, for a change, didn`t get lost in the post - so I can share this photo with you:

Oh, and just so that you can`t say I never give away any trade secrets: for the silver frame around the fabric I used a piece of the silvery card lid that comes with these foil pie dishes... well, do I have my moments or what?! And the reason for picking a bells-motif is that for this special anniversary my parents decided to renew their vows - hence the wedding bells... And all this just a fortnight after Valentine`s Day... there`s so much romance in the air: should I watch Pride and Prejudice tonight?

new project in-between birds

I`ve created a new Facebook page, called (surprisingly...) Cross Stitch A to Z. For the past few days I`ve been so busy making new friends over there that I quite neglected my wee blog - I realise this ashamedly (is that a word?) now. Besides, I didn`t have the usual amount of time to sit in front of the computer anyway, thanks to the mid-term break and a boisterous 6-year-old running all over the place but we survived (albeit barely) and now I`m here again. So here`s the story of the past week in photos:

I got this far with my birds when I was forced to stop: partly because after the dark blue I also ran out of the dark green, so I couldnt`t finish the knotwork anyway... and when I thought that nevermind, I`d just get on with the hundreds of yards` worth of backstitch, I fell in love with this...

How beautiful is this picture? It is called Shire Horses, originally by Coats Crafts UK, but I found the pattern in the World of Cross Stitching issue 114.

I started it on Friday night and this is where I am just now:

14 February - Happy Valentine`s Day!

If I`m honest, I`m starting to panic a bit: after the dark blue, I`m about to run out of SEVERAL colours. When the sky`s a bit cloudy, I`m thinking, "Not fair!" (not the sky but life in general, you understand...). When the sun comes out, I`m thinking, "Good! At least it`ll make my trip worthwhile and I don`t have to go to Kirkcaldy for just ONE skein!". And whatever the weather, I`m stitching like crazy, like the proverbial old dear who`s knitting faster and faster to finish the jumper before her wool runs out... Not that you can see much of a result of all that "fast" work... can you?

11 February update

Just a quick photo attachment this time - sorry, sore head, sore tooth... and we didn`t win the lottery AGAIN so I think I`ll go to bed. At least my birds` knotwork frame is growing (although if I wanted to continue in the negative vein, I could say that my dark blue, typically, ran out just before I could complete the circle - the eagle-eyed among you might notice that there`s cca. 10 cm missing at the bottom... and, I`m afraid, it`s going to be missing until the next time I`m in Kirkcaldy to get one (=1) skein of DMC 791). Anyway, I can hear my bed calling, so here`s this weekend`s photo:

7 February update

Good news: the cold is almost over, I`m on my last few tissues. Bad news: my wisdom tooth, the fourth one that still hasn`t grown out completely, decided to give it another go last night, so I hardly slept a wink, now my whole jaw is throbbing. But even this has a silver line in it: since I can barely swallow, losing some weight should be as easy as... pie... yumm...!
Last time I hinted that I have a knitting project as well. So here are the details: a few weeks ago I found this knitted sausage-snail cushion on Etsy, in a shop called WaveSong (how beautiful is that?) and I`ve been itching to try to make one myself ever since.

I only have a rough idea how it might have been made so, absolutely playing it by ear, I started to knit a roughly 18-20 cm wide scarf - I`m thinking, by the time I roll it up sideways, it should give me a thick-enough sausage for cushion purposes. I still need to figure out how long it`ll need to be (Hubby reckons at least 3 metres), because the diameter of the cushion should be at least 35 cms to be ideal for average chair- and bum-widths.
So far, this is what I`ve got:

I know, I have a long way to go yet... but it feels good to knit again, it exercises other muscles in my hand for a change. Well, not SUCH a big change, you see, because I`m never too far away from my cross stitch. This is the state of my birds after the weekend:

As the picture grows, it`s increasingly more time-consuming to get round a whole circle so I`m expecting my progress will slow down too - hopefully, though, I`ll be able to finish my January project before the end of February!

1 February update

Well, it looks like I haven`t been able to finish my birdies in January... nevermind, it can be my February challenge! And to my defence, may I add that I`m full of something - yeah, I know what you`re thinking, probably THAT as well but no, I meant the cold or, scarily possibly, the flu... plus, on top of all that, whenever I`m not feeling too weak to hold the needles, I started a knitting project as well (more of that later).
Anyway, last night my nose finally stopped dripping like a dodgy tap for long enough so that I could do some stitching and here`s the result:

I`m not sure the difference is instantly obvious so I`d better explain: I finished the knotwork under the two birds and started adding the backstitch at the bottom, e.g. the feet of the blue-headed bird are now visible (I hope! If not, I`m sorry for the photo`s quality!). I`m also beginning to realise that the backstitch will take me absolutely ages - something I should`ve known from the fact that the magazine suggested getting 3 skeins (!) of the backstitch colour, which means I`m going to need roughly 144 metres (!!!) to finish it. Lovely...