A Stitching Update - May

As you can imagine, our little impromptu trip to the UK meant that my stitching goals for the month of May were thrown out the window.  You can see what my goals were back here.

Despite our trip, I was already way behind the eight ball.  I just hadn’t really been feeling very motivated.  Having said that, when I look back through my little diary, I had done lots of little bits and pieces.  This is how I went.

The Chookshed Challenge to quilt the half square triangle baby quilt hadn’t been started.

My One Monthly Goal was to applique all the fish I had prepped, as well as those for May.  It turns out that I had appliquéd all the fish that I had prepped in April, except for their eyes. I just haven’t taken an updated photo.  This is my one from the start of the month.  All I had done towards the May blocks was to print out the pattern.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of pink wasn’t progressed very far either.  No fish had been made and I had only cut out a couple of fabrics towards the split nine patches.

My granny square rug progressed no further.

So, what did I do?

I did complete the last of the three sashiko panels for the table runner. Now I have to find a suitable fabric for the sashings, border, binding and backing.

As I didn’t seem to have much in the way of hand stitching to take to my two stitching mornings, I made a small start on a counted cross stitch.  It is a little kit that would have come with a magazine or something.

I then decided that I would make some one inch hexy flowers, using RSC colours.  I have no plans on what I will do with them, but they are something to pick up and work on when I am at stitching, or I just want to work on something mindless.  I have prepped a few, using what I have in my small scraps tubs.  I will have to now dive into my other fabrics to cut more.  I have stitched a red and pink flower, so I suppose I did in fact make something towards the RSC for May.

I had hoped to make a start on knitting a jumper using some wool I purchased at an op shop in Yeppoon last year.  The pattern I have chosen is Salty Air Sweater, which is knit in the round, from the top down and has a lace work yoke.  I haven’t knitted a jumper for maybe 30 years, have never knitted an entire jumper in the round, (I have knitted a fair isle circular yoke many years ago), let alone from the top down and haven’t done much lace work.  The pattern has lot of terms I am unfamiliar with, so this will be a great learning exercise.  Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials.

I treated myself to some interchangeable circular needles, rather than buying multiple ones for this project.  I looked on line and to my surprise and delight, our local craft store had the ones I wanted in stock and a heck of a lot cheaper than those on line.  I hopped straight in the car and went and bought them and they only had one set, so I’m one very happy little Vegemite.

I did manage to make a start……..twice……. You know they say to be very careful not to twist the cast on row when knitting in the round, well I only noticed that I had indeed twisted it after I had knitted a few rows.  Blast!!!  Second time around I checked, had Mick check and then double checked and managed to get it right.

I am currently halfway through the lacework yoke.  It is going well, so far.  (For once, the photo is showing the true colour of this wool, normally it is photographing as more like a brown.)  I am taking my time and really concentrating on what I am doing.  Once the yoke is finished it will be a good project to take to my stitching mornings.  I’m looking forward to getting back into it, but first I will need to do another YouTube refresher on some of the terms.

I knew that I would want some stitching to take away with my, but it needed to be compact and mindless.  Previously, I have taken redwork and that seems to be a good option, but what to take?  I started looking through some of my books and ended up prepping three projects.

Firstly, the stitching on a small pincushion by Natalie Bird that has been on my wish list for many a year.  

It didn’t take long to get it stitched while waiting in airports etc.

The next project is a Gail Pan bag.

I managed to get it stitched while on the Isle of Man, some of it sitting beside the race course, waiting for proceedings to start.  I can’t say that this was a project that was on my radar, but it will be a nice addition to my bag collection, once I make it.

Finally, another Gail Pan project, from the same book.  This wasn’t started in May. Once again, not a project that was on my radar, but it is definitely one that I like and will be happy to have made.

One other thing I did in May was finally donate the quilts that I had been making for that purpose.  I have previously donated to Ronald McDonald House in Orange, but this time wanted to donate closer to home.  I approached the local organisation that looks after foster children, but they said “Thanks, but no thanks, they have plenty already”.  I then approached Wattle Tree House who support victims of domestic violence and they were more than happy to accept them, as they were currently putting together packages to give people who needed support.  I think I will donate to them again in the future.

So, it seems that despite a trip to Canberra and travelling to the UK, I did in fact achieve quite a bit, although nothing was completed.

How did I go with my 15 minutes a day?  Surprisingly, I only missed one day, the day after we had been on the go for 41 hours.  I’ll excuse myself for that.

May = 30/31

Year to date = 151/152

Success rate = 99.34%

Overall, I’m very happy with what I achieved in the month, despite not ticking everything off the list.  Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.  I’ll get them done at some stage.