Stitching Saturday 8.21.21

August 21, 2021August 21, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

I’m back for the first time in practically a month to do another Stitching Saturday post. I have quite a few projects to update you on and a few new starts. I found out in late July that there is an event in the cross stitch world called “arbitrary August” which means everything you work on is randomly chosen for you. Well, I already do that everyday since I use the tiny decisions app every morning to figure out what I’m going to focus on for the day. But I was inspired after watching Needlecraft Dani to throw in some randomly chosen starts during August. Since I work on both knitting and cross stitch I decided that I would get to have a new start after I worked on my cross stitch projects three times. So the morning after my third cross stitch project I spin a wheel comprised of most of the charts that I currently own and have a new start.

WIPS

My six month old kitten, Simba, decided to “help” me take the pictures for this post and I don’t take the best pictures usually but these were taken as quick as possible since he was very interested in putting everything in his mouth. I will include a picture of him at the end so you can see how beautiful he is! Since it has been so long since I posted one of these I will only be sharing pictures of my progress unless I have something that I want to share with you about it.

Liberty by Stitching with the Housewives

Berry Sweet Cup by Stitching with the Housewives

I ran out of a yarn I needed for the blanket I’m knitting in the mornings so I made this my morning project after I finished Spooky House (which I will share next week) and I worked on this until I received the yarn in the mail.

Bunny Bakery by Stitching with the Housewives

Every time this one comes up it is always a day with hardly any time for stitching.

Tomato Seeds by Stitching with the Housewives

I decided to restart this one since I last shared it. I was originally stitching it on a 10 count fabric and I wasn’t enjoying stitching on it or the way it was looking. I’m now stitching it on a 14ct Aida and I’m liking it a lot more.

This project never photographs well. The fabric is a bright blue and the colors are all more vibrant than it shows up.

This is my new knitting start for August and it took me a while to figure out what yarn I wanted to use for this one. I decided to go with an oatmeal Lettlopi yarn and I can’t wait to actually start this.

Twelve days of Christmas freebie by plum street samplers

I am doing each block as an ornament and I’m almost done with the first block. I wasn’t going to stitch the square border around each one but I think it might make it look nicer to do it so we will see if I end up putting it in the next time I work on this.

My first full coverage piece! I barely made a start on it because I was experimenting with whether I wanted to stitch 2 over 2, 1 over 2 or 1 over 1 and I ultimately decided I liked 1 over 1 the best on this 28ct Cashel linen.

I completely frogged out the bat that I had started on the left because I was using a thicker dmc floss and I wasn’t liking how it was stitching up. I’m happy that I have made it over to the witch and I hope next time I work on this to also make a start on the house.

This was another new start this month. I want to stitch pretty much everything in this magazine so I plan to go through this magazine in order until I have stitched everything. You can’t see it too well in this picture but I’m stitching the tiny broomstick brigade pattern towards the bottom of the cover. This is also the first time I’m stitching on 36ct and I caught on a lot faster to working with it then I thought I would so I’m pretty pleased with myself.

Rectangular Colorblock Bias blanket by Purl Soho

I love this blanket so much and I’m so proud of how it is turning out. I might have to place another yarn order for the current color that I am on but I’m going to wait until I get to the end of my ball and then measure it to see how much more I need. This blanket is huge and pretty much everyone in my family wants their own so as soon as I finish this one I will be casting on another one for my niece. This is my current morning stitch until it is finished (or I’m waiting for yarn to work on it) so I will finish this next month.

In the Springtime freebie by HAED (heaven and earth designs) Artwork by James Jebusa Shannon

My second full coverage! I’m stitching this with 2 threads on 18ct easy grid Aida. I realized that we had an old kindle fire that my youngest was previously using as a tablet before he got his iPad and so I asked my husband to put pattern keeper on it and it was a lot of fun stitching with it. It is pretty similar to the Silk app which is an IOS app and I wish they could just make the both of them cross compatible. This project was added to my wheel for my July new start and it finally came up this week!

Give Thanks freebie by The Tiny Modernist

This was my new start yesterday and he is so small that I am confident that I can have him done by Thanksgiving. Which might give me the motivation I need to spend a day or weekend fully finishing some pieces.

This is a freebie that comes with the Bless this Farm pattern by Stitching with the Housewives

This is my project for today so the only new progress I have made so far is the white in the cow. I plan on finishing my audiobook tonight and working on this.

Some notes: The Oslo hat that I was knitting for my husband got completely frogged and I have bought new yarn to make him a Buffalo Bills inspired beanie. I also have a few Bills patches saved on Etsy that I will be buying to put on the hat when it’s done. I’m also knitting on a Christmas present for my mom and she sometimes reads my blog so I won’t be sharing it to keep it a surprise. I will share my new August cross stitch and diamond painting starts next week.

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 7.24.21 Cross Stitch Mid Year Wip Parade

July 24, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

I’m back today to share all of my cross stitch wips (works in progress). Some of these I haven’t worked on since you last saw them but I thought I would still share them so this is a comprehensive list. I have 25 current wips and two planned start that I haven’t gotten around to yet so there will soon be 27. Unfortunately, the area where I live has been hit hard by fires in the surrounding areas and the smoke isn’t great for anyone and it has caused me to have a few rough days but I still really wanted to get this out today since I haven’t posted a stitching post in awhile. For that reason I won’t have any details listed but if you have any questions about a chart or fabric then let me know.

Unfinished Object

Before we get into Wip’s I want to share my one Ufo (unfinished object). I have decided that I don’t wan to work on my stamped cross stitch anymore because I don’t really enjoy working on it.

WIPS

I ran out of yarn for the section of the blanket that I am knitting as my morning stitch so I have been using this as my morning stitch until the yarn comes in. I am hoping to have this done by the time it does but if not then I will be a lot closer to a finish then I was.

I finished the Christmas ornament that I was working on so I recently started a new one. I am using a pattern from the August 2016 Just Cross Stitch magazine.

This is the Fourth of July cup from Stitching with the Housewives on Etsy. I haven’t worked on this at all since starting it in May.

This is another Stitching with the Housewives pattern.

This is yet again another Stitching with the Housewives chart.

This is another one that I haven’t touched since I started it.

This is the 12 days of Christmas freebie from Plum Street Sampler. It is comprised of 12 different blocks and I think I will finish each block as a separate ornament or pillow.

This is a freebie from Little Stitch Girl. The fabric is more of a bright blue than the picture is showing.

Can you tell yet that Stitching with the Housewives are my favorite cross stitch designers?

I feel like you know by now but this is a Stitching with the Housewives pattern.

I have worked on this one day this month and I have worked my way down to starting the cup. And for the sake of being receptive this is a Stitching with the Housewives pattern.

We all know who this is by so I won’t say it. I will say that this is stitched on Lori Holt’s black 10 count and in the future I won’t be buying it because the holes are so big and the pattern is going to come out so large. I have a few more projects started on this before I knew a lot about fabric so I will use it all up since I bought it. I have learned that I prefer 28ct fabric or linen and 16-18ct Aida.

I only worked this once when I started it for Stitch Maynia.

This is one that I want to get back to soon since I plan on framing it for the gallery wall in my bedroom.

This pattern also comes with two smaller patterns that I will also be stitching when I finish this big one.

It is hard to see the white stitching in this picture but it is definitely easier in real life.

I’m stitching this using the Silk app which is an amazing app that I highly recommend. You can buy pattens from select designers and mark off your progress. This is a Modern Folk Embroidery design that I have worked on twice and am 0.7% complete.

I’ve worked on this pattern twice and I am obsessed with it. I love owls and I can’t wait to stitch this one. This pattern is from the October 2020 Just Cross Stitch magazine.

This is another one that I am stitching on the Silk app and I am 0.8% done.

This is my favorite Aida to stitch on. If you are looking for buttery soft Aida to stitch on then you need to buy Fiber on the Whim fabric. I get mine from Fat Quarter Shop and I buy more every time I order something from them.

I randomly did a middle start for this one even though I usually start in the upper left. And of course this is another Stitching with the Housewives pattern.

Sorry this picture is blurry. Farm Sweet Farm is a freebie pattern when you purchase the Bless this Farm pattern from Stitching with the Housewives.

This is the last Stitching with the Housewives pattern I have started.

I have only made a tiny start on this one. The more I look at this one the more I think I might finish it as a pillow.

This is my last Silk app start. This is a Galliana cross stitch and she also has an Etsy store where she has more charts then what is currently on the app. I want to stitch pretty much everything that she designs. I worked on this two days and I have 1.2% completed.

This is a pretty long post and I’m a little nervous for how many wips I will have by the end of the year!

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 6.5.21

June 5, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

Happy Sunday! I’m here today to share the last 9 days of Stitch Maynia projects with you. Last month was a pretty productive month for me despite not being able to knit or cross stitch for 10 days. I finished both cardigans that I had been working on as well as kept up with a new cross stitch start all the days that I could. I already shared my finish of my Pajama Cardigan a couple of weeks ago and I decided I would share my completed Uptown Cardigan next week since today’s post is so cross stitch heavy. Today I also want to share all my new projects that I have added to my now huge wheel of projects that I spin every morning. Since I finished both my cardigans I needed a new morning knit and I decided to pick up my Slipstravaganza shawl and I am thrilled to share that I *fingers crossed* might have this one off the needles sometime next week. I am going to finish section 5 today and then the only thing I have left is section 6. Once I finish the shawl my new morning knit will be the Rectangular Color Bias blanket I am working on for my youngest son.

New Projects

Knitting

This is the Fjer Cardigan by Fiber Tales. She is one of my favorites to watch on Youtube and since June is my birthday month I decided I wanted to pick one of her patterns and this seemed perfect since I no longer have any cardigans on the needles. It is a cropped one which is great and I plan on wearing it over dresses. My local yarn store is having a huge sale for their 17th anniversary so I will be going there next week to pick up some yarn for this project. And more some more yummy yarn for future projects.

Cross Stitch

I asked for a HAED (heaven and earth design) for my birthday but I’m not sure if I’m getting it or not. If I don’t I do have a free pattern from their website that I will start instead so either way I hope to start my first HAED this month. If you are not familiar with HAED’s they are full coverage pieces and I’m sure that it will take me at least five years to complete one but I think the designs are so beautiful and I would love to stitch many. I have learned that I am a process stitcher or really any hobby because I just enjoy working on them and the finish isn’t necessarily the best part, although it is always exciting to complete something.

Diamond Painting

I bought a set of diamond painting stickers for my boys back in February and since summer break is now upon us I thought it would be fun to work on a few more of these. The set that I bought also comes with Disney Princesses so we still have a fair amount of characters to work on.

Stitch Maynia

The pictures today are not great quality because I was losing the sun as I was taking them. I also will go into more detail every other time that I talk about these projects but I’m unfortunately not that organized right now.

May 22- Let’s Talk Autumn by Hands on Design

May 23- Christmas Eve by Hands on Design

May 24- Love Thy Neighbor by Modern Folk Embroidery

I’m using the Silk app to stitch this. It is an IOS app where you can purchase patterns in the app and it has an amazing feature that helps you mark off and keep track of your progress.

May 26- Owls and Bats by Evdokia Nikolaeva of Punochka (taken from the October 2020 Just Cross Stitch magazine)

May 27- North Pole Cookie Co by Cherry Hill Stitchery (from the Silk app)

May 28- Sweater Weather by Plum Street Samplers

May 29- Berry Sweet Cup by Stitching with the Housewives (from Etsy)

May 30- Farm Sweet Farm by Stitching with the Housewives (from Etsy)

I’m stitching the freebie that was included with the Bless this Farm chart. Also this is two days of work since I also worked on this June 2.

May 31- The Christmas Sampler by Galliana Cross Stitch Designs (from the Silk app)

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday: 5.29.21

May 29, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

I’m coming to you late on Saturday because I almost missed another stitching post until I remembered that I took pictures last Saturday of some of my Stitch Maynia starts and then couldn’t post because I was having issues with WordPress. Today we went to the fair and it was a lot of fun but it was also a lot for me on top of the weather getting pretty hot (heat is a trigger for me) so when we came home I took the coldest shower possible and then went to bed for a while. Which is a long way of saying that I lost the light to take pictures of the projects I started this week but I’m happy that I remembered I still need to share last weeks. For Stitch Maynia I am doing a brand new start every single day (not quite) since I am newly back into the cross stitch world and I have so many things I want to work on. My Rituxan infusion at the end of April ended up being pretty difficult for me and I had ten days where I wasn’t able to do much other then lay on the couch. I was feeling too weak to do any of my stitching which is unfortunate since I have really been enjoying starting all these projects and I look forward to getting to work on throughout the year. I also missed a day of stitching because I spent the day stitching together my Uptown Cardigan. I am working on knitting the second pocket and then I will attach it and hopefully share my finish next week. Anyways, I picked my stitching back up on May 18 so I do have some to share with you today and next Saturday I will share the remainder of my Stitch Maynia projects as well as my June projects I’m adding to the project wheel.

*All patterns can be found on Etsy unless specified otherwise. There is a lot of Stitching with the Housewives since they are my favorite designers. They also have a Youtube channel that I really enjoy watching.

May 8: Bunny Bakery by Stitching with the Housewives

I know it’s hard to tell from this small start but I stitched one bunny ear and started on the second. In the future when I share my projects I will go into full detail about the fabric and floss colors that I am working on but for this month I’m just going to share my starts.

May 18: Red, White & Blue cup by Stitching with the Housewives

May 19: Liberty Cup

May 20: Bless our Home by Country Cottage Needlework

This is the smallest start and all I did was a tiny bit of the top border. This pattern is Bless Our Home by Country Cottage Needleworks and I bought it at 123 Stitch.

May 21: Loved By You by Liz Matthews

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 5.8.21

May 8, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

I’m excited about today’s post because the first week of Stitch Maynia is in the bag and I have a week of starts to share with you! You can see the days where I was feeling good/had more time to stitch because a couple of days I barely did anything. I wasn’t sure if I was going to want to cross stitch every day but I have really been loving everything that I have been working on. That may change since there is still a lot of month left so I may work on other stuff during the month but for right now I’m enjoying Stitch Maynia more than I thought I would. I also am finally going to be sharing my completed Pajama Cardigan. But first let’s go over what I stitched on this week.

May 1- Stitching with the Housewives 4th of July Cup

May 2- Sew Berry Sweet by WhiteHouseStitchery

May 3- Peep by Stitching with the Housewives

May 4- Hallow’s Eve Haunting by Autumn Lane Stitchery

May 5- 12 days of Christmas by Plum Street Sampler (freebie chart)

*I will link the blog post where the pattern is shared here so you can go check it out if you are interested in stitching this one. I have decided to stitch each day separately and make them ornaments. I also am not going to stitch the Dec 25 date for the first day block and instead I will put the year I finish it instead.

May 6- Spring by Little Stitch Girl (freebie)

*I will link here where you can see all of Little Stitch Girl’s freebies.

May 7- Up on the Housetop by Stitching with the Housewives

*I need to rip out that little part on the snowflake right under the U because I miscounted.

Pajama Cardigan

My first finished garment! It isn’t perfect but I’m so proud of it and I can’t wait for Fall to roll around so I can start wearing it. My cardigan ended up being more of a flyaway cardigan because I somehow made the two front panels longer than the front. The pattern doesn’t specify if it is for a beginner or intermediate knitter but I think you should be a pretty confident knitter to attempt this pattern because not a lot is explained. My sleeves came out pretty well but they are supposed to have a section that is the same textured pattern that the back and pockets have but the way I interpreted the pattern I ended up knitting the whole sleeve before I got to that part. It also had no instructions on how to stitch it together so I ended up using my other cardigan pattern to help me finish this one. For a paid for pattern I would have hoped to have everything clearly explained especially since my other cardigan pattern is one that I paid for and it is extremely basic and yet has way more instructions.

I know that last week I was hoping to finish my other cardigan but I am still working on the last sleeve. I didn’t expect my infusion to take so much out of me and I am slowly building my strength back up and mornings have been especially hard. I am needing to sleep more to recover but sleeping for more than five/six hours makes my spasticity worse which is frustrating. Hopefully as the month progresses my spasticity will continue to improve and I will be able to do more. With that I am going to say that I will have my Uptown Cardigan done next Saturday because that gives me a goal to work towards. Plus, I am almost done with the second sleeve so there really isn’t a lot left to do on this one.

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 5.1.21

May 1, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

Happy May! It’s time to share all the progress that I made last month on all my various projects. I won’t be sharing either cardigan today but I’m hopeful for next Saturday. My energy levels are still low and I couldn’t get myself together enough to take pictures with my pajama cardigan. I have been working every morning and a few days on my Uptown cardigan and I am so close to being done that I’m hopeful I can share both next weekend. I just casted on the second sleeve this morning and then I need to make the pockets and stitch it all together. So I feel like it is doable to finish this week. After I finish the cardigan I will be making my Slipstravaganza shawl my morning stitch until that is finished. Which would be amazing to finish in May as well.

Tomato Seeds by Stitching with the Housewives

This is five days of work which makes me realize that I am a very slow cross stitcher. I am probably 40%ish done with this pattern but I have been enjoying myself. I am using the called for Classic Colorworks floss on Lori Holt 10 count fabric.

Spooky House by WhiteHouseStitchery

I worked on Spooky House by WhiteHouseStitchery on Etsy two days in April. I’m really loving how it is turning out. I’m also really pleased that every time I pick it up it is easier for me to stitch on linen. Off the top of my head this is 28ct linen using all the called for DMC.

Christmas Snow

It can be hard to see any progress on this one because it is a stamped cross stitch but April’s progress is on the left. I bought this kit on Amazon and I don’t think I will purchase anymore. I much prefer working on all my other cross stitch projects over this one. I worked on this one three days in April.

Dimensions Cat

She is so close to being done! I worked on this one three days last month and I love that her face is so clear now. I just need to finish filling in the middle of her face and backstitch all the details in. And of course do the word Meow. I’m not sure where I’m going to hang her when she is done but I’m excited to finish her with a few more days work.

Nutcracker Ornament

My nutcracker is almost finished too! I still have to do almost the whole border and the metallic thread is not that easy to work with. But I’m excited to finish him and start on another ornament. I haven’t picked one out yet but I have quite a few saved on Readly (a magazine app). This ornament is designed by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery and I found it in the June 2017 Just Cross Stitch magazine This was two days of work.

Pritchard Sweater

Sorry the picture is sideways. I didn’t notice until I had uploaded it and when I tried to turn it the sweater got cropped. I decided to use some leftover Charisma yarn that I had because I have never made a sweater before and I don’t want to invest money on yarn if I’m learning how to do something. It helps me be more confident in trying new things because I’m not worried about ruining the yarn. I worked on this two days. I also realized that the stitch markers I had were two small so I had to use my locking stitch markers. I have since bought ones that will fit so the next time I work on this I will be putting them on. The stitch markers marks the sleeves and the front and back too if I’m not mistaken.

Slipstravaganza Shawl

I didn’t do much work on this one. I only did a few rows of grey but once I finish the row I’m on I will be done with section 3. There are two more sections to be worked and this shawl just keeps growing and growing. I currently have 430ish stitches on the needle and every row more stitches are added. I think by the end there is something around 900 stitches! This only got one day of work on it but like I said at the beginning of this post I will be making this my morning stitch pretty soon.

Midwinter Socks

I barely worked on my socks last month. I don’t know what I had going on the two days they came up on my wheel but one day I didn’t work on them at all and the other day I gave them maybe 20-30 minutes. So not a lot of progress. I’m liking how the colors are all looking and I think my tension is getting better on the DPN’s.

Oslo Hat

This one is annoying because I messed up and I had to rip back a lot. I worked on it three days and one of those days was spent ripping back the previous days work. I don’t mind ripping it back but I’m more annoyed that I knew it wasn’t right but I kept knitting. I don’t know what I was thinking!

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 4.24.21

April 24, 2021by bookswithcassie1 Comment

Sorry to be posting this so late but I had a busy last few days and I am feeling it today. I’m also slightly disappointed that I can’t show off my Pajama cardigan that I fully finished last night! It isn’t perfect but I’m really pleased that I can wear something that I made. The weather has been so beautiful where I live but today is the start of a multi day storm so there was no sun to take pictures. So, I’m going to have to wait until next Saturday to show it off. Which maybe works out better since I plan on wearing on Monday to my infusion so I will have a better idea of how comfortable it is. I will also review the pattern next week because I do have some critiques. For today I thought I would share what I plan on starting next month.

Cross Stitch

I have been talking about Stitch Maynia for so long and it is finally almost here! I ended up creating a separate wheel on my Tiny Decisions app where I put the cross stitch pieces I want to start into categories. Like Christmas stitching, ornaments, Stitching with the Housewives, Etsy charts and a couple of other categories. For the month of May I will also be sharing what I start each Saturday (unless it’s a gift) since I won’t be going back to the them again until Maynia is over.

Knitting

My 9 year old son, Hunter, asked me to make him something and he is big into stuffed animals so this is what he picked. It is a free pattern that can be found on Ravelry (if you click on the picture it will take you to the page). It is called Henry’s rabbit by Sara Elizabeth Kellner but I’m obviously going to rename it Hunter’s rabbit. I’ve been getting more comfortable with DPN’s (double pointed needles) and I just stitched my Pajama cardigan together so I feel fairly confident that I can make something that will at least somewhat resemble a rabbit.

Diamond Painting

I bought this 3 pack of chalkboard inspired diamond painting on Amazon and I’m excited to work on them even though I haven’t worked on diamond painting in about six weeks since it never comes up on my wheel. This might be the last diamond painting that I add to my wheel since I’m about to add 31 cross stitch patterns to it so the chances of diamond painting coming up are even slimmer.

One thing I haven’t figured out is how I’m going to incorporate extra knitting and diamond painting into my schedule next month. I will still be doing my morning knitting so I need to work out which pocket of time I will try to work on extra crafting. I feel like I want to work on Maynia throughout the day but I also don’t want to burn myself out so I guess I will just play it by ear and if I need a break I can work on something else.

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 4.10.21

April 10, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

Happy Saturday! I don’t have much to share this week since I just shared all my progress last month. I have already cross stitched more this month than I did last month and I’ve been enjoying that. Today I thought I would share a few more charts that I’ve purchased and also my StitchMaynia plans.

Haul

*These all come from Etsy.

I don’t think I have shared any of these before but these are all the seed packets I have purchased from Stitching With the Housewives. I was originally planning on finishing them all as seed packets but I don’t know how I would display them all together so I think I will just take some inspiration from the way Priscilla shows them finished. These are a part of their tiered tray tidbits series but I think they would look cute in a few different places in my house. I also bought one more Housewife charts since their designs fit my style so well.

StitchMaynia

StitchMaynia can be done in a multitude of ways but the way that I’ve decided to do it is to have a new start for everyday in May. Which is a lot considering it’s one of the longest months of the year! But since I’m new to cross stitch and there are SO MANY THINGS I want to stitch I figured I might as well start them so I can continue to work on them on and off until they are done. The biggest issue I’m having is that I need to narrow down all the things I want to start to a list of 31. I have found a ton of patterns that I want to use as Christmas gifts (which I’m not going to be sharing until after Christmas because I’m not sure who I know that actually reads my blog and I don’t want to spoil anything) so those will for sure be a part of the 31. Although I think I will be doing Jolly July and that’s when I will start working on Christmas presents both knitting and cross stitching. I’m also thinking that I will start my Christmas shopping and planning then because Christmas is my husband’s busiest time of the year at work and since I can’t do as much as I used to it would be awesome to just be able to focus on activities with my boys when the holidays roll around.

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 4.3.21

April 3, 2021by bookswithcassie1 Comment

This is turning out to be my favorite “stitching” post to put together because this is the time of the month where I show off all the progress that I have made in the previous month. The first half of March was incredibly difficult for me and I was in an immense amount of pain so there were days where I barely did any crafting. It turns out that knitting is easier for me because the motion of knitting keeps the arms close to the body whereas cross stitching and diamond painting involve extending my arms. When my arms are feeling weak and it hurts to move/lift them it was almost impossible for me to do anything other then knitting. Which unfortunately means that I didn’t make much progress on anything other than knitting but the steroids finally kicked in toward the end of March so I’ve been able to do a lot more. I am excited that I have one finished project and I have my fingers crossed that I will have a few more in April. Also, I decided to scrap the hat that I was making for my niece and instead I’m going to make her another hat in the future with better yarn. I actually finished knitting her hat but I couldn’t get over how plastic feeling the yarn felt so I decided to just toss it. My husband doesn’t understand how I can restart and rip back things without it bothering me but I just really love the process of knitting so I don’t mind it!

Finished Object

The picture on the right is from the end of January. The one in the middle is February’s progress. The one on the left is my finish.

I think this came out so cute and I’m so excited to hang it up this Fall. It took me two days of work but it should have only taken one. I have been reading up on how people finish diamond painting and I saw that many people use decorative washi tape on the sides before they put it in the frame so that’s what I’m going to do. I’m just not sure what color I want to use. I’m leaning toward a sparkly brown but I think I need to wait until the craft stores put out their Fall stuff before I can fully finish it.

WIP’s (Works in Progress)

Oslo Hat

This is three days of work on my husband’s hat. I’m about an inch away from turning my work and I’ll be honest I don’t see how this is going to turn into the hat it does but I’m just going to keep knitting away and trust the pattern. Although I have tried it on him and it seems to fit him pretty well. Its a brimmed beanie and I plan on making a bunch of people in my life this hat for Christmas. This is also the second project that I have ever done using the magic loop method and I love how meditative it is.

Pajama Cardigan

I didn’t take a picture of this last month so I thought I would just show off all the different pieces that I have made for this cardigan. This is my morning knit so it is the only project that I work on every single day. I also made it my focus piece for three days in March so I was able to get a lot done on it. I am working on the second sleeve and after that all I need to do is the button band and then sew it all together. The sewing together stage is the most nerve wracking part for me and I hope that I do a good job with it. The first sleeve is the first time I ever tried the magic loop method and it took me a couple of starts and restarts before I got the hang of it. I also struggled with the pattern with the sleeve and I did make a sleeve that fits me but I got confused by the wording in the pattern and inadvertently made the whole thing in garter stitch instead of having a section of the yarn over pattern. Overall, I’m happy with how it is turning out and I should have this finished by next month.

Christmas Snow cross stitch

This is a stamped cross stitch kit that I got of Amazon when I started to get back into cross stitch. I prefer regular cross stitch but it is nice to have a stitch where I don’t have to count or keep track of my stitches. It can be hard to see but pretty much all my work has been done on the top, particularly the top left side. I worked on this two days in March.

Uptown Cardigan

I’m more convinced than ever that this cardigan is going to be like a wearable blanket but I’m ok with that. I worked on this for two days but I didn’t get near as much progress on it as I wanted. I think after I finish my pajama cardigan that this will become my new morning stitch because it is my oldest WIP. I hope that by next month I have finished the first front panel and I’m working on the second.

Midwinter Socks

You can see that I made a lot of progress on this sock in March. I have never worked on double pointed needles before and I think it’s pretty obvious. This sock has a lot of tension issues and dropped stitches but I decided that I’m going to see it through because this sock has an afterthought heel (which is what the small blue line above the stripes is for) and that requires cutting into this sock once its off the needles so I figured it would be good to practice that technique on a wonky sock. Although, I do have a lot of love for this poor sock and I haven’t decided if I’m going to keep it or remake this first sock. The yarn I’m using is a set from Hobby Lobby so it’s very inexpensive and easy for me to get my hands on. I worked on this a total of three days.

Nutcracker Christmas Ornament

This is one day of work on this cute this ornament. I got this pattern from the Just CrossStitch June 2017 magazine. I use the Readly app to access a lot of crafting magazines. This one should be done with one more day of stitching.

Slipstravaganza

This one grew by a few more color sections. I worked on this one for two days and I should move onto the next section if this comes up in April.

Purl Soho Blanket

My cat, Fern, made an appearance for this picture! I love how you can see how much this one grew in March. This is the project that I worked on the most besides my morning stitch because it came up 6 times on my wheel app. I hope that when I show this off next month I will have added the next color to this blanket.

Those are all the projects that I worked on in March. My other cross stitches did come up on the wheel but it was at the beginning of the month so I didn’t work on them. So far in April cross stitch has come up two of the three days and one of them is a new start so I’m excited for you all to see that next month!

~Cassie

Stitching

Stitching Saturday 3.27.21

March 27, 2021by bookswithcassieLeave a Comment

Happy Saturday! Today I want to share what projects I’m adding to my wheel* for April. I like to add one knitting project, one cross stitch and one diamond painting every month. But because they are on a wheel that randomly decides it doesn’t always mean that it comes up. My diamond painting project I added for March still hasn’t come up although there are a few more days in the month so it might happen. Next Saturday I will be sharing all my progress I made in March with before and after pictures.

*I use the Tiny Decisions app if you are looking for something similar. I love every project that I’m working on so it is impossible for me to choose which one I work on each day.

Knitting project

Photo by Nicole McConville (www.nicolemcconville.com)

This sweater is called Pritchard and it is a free pattern on Ravelry. I just learned how to do magic loop in knitting and while I don’t know if this pattern calls for that on the sleeves I do feel confident now that I can make this sweater. I’m really looking forward to knitting my first sweater and if it comes out well then I can use this same pattern to make some sweaters for my kids if they want one.

Cross Stitch

I want to start working on these seed patterns from Stitching with the Housewives. I love all of their designs but I recently saw Made By Michelle McGraw finish these into seed packets and I really want to do that. This is an ongoing series from them so there will be more (I don’t know how many) that they release and I plan on stitching them all up.

Diamond Painitng

I bought this on Etsy from OurCraftAddictions because I had previously favorited it and it went on sale (it still is!). I think this picture is just gorgeous and I know exactly where I want to hang it in my house when I finish it.