December 2019 – My Time Stitching

Hello my blogging friends! It is the last day of 2019 and I think I am ready for 2020. Whether I am ready or not, it will arrive in a little less than 5 hours where I am. A few weeks ago, I was commenting on someone’s blog and I had said that I couldn’t even think of 1 thing I finished craftwise this last year. But looking back over my blog, I see that I did actually finish quite a bit. I finished the little mermaids SAL, a couple of shawls, the Spicier Life blanket, a Sunflower pillow and 48 Granny Squares for a blanket that I will finish in 2020. Our basement construction was a big part of 2019, with all the packing, purging and hauling out of the basement. Then there was the construction, painting, carpeting, unpacking and reorganizing everything. I must say, it is the best looking room in the house. Made me realize that the rest of the house needs new paint and carpeting, but that will have to wait as I am not ready to go through all that again. And we live in a quad, so there isn’t room to move furniture without moving up or down. Ugh

So, what have I been up to these last few weeks of 2019? Well, yesterday I finished the 2019 Mystery Sampler from Linen and Threads.

Sorry about the poor lighting. I promise to take a better picture once I get it framed. I am pretty happy with how this one turned out. It’s not my style of stitching, but I rather like it. I stitched it on 16ct Aida Grateful Grey from Wichelt. The threads are DMC 3810 and Gloriana Rain Forest. If you have never stitched with Gloriana threads, they are so smooth and silky! I really enjoyed stitching with them. The patterns for this SAL are FREE on the Linen and Threads website. And the 2020 Mystery Sampler started this morning. At this time, I will not be stitching the 2020 sampler. It is a Quaker style sampler, and I am not a fan of randomly placed designs. I do like the elements in today’s release. I will follow it in the facebook group just to see how everyone is stitching theirs.

I knitted one Christmas present. A winter hat for my Mom. She liked the pink one I made for myself so I made her one in purple, complete with fuzzy pom pom.

It was a very fast knit with size 13 needles and a chunky yarn, Rasta, from Malabrigo. The pattern is Chunky Cabled Hat by Destiny Meyer and is available on Ravelry. I gave it to Mom on Christmas and she loved it.

So now I am back to working on my Advent Shawl from AJHC Wools and loving it so much!

This was a photo from just after Christmas. I have started the larger skein and have about 10 rows of that in so far. My shoulder has been bothering me the last couple of weeks, so not much knitting going on at one time. It is feeling better today, so for the rest of the New Year’s Eve, I will be knitting on it 🙂 The pattern is now available on Ravelry.

For 2020, I have already made some New Year’s Resolutions. Pretty much some of the same I have made in years past, but truly want to stick with them this year. I have decided not to participate in any cross stitch or knitting SAL’s in 2020. Instead, I want to concentrate on finishing some projects I already have started – 12 cross stitch and several knitting projects and 1 crochet blanket. I also want to get a lot of scrapbooking done this year, and yes, scrapbook all of those page kits and mini books. Oh, that reminds me. I do have another finish for 2019. A couple of days ago I finished a wedding album for my youngest and his wife. I gave them a finished album at their rehearsal dinner last year. All they had to do was print the photos and glue them in. They were disappointed on their first anniversary that there were no photos to look at in the album. So they asked if I would add the photos a couple of months ago. I finally got to it and finished it on Saturday. I do hope that they like it.

There is a few more things I would like to accomplish in 2020, but I won’t bore you with them right now. So that is what I have been up to this last part of 2019. Another year has flown by and a new one is just about to begin. Or may have already begun depending where you are in the world. My wish for each and every one of you is that 2020 will be an amazing year with Health, Happiness and Love.

It has been snowing here most of the day, so my New Year will be wrapped in white 😉

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Can you believe December is here? This year has really flown by. Except for this last month. But only because I have had my Yarny Advent Calendar for about a month now and have been dying to dive into it!

This is my first time getting a yarny advent calendar. This year is actually the first time I have heard of these types of advent calendars and just had to try it out. I love AJHC Wools yarns, so of course I had to purchase her kit. I actually purchased this over the summer and it was delivered to my local yarn shop last month. It’s been a long month and I will not lie…I peeked at box#1 days before December 1. I didn’t actually open the box. My hubby did. But I did beg to peek at it. I couldn’t wait until December 1 to get started. The kit has 24 micro skeins, all new colors just for the advent. And finally December 1 came and I finally was able to get started around noon that day.

Oh my gosh!!! Just look at that skein of pastel goodness!! I enjoyed my self care time, knitting 19 rows of the shawl beginning. Aaaahhhh. But it went by so quick. Waiting until the next day to see the next skein and add more knitting is such a long wait! Here is my where I am at, after Day 5 this morning.

It’s so beautiful!! I am loving the colors of the yarns and seeing how they blend each day. How did I ever miss out on this wonderful idea? Have you purchased a yarny advent calendar before?

I have also been working on my granny squares for the Natures Walk Blanket. I have one more square to crochet up and 11 more to block.

I have enough of these very cool blocking pins from Knitters Pride to block 6 squares at a time. So I have been switching them out every night. I was very disappointed the first day I removed pins. My squares, that were stretched to 6 1/2″, shrunk back to the 6 1/4″ they started at. I could literally see the block shrink when I removed the pins. Ugh. All the work I have done, to be undone. I thought I was doing something wrong, but I am told by a friend that some yarns have yarn memory. She said to be sure that all of my blocks are the same size and to continue blocking them. All of my blocks are between 6 1/4″ and 6 1/2″. So I am hoping they will all line up ok once I start stitching them together. Which will be pretty soon!! I am so excited! Here are my squares so far:

The stack on the left has been blocked and lay so flat now. I can see how blocking helps the stitches lay flat even though they are not blocking to size. The mauve ones on top look wavy, but they have buds on them that have some dimension to them. They actually do lay flat except for the buds.

And lastly, I have been keeping up with the 2019 Mystery Sampler from Linen and Threads. I am on the last border and it is fabulous!!

I am hoping to finish this by the end of December. I’d show you the whole piece now, but the frame that it is on has become a bit wonky and a piece of it broke, so I don’t want to unroll it until I have to. I don’t remember the name of this frame type. The rods at the top and bottom are split and have little nails all the way across that you put your fabric into. I can say I am not a fan of this style and this one will have to go in the garbage when I am done with it. It did serve it’s purpose this year, I suppose.

So that is what I have been up to for now. I don’t remember what else I have worked on, but I think I have shared my main projects. What have you been crafting on lately?

For now I will leave you with one of my favorite fall photos I took on October 28, and then 2 weeks later, our first snow fall of 9″.

I love the beautiful reflection of the trees in the pool.

Month: December 2019

The Last Day of 2019

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