I started crocheting five or six years ago. One of the first projects I worked on was baby hats that my women’s group at church was making for a local hospital. Most of mine came out fine, but one was very wonky. It came out very tiny, and I realized it about halfway through and was just going to toss it and start over. Tim, my partner, had other ideas.
I bought this turkey a long time ago as a seasonal decoration. Tim decided he liked it a lot and wanted it out all year, so “Tom” guarded our (at the time) overflowing DVDs. Tim decided that Tom needed a hat, so now we have the year-round Thanksgiving turkey with a pink/brown/green crochet hat.
Today, Tom still has a place of honor in our living room. I have since done some decluttering and I don’t have the overflowing DVD problem I used to have, so he is hanging out by the TV, next to a little bird made from a gourd and a little angel that lights up. We class it up around here.
Emma Wilkinson Designs
Planet June
Atty’s
I DID actually finish a WIP I’ve had haunting me for a few years: a needlepoint bookmark. After going back to it, I remembered why I stopped and had stitched so much of the non-black colors. The black paint is a little thicker than the other colors, so it covers the holes just a little more. In turn, I had to use a bit more force to push the needle and wool through the canvas. It was a little taxing on my hands but it’s finished. I used 
I have another finish, but it’s part of a larger project – the 
I made a lot of progress on Quaker Mermaid. To be honest, I’ve made mistakes here and there in counting, but am lucky that where they are is pretty arbitrary so everything turns out OK. It’s a pain to take out over-one stitches! I’m stitching this over one with one strand of floss using the continental stitch so that my stitches don’t disappear into the fabric. I don’t like the way my crosses look over one – too bulky. So, that is probably helping me stitch her quickly. I bought the chart and specialty flosses at Celebration of Needlework in Nashua last year. I intended to stitch it sooner than I actually did, but many of the colors were not present. So, I replaced them with similar colors and I love them, particularly the green in her tail.
As for my crochet, I have finished crocheting one throw I was working on. It’s a square shell stitch blanket, one of those that starts in the center and works around it like a granny square does. I love creating blankets like that! The corners messed me up a few times, mainly because I wasn’t paying attention while chatting, but I went back and fixed them as I found them. Funny, this is the second time I’ve stitched this pattern, and I rarely did that the first time. I guess sometimes we get a little complacent. I need to weave in the ends – my most hated crochet job – then it will be truly finished. This throw was stitched using three skeins of 
In good news, I’ve already finished one of the needlepoint WIPs I had when I started 2018 (see left). Nothing huge, and it was nearly done. Why did I not finish it? Well, I recently went through my crafty stuff and purged a lot of items that I realized I will probably never stitch. To be honest, I still have some of those, but at least everything fits into its allotted space — which is a big deal. When I did that I found some forgotten projects, like this little ghosty. So, one down, way too many to go!
Mindy's Needlework Mania 