A few days late, but it coincides with WIP Wednesday…so, I am posting my WIPocalypse update today on purpose. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!

This year, I’m taking part in the Stitching Olympics SAL in the Endurance Race, meaning I’m going to focus on one piece during the Olympics. I’m tweaking that a little for my needs, as sometimes my eyes and hands need a different type of project to work on. So, I will work on one cross stitch piece and one crochet afghan/throw. I’m hoping to be done with the promised throws by then, but we’ll see. I haven’t decided which cross stitch project to work on, yet. I’m pretty happy with my progress on Quaker Mermaid, so maybe that one. We’ll see.

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 Vineyard Merino Wool, which has a nice little twist to it and is very nice to work with on 18 count. Now to either take it to a finisher to make into a bookmark or to figure out if I can do this myself without a sewing machine. I think I can learn how to finish pieces on fabric, but canvas may be too tough without a sewing machine. It’s not high on the list at this point. but the stitching is done!

I have another finish, but it’s part of a larger project – the Moogly 2018 CAL. I started one of these last year or the year before, but I didn’t like the yarn I chose. I tried other yarn but just wasn’t happy, then I got busy with work and life. Tamara releases a new square every two weeks (from different designers), so we’re up for another one this week if my figures are correct. This is the first one from January. I originally thought the light blue was a bit too bright for this combo, but I like it now that I see it worked up with the other colors. The yarn I am using is Knit Picks Brava Worsted – very reasonably priced and soft. I love working with the Brava yarns! I plan to stick to a similar color pattern for my other squares so that there is some consistency in the afghan and am using the dark grey for the outer edge of each square and connecting all the squares at the end. I need to purchase some blocking squares so I can make all these look nice and straight, but this works for now.

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 Caron Big Cakes in Grape Jelly and a 5.5mm hook. Obviously, the Big Cakes have more yardage than the standard Caron Cakes. The other difference is that the Big Cakes are 100% acrylic, while the original Caron Cakes have 20% wool. This will make a difference to those with allergies and in how projects are washed. The original cakes have more colors.

Thanks for reading. 🙂