I've already started right back at the top again, and since the finish earlier this evening too.
Do you like me little Sundae needle minder? I picked up a packet of them in Hobby Craft yesterday, and stuck an earth magnet on the back. I've added some epoxy resin to my Amazon shopping list so I can give it a nice glass finish.
I returned to the office to work today as I have permission to drive again. I am now super tired and will head off to bed shortly.
... and not too bad considering I have spent many hours digging in the garden yesterday rather than stitching. We were up early this morning, to beat the heat, and have done some of the harder digging and weeding, removing an old fence that had inter-twinned with the hedge, and watering. Not it's going to be relaxation time, which means more stitching for me. I need to hop on over to #magicalstitches to see if the homework is something that I can participate in, and even if I can't contribute, I will at least hopefully get a good march on this current diagonal for a finish. Have a good day, stay out of the heat and keep hydrated. Hugs Kay
I've been going at a swift pace recently, and managed to hit another diagonal finish ... or at least a finish to the bottom of page 2 (squirrel marks the spot).
I immediately started on another diagonal on page 3, and got a good way down it before I realised that it was one o'clock in the the morning.
Bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, I'm catching up with flosstube videos and have been updating my stats. I have a big gap, which was over the #24hoursofcrossstittch weekend, and where I went from time recorder and row counter on my phone to Now and Then app and Knit Companion on my ipad. I'm pretty sure that I kept a written record, but just need to track down the notebook ... I also went over to my gorgeous new rainbow notebook at the same time. If I can't find it I will just have to sacrifice stitches to cover my #100daysofhead.
Having done the necessary time stats update (see the link on the page at the top of the header if you are at all curious), I am going to make another coffee and get back at the frame for more stitching.
I will try and do a #project garden update later, as there has been a lot going on recently outside.
...even though there has been a fair amount of confetti, it's been several stitches at a time. Although, I think I'm am getting better at parking and starting ninja stitches.
... probably that should be Oiseau as there is only the one.
I have been debating whether to include some lace, and also whether to change the overly large bead at the top of the crown.
I've decided (for the moment) that the large bead can stay as she's making a statement 'Queen this is my crown, and I can work it'.
I may try the lace and use sloppy French knots of beads to secure it just at the base of the crown. I can always frog it out if I don't like it I suppose.
No news on my driving licence being given back as yet, which makes me so fed up and angry.
.. to join up with page 1 I am debating whether to join the diagonals on the far left-hand side, or start at the top again on page 3. Any suggestions about which one to do would be gratefully received.
For some reason my email isn't receiving emails from my ipad with update photos. After a bit of shillyshallying around I've worked out how to send the photo directly to blogger in an email post. Perfect. Progress on the crow has been good, and it is lovely to have stitched the whole chart together now using Knit Companion - much easier to work on the diagonal without having to worry about splitting a spreadsheet. Marking off is also just a tap rather than dragging a mouse around. I've also got the Now and Then time recording app, which is good, but it is annoying that I can't pause a task though.
I've also been working on the Russian Icon. Managing to put in some of the silver thread. My beeswax thread conditioner seems hard, but the thread drags through it beautifully and stitching with it afterwards is not too bad. A massive statement from me as I hate metallic thread! There has been more progress since the photo was taken, and I will update you with a post tomorrow. I think this wip will fit the #magicalstitches Owls homework as well as it has a number of patterns within it, but I hop on SMSL tomorrow and see if I can fit it in. Hugs Kay x
I got a little bit turned around converting Colin (Crow on Crescent Hill) into a combined Knit Companion file. It took a couple of goes, but thanks to Karen's (The Needle Bug) latest tutorial it worked like a fairly comfortable dream. However, then trying to work out where the heckin' heck I was in that giant combined chart with no markings and working across three pages was a different matter. I the end I just worked out where each page started and then then to the top right furthest completed, and stitched downwards, marking off as I went. Tonight I managed to join it all up, the only thing is that's left me with a lot of stitches in a diagonal. Tomorrow I will start furthest left stitches and keep to that 10 stitch diagonal, and then go back to the other two diagonals when I have reach a logical place.
After work I also managed to get a tiny bit of stitching done for Oiseux Will You? I'm hoping that the un-stitched line in the crown will be done in with gold work bullion ... I just have to be brave and take a leap of faith on that one. I have it hoarded in a tin ready. Tomorrow, on my post-commute stitching session I will try to finish off her head, and then get into the words. It's been a challenge with this one, as I have not wanted to put it on one of my scroll bars, but the Q-snap frame doesn't keep it tight enough. I cracked today and just worked in hand, and I think that might be the way to go with it. I'm off to make a coffee, and maybe do a little bit more stitching. Hugs Kay x
If it helps, it is partially a charted project from the French Cross Stitch book I bought last year (I showed the book on my Flosstube channel), and the rest will be self-charted, it's only a tiny little thing. I've used the piece of Zweigart that I started Colin on first time around, but I will not be doing this full coverage. Fingers crossed that the grid lines will come off! So far during #24HoursOfCrossStitch, I have done 18:23 hours, and so I don't have long to go. I probably should stick to Colin for the remaining time, but fancied a bit of a break. I will get back to him a little bit later on for the home run. Hugs Kay
So, it's Part 4 of #24HoursOfCrossStitch and I can actually take part this time as I am on annual leave.
I started early doors this morning, and have just achieved Page 1 finish on my HAED - there are a few odd stitches here and there to allow me to feather into the page below. The nice thing about working diagonally, although I have cheated a little just to get the last little diagonal done on this, is that when you achieve a page finish, you've also completed diagonals on other pages. I am super happy with this WIP so far, and am loving his cute little hat. I'm away to do more stitching, and see how far I can get through the night, however I am on #teamsleep.
and it was really excellent news. With Reg the Resmed I am getting a solid 5 to 6 hours sleep a night. They were not concerned that it was so few hours, as apparently my download shows that it is excellent quality sleep (better than a normal person!) and that is why I am not tired and have so much energy. With a severe score before of 37.2 per hour of non-breathing, I now have a score of just 2 for the whole night with my machine compensating and correcting it with more air volume quickly. There is absolutely no reason they can see why I cannot drive, and will be letting the DVLA know that. As I had to get my Darling to take me to Hastings to the clinic today, we haven't really had much time to do much else, especially as it was bucketing down here when we got back. Guy hived off for a cheeky nap, and I played around with Knit Companion. However, I am super mad with myself, as I did really well cropping and aligning my chart pieces to completely screw it up right on the last page and hit 'save' before I aligned it in the correct position. Gosh darn it, now I have to start again. In case you're wondering, what the hand-drawn grid photo is in this post, it's to assist me in knowing what chart page goes where as I align them, and I have also included the number of vertical rows (which is different for each line in the grid) with and the stitch count as this information needs to go in to the app as you add, crop and align the pattern. Like most things in life, the only way one can learn is to make a mistake, and so I am pretty sure that I can re-do the alignment in short order. Mostly, this is thanks to the Needle Bugg's amazing video on how it's done by adding a grid and zooming in closely. It really does work, if you are not an idiot like me!
On the stitching front, I've done 20 stitches, which meets my Day 7 goal, but is a long way off acceptable.
I will push on tonight with my Foxit marked chart, and stitch counter, and hopefully can get the alignment re-done so that I can start fresh tomorrow using KC. I'm off to stitch, stitch, stitch ... Hugs Kay x
on the 100 days of HAED #2 challenge, and if I can get my act together it might also count towards #magical stitches homework - I should look after I finish composing this post.
Do I need to tell you that it's Crow on Crescent Hill (aka Colin).... I'm pretty sure you are sick to death of it now! Sadly for you though, I'm not quite there yet with feeling I need to move to a different wip. I might just do it after I reach the elusive page 1 finish, as I need to get my Aplaca groove on. I'm back at work next week, so Russian Icon might see a little love as my post-commute wip. Anyhoo ... 230 stitches done today (or yesterday, by the time you read this post). Right, where did I put my homework....
My ipad arrived this afternoon, and the first thing that I did on my own .... just so you know, my Darling Husband is the tech Guy around here, I don't do manuals, I get him to do it - was to hop over to Apple App Store and purchase Knit Companion, with the bolt on Essentials element that has all the fancy-schmancy editing and setup tools.
It cost around £14.00 for the year, and in my humble opinion, just faffing around with it for a short time, it is going to be worth every penny of that reasonable yearly fee and the cost of the ipad itself.
I've previously watched the flosstube tutorials by Jan Hicks and Karen Bugg, and so had a fair idea how to get my pdf from dropbox into the app.
Then by watching the video tutorial by create2thrive below, I managed with ease to create the necessary keys to go with this HEAD. If it was just a short key project then it would have been even quicker to create the key for the popup tray. However, I have had to go for three keys, but it is so easy to toggle between them.
If you are considering making the change to KC then the one thing to bear in mind is that you need to complete all of your setup for a chart before you start assigning magic makers, etc. to count stitches. This is obviously no mean challenge with a HAED, but again, well worth the effort. As far as I can work out if I started to mark the chart before I had set up, I would loose the info when I added pages etc.
I'm off to play with my new toy for a bit, and then get back to stitching. I will have to carry on marking my pdf in Foxit until I complete the set up for Colin T2.
Happy stitching all, from a very happy Stitch Witch.
I'm watching Teresa Kogut's Creative Whims on flosstube. Punch Needle is something that I have kept away from, although by way of full disclosure, I have bought one. However, seeing her amazing designs I am getting an itch to try it. She also has some amazing cross stitch designs, and I am particularly keen on the Halloween Marshall, and some of the angels. Hold on tight, here we go for another stitching arrow in my Quiver. I'm off to stitch, and will be back later on with my Day 6 progress. Keep calm, and seek out the joy to live your best life. Hugs Kay
110 stitches worth of progress on this challenge. I am pretty pleased with it too, although I've been stuck in confetti hell on this diagonal 9 on page 2. Still, I'm coming into a fairly easy bit of the chart for a large proportion of this diagonal, so it should go quicker tomorrow. We've had to move things around to make room for the builders to fit the two new windows in the dining room (which has been my stitching space since son number 1 moved back in for a fortnight ... a year ago!). So I am set up in the sitting room with a lovely view of the TV so that I can keep an eye on proceedings tomorrow, stitch and watch flosstube. After messing up a couple of stitches in today's session, I have been giving my actual process some thought, and have decided that I will only park downwards in the current diagonal. Also, if in a confetti area it is not possible to underline finish a thread, I will limit waste thread to 25 stitches to the right of the row that I am working on, and trim the thread to a 2 10 x 10 block, in order to keep it looking somewhat neat. That way, when I complete the next diagonal on the chart, I can flip over the frame and trim off the waste threads. We'll see how that goes ... I am a rebel at heart and don't necessarily stick to rules. Apart from the excitement of the builders, I should also be taking delivery of a ipad. I've wanted one for ages, and as my Kindle is on its last legs, and I have a burning need to get Knit Companion app, I have cracked and ordered a lovely rose gold one. No more manual counting stitches for me, or having to worry about splitting Foxit screens to try and follow a chart. Yay!! Have a good day, and find your joy. Hugs Kay
... or least I like to think I am. I certainly try my hardest, but every now and then a stray bit of confetti will bring me down. I need to check out #magicalstitches homework, as I haven't joined in for a little while (sorry Hufflepuffs), but in the meantime my stitches are going towards 100 days of HAED Challenge #2. Four days down, well at least 2 days down, but I sacrificed some of my stitches from Day 3 to fulfil the 20 stitches a day requirements for Days 1 and 2. I couldn't start on time as we've been away up t'north helping the youngest child move from his present city centre location to a house share in the burbs. This was made way more difficult that it should have been - thanks to the DVLA - as we had to travel by train and then become bus wa£*&ers' hauling suitcases back and forwards to move a lot of his kit and caboodle. In the end we caved and booked a moving company for the last bits. I refused to push a oversized leather swivel chair on the bus! The journey up was really good, and coming back it went wonderfully until we got to St P's. There was no communication about engineering works at London Bridge, and we only found out after another train from St P to London Bridge. We then had to haul bottoms and cases through the underground network to Victoria for a train out to Staplehurst. MIL collected us and we picked up the dog and drove the 40 minutes back home. Obviously, if we'd known about the engineering works, we could have missed out one train journey and just travelled a straight line from St. P's to Victoria. The house is lovely and quiet, and I am going to start on Day 5. After my rant about National Rail, I forgot to say why being a loud and proud hard-core diagonal darling can be a pain sometimes. Well, if I felt comfortable to break the diagonal, I could have finished off page 1. I did try - failed - ripped out and went back to the strict(ish) diagonal. Now, a page 1 finish seems quite a few days off. I could cheat and try again, but I am little scared I will mess it up again and have to do more frogging. In case you are a little bored with seeing this Colin WIP, I thought I would throw another little WIP in the mix. After watching, Jan Hicks on flosstube, I followed her link to the XS-Collectibles site. They do a free bookmark design every month apparently. This one is only 45 stitches wide, and about 250 stitches long (don't call the xs police if that's not the right stitch count, it's from memory).
When I do return to the office, I thought it would be nice and small to do as a lunch time stitch. It only has around 10 colours, but I can image will look beautiful when finished. Right, back to stitching... Hugs Kay
