My New Stitching Rotation

After much thought and consideration may I introduce my new and latest rotation:

Round One: Noah's Ark by Teresa Wentzler - complete 1 pair of over one animals
Round Two: Awake the Dawning Day by Blackbird Designs
Round Three: Finishing or Small project
Round Four: Noah's Ark
Round Five: Finishing or Small project

Repeat until bored.

With the exception of round one I will work on the allocated piece for 10 hours before moving on to the next round. I think this gives me a nice balance of projects both in size and in type / theme / colour so that I won't get bored. By giving Noah's Ark two rounds I hope to achieve my (current) goal of completing this before my niece's fifth birthday in Sept '08. For rounds three & I have created a list of projects to choose from all of which either just need putting together or I think that the stitching could be completed within 20 to 40 hours. I will try and only start a few off the list but have included several on the list to allow myself a lot of room for change without breaking my rotation.

List of Finishing / Small Projects:
1. Bent Creek - The Littles Santa
2. CA Wells - Cottage Etui Pincushion
3. Country Cottage Needleworks - Ladybugs and Bumblebees
4. Forget-me-knot-in-stitches - Album
5. Heart in Hand Needleart - Wee Santa '97
6. JBW Designs - The Reindeer Sampler
7. Just Nan - Celeste
8. Just Nan - Grace
9. Little House Needleworks - Paper Whites
10. Sue Hawkins - Pansy Pincushion
11. Sue Hawkins - Zebra Bookmark
12. Sue Hawkins - Zig Zag Scissor Keeper
13. The Sweetheart Tree - Lavender Luminescence
14. The Trilogy - Bucky the Snowman
15. Travellers Tales - Sinai Bedouin Sampler

I am going to start my rotation tomorrow but for the time being will also be working on CA Wells Peacock Needlecase since I need to get the stitching completed by 17th November. My plan is to finish one panel a week on the needlecase and then to go back to working on my rotation pieces.

Photo Update

Sorry about the lack of photos in the last post but my camera had gone AWOL. It has now magically reappeared (it was stuck down the back of the sofa along with several knitting needles, a pair of scissors and about £1.50p in loose change) so I have taken a few snaps (very bad ones since they have all been taken with the flash on my ancient digital camera - fingers crossed Santa will be bringing me a new one) of my recent knitting finishes:

and my progress to date on CA Wells Peacock Needle case started on 21st October 2007.

Progress on this piece has been slow but I hope to be able to pick up the pace now that I have completed the outline of each panel. The class is on the 17th November and I would love to get all four panels completed by then so that I can concentrate on the finishing while at class.

Last night I decided instead of working on Peacock Needle case to start something new - Zigzag Scissor Keeper by Sue Hawkins which was one of my recent purchases at the Knitting & Stitching Show at the NEC which I went to back in September.

Starting this piece reminded me that I have made several recent purchases which as yet I have not added to my stash list. I keep saying that I will reduce my stash pile but every year I seem to add to it (I think the current total of stitching projects is in the order of 115). Once I get the CA Wells class and a weeks holiday out of the way I plan to set up a rotation for my stitching (once again) and to put a ban on any new purchases. I have some very old WIPs that I would love to finish one day plus several obligation pieces (mainly birth samplers) which I have yet to start even though the event which the pieces were meant to commemorate are now long past. I am thinking that a rotation would be a good way of making progress while maintaining interest on some of the larger pieces that I have. I am also thinking of setting mini targets with rewards - say one new purchase for every five finishes since completely banning new purchases never works for me but it would be nice to try and get my stash pile down to a more reasonable (i.e stitchable in one lifetime) level. I love buying stitching stuff almost as much as I love stitching but I am going to have to try and restrain my urges to buy until I have finished a few items. I am going to think on my stitching plan for a few weeks until I have attended the CA Wells class and also a weeks holiday during which I plan to get several hours of stitching done. I am currently having great fun trying to come up with a list of projects to take with me, I am thinking of take half a dozen or so small projects in the hope of getting a couple of HDs.

Yet another catch up post

The Lauren Saurer classes were wonderful and I managed to get a significant amount of stitching done althought I did not get anything completed and have come away with loads of new projects started, purchased and added to my wish list. I am itching to get Album completed but have had to put it away for a little while since I must start the pre-stitching done on the CA Wells Peacock Needlecase since the class is fast approaching. Tomorrow I intend to spend all day stitching and catching up on all the TV that I have recorded & failed to watch.

Today will be housework, visiting my parents who have just returned from three weeks in Italy and watching the rugby world cup final. I also plan to get some knitting done. Recently I have managed to complete a number of scarfs and squares which are great ways of using up stash. I still have not completed listing all my knitting stash but there is a lot of it. I only have two plastic crates of yarn left to add to the list so should finish in the next week or so.