Weekend Report

The weekend has just flown by and I can not believe that it is Monday already. Saturday I attended my semi regular beading class, these classes are always great fun even though I don't always get much beading done. This week however I managed to finish a bracelet which I started sometime last year. The bracelet is called Frills Bracelet and was made from a kit by The Bead Merchant. The bracelet is my 9th finish towards my 50 Projects Challenge. After I have completed some obligation stitching I am going to try and complete a few projects that are quick finishes since I would like to make it to the halfway point on the challenge sometime this year. My next finish should be a small sampler that only needs about two dozen beads adding and then it is done. I am really not sure why I put it away with so little left to do but there must have been a good reason.

Saturday night I had dinner with friends, I had a great evening sitting on my friends sofa eating too much food and even had the chance to make a start on my next scarf, this one is for me and I think I need to get it finished quickly since the forecast is for snow by the middle of this week.
Sunday my parents came around for lunch and to help with a few jobs in the garden. There was a lot of tiding up to do after all the storms of last week and my poor eucalyptus tree has almost fallen over so needed staking up, fingers crossed it will be ok. After a morning labouring in the garden followed by a large lunch the rest of the day was spent sitting on the sofa watching the football and stitching. I am making good progress on my yellow-eyed penguin and hope to have it completed by the end of this month. However for the rest of this week I am going to concentrate on stitching on a couple of Round Robins that I am participating in.

Packing

I spent most of the weekend round at my parents house helping them pack up since they are moving house at the begining of next week. Since house they are leaving is the one I grow up in I also had to sort through several cupboards of stuff that I had at one point decided I must save. It seemed strange leaving the house since it was probally the last time I will ever see it. Not only are they moving out of the house but they are also leaving the area were I did all my growing up.

Guilt Free January

I do not normally indulge in guilt free new starts during January since for me this only leads to guilt later on in the year over the number of WIPs that I have. But this year I have decided on a slightly different approach which allows me to indulge in my need to start new things but also try and avoid a mountain of WIPs. Having come up with a list of projects that I would like to finish in 2007 I have decided to allow myself to start some of the projects on that list. But only on the condition that after the end of January I make a real effort to complete within the year anything started this January. Also this year I have decided to dispense with monthly goals and instead just enjoy myself & focus on trying to make significant progress towards completing 50 projects.

So far I have made a start on three projects:

Yellow Eyed Penguin by The Strand since it is a printed canvas it is a little hard to tell which bits have been stitched but I have made a start on the penguins head
Mackintosh Coaster 1b by Derwentwater Designs (fingers crossed I may even finish this one by the end of January) and
Rose Bouquet by Derwentwater Designs. Currently I am enjoying stitching on these three pieces and also have an RR piece that I need to stitch a little more on before the mailing date of 15th Jan so may just continue to stitch on these four pieces till the end of the month after which I plan to turn into a one-at-a-time stitcher in am attempt to get some projects finished.

2007 Goals

Having failed miserably to reach my goal for 2006 of ending the year with less than 50 cross-stitching projects in my stash I have decided to just set two goals for 2007:

• Enjoy my knitting, stiching and beading.
• Stick to my 50 Project Challenge (which also means buying no stash in 2007 unless I reach the halfway point on my challenge when I am allowed a small reward)

I would like to reach at least the halfway stage on my 50 Project Challenge by the end of 2007, which means I need to finish 19 projects. I have come up with a tentative list of projects that I wish to finish in 2007, this is of course subject to change since although I love creating lists I find it hard to stick to them.

WISH LIST OF FINISHES FOR 2007

1. Frills Braclet by The Bead Merchant (beading)
2. Angel of Spring by Lavender & Lace (cross-stitching)
3. Kate's GTG Sampler (cross-stitching)
4. Turkish Knot Tassel by Spellbound Beads (beading)
5. Forget Me Not In Stitches - Take A Lovely Sampler Book of Needles (cross-stitching)
6. Sweet Pea Fairy by DMC (cross-stitching)
7. Auroa Stars by Spellbound Beads (beading)
8. Fuzzy Scarf (knitting)
9. Rega Scarf (knitting)
10. Tempest by Teresa Wentzler (cross-stitching)
11. Bakewell Tart Sampler (cross-stitching)
12. Rose Bouquet by Derwentwater Designs (cross-stitching)
13. Futurecast by Teresa Wentzler (cross-stitching)
14. Pearl Lozenge Necklace (beading)
15. Yellow Eyed Penguin by The Strand (needlepoint)
16. Dunedin by The Little Kit Company (cross-stitching)
17. Fuchsia Earings by Spellbound Beads (beading)
18. Fuchsia Tassel Necklace by Spellbound Beads (beading)
19. Mackinstoch Coaster 1b by Derwentwater Designs (cross-stitching)

WIPs as of 31 December 2006 are shown in purple.

In coming up with list I have tried to be realistic in what is acheivable within 12 months and also to allow for some variety to try and prevent me from becoming bored. I will no doubt decide that I do not want to work on any of the projects listed and will end up working on something totally different but I am not going to stress about that as the only important things are to keep crafting and to buy no new stash.

A Couple of Finishes

The good thing about bad weather and time off work is more time for sitting on my couch and stitching. Yesterday I even managed a couple of finishes: Dog Rose Scissor Keeper and Pouch by Sue Hawkins.
These two finishes take me to 6 projects completed on my 50 Projects Challenge, I am hopefull that I will be able to make it to the halfway point on my challenge before the end of 2007.

Happy Christmas

Later today I am off to my sisters for a few days so may not be around till later on next week so thought I would take this opportunity to wish everyone who takes the to read my blog a very Happy Christmas and to thank you all for taking the time to stop by.



I also have a small knitting finish to share, yet another scarf this time a green fuzzy one knitted in GGH Soft Kid. There is just something about winter that makes me want to get out my knitting needles.

November Report and December Goals

Novembers Goals
My goals for November were

1. Finish Round One of the Just Nan RR Yes completed and put into the post
2. Complete Round Two of the Just Nan RR Not quite finished
3. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR Yes
4. Finish one stitching and one beading project I finished one stitching project and one knitting project but not a beading project
5. Do some pre-stitching for CA Wells class Yes and I finished one of the pieces completely
6. Buy no stash YES

Decembers Goals
This month I am going to keep my goals simple and non specific since December is always
such a busy month.

1. Complete Round Two of the Just Nan RR (posting date 18th Dec)
2. Keep up with stitching on UFO RR
3. Complete a stitching project
4. Complete a knitting project
5. Complete a beading project
6. Buy no stash

A Knitting HD

I decided I needed a quick Happy Dance and since I needed a scarf to go with the new winter coat I treated myself to a few weeks ago I knitted this simple 2 by 2 ribbed scarf using a ball of random striped sock yarn.

A Tiny HD

Yesterday I spent a lovelly day with two stitching friends - chatting, stitching and visiting a new to me stitching shop. Not only did I have a wonderful time but I managed to finish a small project and to visit a stitching shop without buying anything although there were several things that I was tempted by. Thank you Liz and Karen for a wonderful day. The scissor fob is from CA Well's Cottage Etui which I attended the class for last weekend, fingers crossed one day I shall get around to completing the other two pieces which complete the collection.

Further Thoughts on my 50 Projects Challenge

I have been giving a lot of thought to the projects that I would like to finish as part of the 50 Projects Challenge (its more fun than working). Since I want the finished list to contain a mixture of small, medium and large projects rather than just small projects this means that according to my calculations I shall finish the challenge sometime around the end of 2008. The calculations that I have done have been based on the assumption that I do not make any gifts for people and do not participate in any more round robins or exchanges. Since I love giving gifts the thought of not making any for over two years is not a good one but I do not want to make this challenge unrealistically long. So I have decided that provided at least 75% of the supplies for a gift come from my huge pile of supplies waiting to be turned into project kits the finished gift item can count towards the 50 Projects Challenge total. For example: I am about to start a small knitted gift for a dear friend, the pattern that I will be using is from a magazine that I already have and the wool is currently sitting in a box underneath my bed the only thing that I need to buy is a few beads. So although this project is not listed on my fully kitted stash list it will count towards my challenge total. I think this new rule of mine only slightly bends the existing rules since I will still be reducing my stash and the original rules state that items brought as a gift or to be used to create a gift do not count as stash purchases.

So far I have been doing this challenge for three months and have only completed one project but hopefully that will all change this weekend. Recently I have been a bit of a butterfly flitting from one project to another spending just a couple of hours on each one before getting bored and moving onto something else. I have decided that for the rest of the month of November, other than when I am working on the two RRs that I am currently participating in, I shall try and finish a project before moving onto something else. I have 5 or 6 projects which probably only need about 4 hours work each to be completed so am hoping to have at least 3 happy dances before the end of November.