Finishing this stuff is the real challenge...

Remember the sewing circle? It was a lot of fun, but so far the project stuck at this point:

Like I said, I wanted to applique the tower on a purse. I thought about doing it in a fabric striped in grey and white, which would ihghlight the foundation a lot. I also wanted to embroider "Paris" above it, since I already have tome beads around here...

What's left to finish: make the said purse!

Why I can't finish it: there is no fabric striped in grey and white around here. This can only mean one thing: shopping! Oh, hobbies really cost money...

What I can do to finish it: Try another fabric for the purse. I have enough black fabric, if I make a frame in another color, maybe using the scraps of the grey fabrics I used for the tower... I need to think more about this. Or simply buy the said fabric. We'll see.

Many mistakes together

Here goes another WIP: my purse made in the knitting board.

I've started making this purse exactly because I wanted to start a project I was SURE I could finish fast. Oh the irony... The first mistake was to use black yarn. My eyes burned all the time, because I couldn't see well what I was doing. Then I got the pink yarn to use them together, what made it all better. Ah, freedom is bliss! Since it's for me, it doesn't matter, right?

What's left to finish: the second part of the bag. And probably some lining.

Why I can't finish it: the knitting part isn't the problem. But I'll have to buy straps for the purse - and I've decided I want pink faux-leather straps. Which means, more packages arriving by mail. Not that I don't enjoy them, but... money does not fall from sky, does it?

What I can do to finish: buy the straps, for sure. And probably some fabric for the lining - how about pink satin? Ah, yes, sure! Finish the knitting part too, right?

Proof of UFOs existence

That's exactly what you read: UFOs do exist! Of course the crafty type, the infamous UnFinished Objects (I thought it was prOjects... tsc tsc). This is one of the oldest I have - and they haunt me:

Can you see the parts of a little house showing? Very well, I've started this project YEARS ago! I don't even know how many, but I know I still lived with my parents. Hmmm no... oh, I can't remember! Imagine that!

Well, I started following the project in a magazine (that doesn't even exist anymore, oh my God!). It was the first time I saw the "3D cross-stitch". After that I discovered there are books with entire villages of embroidered little houses. Wouldn't that be just adorable?

What's left to finish: many parts. One just like the one that shows lower in the picture, that would be the opposite side of the house, the roof... hmm what would be that other piece over there in the corner? Sigh...

Why I can't finish it: the original in the magazine was embroidered with more strands in the needle (6, instead of the 2 I've used), because the plastic canvas is much more spaced. The problem with this project is the canvas: the holes are so tiny that the needle ends up hurting the fingers because it's so hard to pass it through. It even spoils the strand, that needs to be very short, and the work becomes even slower.

What I can do to finish it: try a thinner needle. I've bought a kit with needles of various types, maybe there's a really thin one there that makes it easier.

Pause the WIPs

Calm down, calm down! I am not postponing my endless WIPs!

I just wanted to share a tour I took recently: I've visited the Patchwork Fair! I went on the end of the last day, and I must say it was a great idea. Some boothes had sales for the end of the event, it was not crowded, and I could see everything in peace.


What I like most in these fairs, I admit, is to be able to shop for fabric kits, which makes things easier for me. I keep looking at the kits and thinking that "this one would make a great bag", "this would look good in a foundation", "this would be a nice crazy". But it is also really cool to see what the professionals come up with, there are always new ideas to inspire.


That said, I give you my new acquisition:

Isn't it cute? I've seen this little sheep at the Semeart store booth and imediately fell in love with it. Unfortunately the store didn't have the project to sell - for what I've heard from the shop owner, it's hard trying to keep up with the orders! I think I wasn't the only one who asked about the sheep, because of the sellers reaction, but I couldn't let the opportunity pass. So, after visiting the rest of the fair, I went back there and bought the last little sheep. Twenty minutes before there were at least half a dozen, so I guess it may be considered a success.


I hope the shop doesn't mind, but I also ended up buying fabric to reproduce the little sheep - who wouldn't like to get one for a gift? I simply have to make sheep like that!

I'll be able to make a whole flock with that!


The rest of my shopping is here:

A Clover flower yo-yo maker, a project by Amy Butler for the Sophia bag (which I've been looking for for over a year!), three kits from Lee Albrecht School of Embroidery (a cross stitch, an hardanger and a blackwork), a fabric with christmas-y bears to use for Christmas, a fabric with birds pictures (beautiful!), a fabric with big flowers and a fabric kit in earthy tones (anyone see the bag they're going to turn into?).

Phew.


Yes, that will soon take part in the WIPs list. But I can't miss opportunities like that, imagine how much I saved in delivering fees buying all that at the fair? And the best part: next month there's another one! :-)

Until then, keep on with the WIPs and more images of my new mascot:

 

This time, it's not my fault

I have a very dear friend that I met at the gym. Since then, our training has never been the same - and we're famous there for talking more than exercising. Despite of that, I found out that my dear friend, S., also secretly likes knitting! She always says we're very much alike, and I think we truly are! :)

The problem is that, despite her grandmother have been famous in the knitting world and have been the owner of a needle shop where she taught knitting, S. didn't know how to make anything but purl. And she had only ventured with scarves. Such a waste!

It was then that she had the idea of making a shrug, and I said I'd do it together - this way I could learn from my mom and my friend L., and then I'd teach her.

I give you the shrug:

Logically this picture is from the pattern. My friend started before me, frogged inumerous times and has already finished the back. She most certainly also has frogged and finished the sleeves a couple more times.  My shrug, however, remained tiny. A few weeks later, S. gave up making the shrug - she herself was tired of frogging and remaking it, until her mother freaked out e frogged it entirely! It seems like my poor friend didn't find much incentive to make the shrug, but I think that after all her mother realized that she really wanted to learn, so she decided to teach her. Now they're both knitting hats and slippers to donate to the elders, isn't it nice?

And after all that, my shrug has grown:

I'm very proud of myself, I've been learning a lot with the shrug! Increases, decreases, and even fitting the pattern to my own body - who'd have thought, huh? In the end, my version is coming along so different from the original that I don't even care about changing the pattern. EZ would be proud of me, wouldn't she? ;-)


S. had given me homework, to make at least 4 rows a day. I was trying! But after the shrug finally started growing, I can only find time for it. I think it will be the first to leave the WIPs list.

What's left to finish: Sleeves and front.

Why I can't finish it: I needed to cast on 80 stitches, which for me is a lot, and therefore it took me a while to finish a row. But this is the project in which I have being worked the most, so I have high hopes.

What I can do to finish it: do my homework. :) And profit the weekends. Maybe take it to work to do it during lunch time? Anyway, since I have S.'s incentive, it's keeping a steady pace.

Someone make me stop, please!

In the beginning of february, if I'm not wrong, the girls from the Crazy Knitting Ladies discussion group decided to enter a regional version of Ravelry's challenge and make 10 scarves in 2010. It seemed so easy! And I just L-O-V-E taking part in projects like that, in which many people do the same project at the same time.

My suggestion for the challenge was the Drift Scarf by Betz White - the story is lovely, read in her blog! The first scarf should be done by the end of march, and I decided to start with it.

I've bought the Sedificada yarn, from Pingouin - oh, it's so soft! I also bought bamboo needles, to try them out. I hated the needles (the yarn does not slide on them), but I loved the yarn!

What's left to finish: practically everything, I must have made about four rows, only. Betz was lucky to use a thick yarn and a huge needle - but who said it's possible to find yarn like that over here? That's why I had to cast on the double of stitches of the original, which takes a lot more time to knit.

Why I can't finish it: I don't think I'll have problems with this project, despite the new stitch I'll have to learn in a few rows. It really is just a matter of making it.

What I can do to finish it: like I said, prioritize. Just do it.

I have to quit this habit of starting new things. They're just piling up around the house... Good thing I held myself up and didn't join a SAL (stitch-a-long), but it was tough: look what Elena, from Coeur de Freesia, is doing. Isn't it cool?

Well, after all I have given up the challenge. With my list of WIPs, there's no chance I can make 10 scarves this year. And let's not forget I'm in A Make a Month project... (was it only me that rolled eyes now? I'm hopeless.)

Christmas all year long

Starting the series of posts about WIPs, here I give you an old acquaintance: the nativity scene in cross stitch!

As you can see, it continues practically the way it was before.

What's left to finish: in this part, it lacks the sky, the stars, and the contour. And then two other parts, one the same size as this, another one the DOUBLE size of it.

Why can't I finish it: it's just too time consuming! Since I started embroidering the sky, I realized that no matter how many hours I spend doing it, only a small piece of it is finished.

What I can do to finish it: I think that with this one there's only one way. I have to pick a day a week only for it, I don't see another way to make it progress. I already doubt it will be done by next Christmas, and that just kills me!