Made it to 2026!

 Already starting the year off better than last! Apparently my earliest 2025 post was in February, so I'm calling this one a win. As expected, December was crazy so I had no extra brain-space for blogging. But I did still get some work done.

 

I got all of the stitching for Ode to Loara done, and I have actually started on the finishing. I've got the pieces cut out and interfaces, and the scissors fob is together. I had to take a break to make some tassels and cords, and then I need to iron a piece of fabric for the lining next.

I also picked up a couple of winter/holiday kits from Michaels. I got another of those diamond art pieces: 

It's going to be a tray! The whole base will be snowflakes, and the entire thing is covered in shades of blues. The kit came with a piece of plastic that will fit over the diamonds, so it'll actually be functional once it's done.

I was also working on this super-secret project. It's a tiny kitchen! I didn't have to paint anything, but I did have to build pretty much *all of it.* They had some other Christmas diorama kits, but the bright red stand mixer won me over. It's now living at my parents' as a surprise gift..

I've also been working, on yet another, cardigan using that red wool. Here's hoping this pattern finally works out! Fortunately, it's mostly stockinette with a broken ribbed edging, so it should look very elegant but is exceptionally straight-forward knitting. I've already got both sleeves done, and am finishing the back.

Moving forward, I am making some resolutions for this year. The name of the game is going to be "more." Mostly I want to keep doing what I was this year, but, well, more. So more time creating in the evenings and weekends, hitting the gym more regularly, and less time moping under blankets. Hopefully that will also translate to more (or at least more reliable) blog posting.

I also want to commit to finishing some pieces this year and clear up all these UFO's. Towards that end, I've dug out Betty Chen Louis' Laquered Leaves piece:

That's where I got to in 2002, when I took this class. So far, I've re-tightened the canvas, organized the threads into their own individual baggies, and have moved the instructions into a binder I can flip through. My hope is that it'll be easy to figure out where I was and pick back up. I have learned since then to take more robust class notes, so we'll see!
 

October round-up

 I ended up not working on any of the things I intended to this past month; my October was all-around not particularly spooky! I didn't even put up my normal decorations...But I did finish the needle cases:

And here they are in the case:

I love them so much, so glad I picked up this kit. I'm trying to figure out how practical this set may be to use regularly...Just have spooky season all year!

Part of why I didn't work on any of my planned projects is I got distracted by a project from the Winter Pieceworks issue, about Riešinės, knit wrist warmers from Lithuania. You pre-string beads on the yarn, and then as you knit, work the beads into the pattern. I had the right yarn weight in my stash, and plenty of beads! I ended up just using the technique from the article; and instead adapted a brocade tablet weaving pattern to make my own design:
    

Which turned out wonderfully excessive! It is a little worrying to do, because you actually slide the beads on the right side, when you're working the wrong side. So the pattern rows look like this:

There was a lot of flipping back and forth, to make sure I hadn't miscounted anything.

Not so spooky

 I was so ready for October and to immediately jump into spooky season, with all my Halloween crafts I've been squirreling away. And instead I've been working on the class piece I took with my EGA region meeting: Ode to Loara from Betsy Morgan:

This is one of the sides of the little bag, and it's been so great to work on. I love counted work so so much, and I always enjoy Betsy's designs. I really want to push through and get this set done, and then get back to my pincushions.

So not so spooky! But, I did dig out the piece I've been the most excited about, the little Spooky Needle Case from Fern Ridge:

It's this darling little box, you glue the medallion on in the center, and there will be a ribbon to thread through to tie it closed. And when you open it:

Beaded needle cases! I absolutely love beaded needle cases, so I was all over this kit. That's the first one done, a black cat. Here it is before I attached it to the case: 

My plan is to do one each weekend, and that will keep me at least a little spooky this month. 

Curtain

I'm trying to get to some kind of more regular updates, and I actually have a finish!

I did get everything over to my mom's to block out my peacock lace:

It's a little hard to see white on the lavender blocks, but I wanted to memorialize pinning every one of those points along the bottom. I also definitely did not have even tension as I worked on this: the top noticeably narrowed. Thankfully it's basically mesh, so I was able to use the wires to get everything mostly straightened.

And here it is in use! 

I was worried the mesh at the top and the clips wouldn't be sturdy enough, and the whole piece would just kind of slump. But it's actually staying in place pretty well! I do need to weave in that last final thread end, but I'm counting this as done. I have a curtain!

I also started working on the first Nuremberg pincushion. I wasn't looking forward to this one because ugh, tent stitch and ugh, over one, for maximum UGH tent stitch over one. And yet:

Behold my flowers! They're so cute, and so tiny, and I do love miniatures. So this may become actually my favorite of the pincushions. I am also going to try to stay on track and get this one stitched this month, so I'm ready for the second one come October. We'll see if I manage.
 

Big update of nothing

 The title is a lie, I have actually done a lot in the last month. First up, in my last post I mentioned moving my bookcases and doing some reorganization. Which I did achieve! I cleared out a lot of my books and got those to the local used store, so everything I did keep now fits. I even have some room to expand so I won't have to go through everything again with the first new book I acquire. It'll take like, 5 books at least.

 I also moved my bed, my crafting desk, several smaller bookcases, and have fully embraced middle age by throwing my back out for the first time. (I don't think I fully threw it out--I didn't have the sharp pains the internet told me is a symptom, but I at least strained something.) The week following that involved taking things very easy. And then I was right back to my shenanigans! Now that I have increased my available floor space, I am unfolding to refold all of my fabric stash. Which was actually where this all started: I wanted to make my fabric less vulnerable to sun bleaching. So that was the first bookcase to move, which resulted in basically everything else in the world needing to move. And I'm refolding everything to be the wrong-side out, so if it does get some sun, hopefully the front side will still be usable. But this project has involved my crawling around on the floor and making old-man-stand-up-from-chair noises so I am once again very sore. I expected any of the cats to come "help" since I was making rectangles on the floor. But I think they've all been too weirded out by my inadvertent Gollum impression.

 I did finish crocheting the peacock lace curtain for my closet. I found a lace trim pattern I liked so that's along the bottom, I did a mesh along the top to add some length (you'd think it was plenty long enough as is, and yet), and then finished up the whole outside. The plan was to take it and all my blocking supplies over to my mom's. Since she does not have 3 cats who would all just love to help my with my shiny pins. The lace and blocking supplies did make it to my mom's, but I did not because my car instead decided to die. Thankfully it was just the battery, so an easy enough fix once I got it to the car place, but that was still two days (which felt like about three years) of my life. I had planned to have a picture of that before my next blog. But since it's already been a month I didn't want to keep holding off making a post. So enjoy no picture!

 

Speaking of, my dragon rug is still contained in his bag. That is the last corner of the room that needs real work, so I haven't yet done the finishing to get that up in place. That's the next project once I've got my piles of fabric back out of the way. So have another no picture!

 

It's actually a real problem that my crafting corner is the last place to need work. It's so close to usable! So I get stuck in this loop of "oh I really want to stitch" > "wouldn't it be great to stitch in my designated stitching spot?" > "it's just the last few odds and ends that need to get tidied away so I can actually use the nice designated stitching spot" > "but I don't want to tidy I want to stitch...." etc etc. So instead I sit at my computer desk and....just kind of stare over at that corner? 

I do have stitching to get excited about this month. I signed up for a couple of classes. First up, Thistle Threads has a series of pincushions based on the patterns and samplers that came out of Nuremburg starting in...the 16th century? The first class will be 5 pincushions over the next 5 months, AND it includes some of Tricia's research into this era of Nuremburg and the professional women who were stitching and publishing patterns. Honestly, I'm stoked enough about the research, plus I get really cute little pincushions??? And omg the silks are all gorgeous, so I'm excited to start stitching. But first I need to iron out and mount the linen, which wouldn't it be great to do that on my nice, crafting-only table? The one that just needs those odds and ends put away in some place I don't know yet? Also, I'm probably going to put these on stretcher bars, so I may have to be careful when/if I take pics. Don't tell Tricia.

 The second class will be later this month, I'm going to my EGA region's fall retreat and taking a one-day class from Betsy Morgan. I was lucky enough to take a couple of classes from her before she retired as a traveling teacher. I'm thrilled to have another opportunity, and the class will be really cute! It's little accessories based on motifs from Loara Standish's sampler. Since I am unlikely to ever stitch a reproduction of the sampler itself, I will be quite content with my little bag and scissor fob.

 And then next month is Halloween! Also known as October. I have been squirreling spooky projects away all year, so I absolutely have to have my crafting corner functional by the end of this month. I am ready to hit the ground running right on the first.

As thanks for reading all that, I do have pictures! Surprise! I've done some non-fiber crafting over the last few weeks. First up, I got one of those diamond painting kits:

And made three little bookmarks. It was actually pretty fun, I might get another of these. They are too chunky to actually use as a bookmark, so I think I will actually stick them on my wall somewhere aesthetic.

I also worked more on my Gundam model:

Look, he has an upper body! The articulation is insane; even the little fingers move. I should have put in something for scale; this part is only around 2 inches tall.
  

Fire drake done

 Success! The rug has finally been fully latched.

Be astounded at its beauty. No lying, I got a lot done the week after my last post, but then I just lost all momentum when it came time to do that corner medallion for the 4th time. So it sat, taking up all the space in my room, with just the final corner waiting. Mocking.

But I pushed through last night and got it all finished. And it is too big to actually lay out anywhere and get a picture. I'm going to get a picture once it's done and on the wall. So here it is, rolled up and back in the project bag along with my binding and its intended curtain rod.

All of the crafting stuff is getting packed up and set back aside, because (of a few factors all hitting at once) I am once again moving everything in my room, in my continuing quest for the perfect optimization of my space. So this week is going to be spent taking everything off of my bookcases. I need to rearrange them, and this is the perfect time to go through everything I have, in both book and tchotchke categories, and then actually organize what I'm keeping when it all goes back up. I'm not looking forward to all the stacks of books on the floor I'm going to have to dodge around, so the goal is really to confine this project to this one week.

Progress

 Success! I pushed through this weekend, and got my filet crochet finished:

And by finished, I mean I need to figure out how I want to hang this from a curtain rod, some kind of overall edging, and if I want to add any length to get it better centered in the doorway. But the pattern is done! I'm really pleased with how it looks.

I'm also still working on my dragon rug, and got another quarter finished:

Man, the ad picture the manufacturer used did not do this project justice at all. The colors are so much more vivid. I love how his little wing came out! 

I have acquired curtain rods for both of these projects, so that will be ready to go once I'm actually done.