Little bit of stitching

 Not too much of an update, but I did finally finish the needlelace part of Papillon:

And started the cross stitch saying! As annoying as cross stitch over 1, and as little as I enjoy stitching letters, I really love the thread (unsurprisingly, found in my mom's stash). It just shifts between shades of blue and purple. I'm trying to get this completely finished before the next EGA meeting this coming Tuesday.

I haven't had as much motivation for stitching lately, because I have instead started getting things together for my trip! Which is still just over a month away, but it's never too early to start planning what to do on the plane.

Kit ready! I love these little Mill Hill kits, but uh, it was not ready for travel. All the threads were in one large hank together. So that was an afternoon looking up DMC floss numbers and comparing to what I had in my hand, and I think I finally have everything correctly sorted and labelled on an index card with the help of a hole punch. The beads are divided and have little label tags, but I don't know if I'll actually A) get to that part of the pattern and B) be brave enough to try beading on either a plane or a boat. Looking at the pattern, I think it'll be easiest to start in the upper right corner, so that's what the basting is indicating. I cut a bit of felt for the needles, tossed in an ort box, and I dug out my Clover thread cutter. I'm debating trying to bring any kind of cutter or scissors period, since I've heard tale of them getting confiscated. But I think if I put my keys on it and use it like a keyring, I may be able to sneak by? We'll see, I still have over 4 weeks to look up airport rules and debate myself.

Big Update

 Oof, I am very behind in making a post. First up, completed as of 2 weekends ago:

All the cross stitching on the linen is now done! And that's where it's stayed for 2 weeks. I was working on this so intently for so long, that this felt like a good stopping point to shift focus.

And success! The Anacapa wrap is knit! It still needs to be blocked and all my ends woven in, but functionally, this is complete. That was last week's achievement.

For this week, I've picked the Papillon project back up, now with a size larger thread:

If nothing else, it's going much faster! Taking out what I had already done with the darning stitch and getting this in was the result of a couple evenings watching the Olympics. I am now on the trickiest part: figuring out the most effective way of getting the tail in, around all the decorative gaps.

And I wouldn't be me if I didn't have a new knitting piece already in line to work on:

The start of the Square Space scarf, which I think was a Knit Picks pattern. I've had the yarn and pattern for several years now; it's intended for my housemate but got put on pause when I needed to unwind the blue yarn. In my first attempt, it over-twisted and tightened up too much that it actually wasn't at the same gauge with the red yarn anymore. So I finally tore that out, let both skeins relax, and finally rewound. Fortunately I hadn't gotten much further than what I've redone here. This will be my new travel project, and I intend to take it on my upcoming trip. But it's double-knitting, and coordinating the two skeins and determining what, if any, markers I want and other tools, etc....It's just tricky enough that I want to have it established before packing up and heading out. This way, I should know exactly what I'll need with me.

And finally, the last thing I've worked on. This is actually my second attempt; I had it mostly finished but didn't like my tension. This attempt is still a little tight in areas, but overall is much smoother. This was a kit provided by one of my mom's guilds--she loves the look of beads and beaded pieces, but despises working with beads herself. I, however, love beads and beading, and am happy to work on those pieces on her behalf. And this is a darling little charm, I loved the pattern and selected bead colors.