Episode 25 Recent finishes and prepping for 2025

Hello!  Thanks for stopping by!  Show notes are below

Finished projects

Project Name: One Piece 

Stitch count: 9,049

Started: March 30, 2024

Finished: November 20, 2024

Designer/Source: Cross Stitch Bay on Etsy. Chart no longer available

DMC Floss: 310

Fabric: 14 Count Aida purchased at Walmart

Needle Size: 26

Making for my son. 

Previous update

My son was so surprised with this cross stitch, and thinks it's great. 

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Project Name: Bly Cardigan
Started: Sept. 3, 2024

Finished: Dec. 20, 2024

Designer/Source: www.Berroco.com

Yarn: My own handspun corriedale, purchased from paradise fibers

Colors: Grey

Needle size: U.S. 6 (4 m.m.) and U.S 7 (4.5 mm)

Previous update

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Project Name: Popcorn and cranberry crochet garland
Started: December 2024

Finished: December 2024

Designer/Source: Delia Creates

Yarn: Hobby Lobby "I love this chunky yarn"

Colors: White

Hook size: Size K (6.5 mm) and D (3.25 mm) for beads.

I purchased two skeins of yarn becuase I was unsure of how much I would need.  I wound up using half a skein for my size tree.  Beads were purchased on Amazon. 

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The porcupine box I gave my sister-in-law.

Project Name: Love and Prickles, #1 and #2
Started: Aug. 25, 2024

Finished: Fully finished December 2024

Designer/Source: LindyStitches.com

Floss: Called for DMC, B5200, 413, 3860, 415, 3816, 932, 21, except for 413. I used 415 for the face and quills, and 3799 for the body. 

Fabric: 18 count aida purchased from Hobby Lobby

Made For: Myself and my sister-in-law.

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Project Name: Sweatervest weather

Started: Oct. 30, 2024

Finished: Dec. 10, 2024 

Designer/Source: Lindy Stitches

DMC Floss: 434, 310, 801, 157, 22, 680, 3347, 3824, 316, 976, 435, 3346

Fabric: 32 count light taupe Lugana

Needle Size: 28

Previous update

Works in progress

Project Name: Blue stripe vanilla socks
Started: Oct. 31, 2024

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Vanilla sock pattern I use.

Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn

Colorway: Blue Raspberry

Colors: Blues and white

Needle size: U.S. 1, 2.5 mm

The above photo is what the sock looks like as of Jan. 4.  I forgot to take photos the day I recorded and kept knitting away.  I'm almost done! 

Previous update

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Another one where I forgot to take the photo the day I recorded and I finished the project. 

White Christmas 2022 ornaments - Snowman ornament

Started: Dec. 2, 2023Finished: Jan. 2, 2025

Designer/Source: Primrose Cottage stitches

Fabric: 14 count aida opalescent

DMC floss in called for colors

B5200, 310, 321, 435, 562, 722, 728, 761, 818, 898, 954, 3841

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

Previous update

I kitted up a bunch of projects to start in the new year. 

Mother's Garden by Blackbird Designs

Bedelia Bunny by Artsy Housewife

Hope Song by Heartstring Samplery

One Stitch at a Time by La-D-Da

The SAL is being hosted in the Across the Pond - Stitch and Chat group on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1354966635255405

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck Bird Crush Club Cross Stitch Pattern #2

Annabelle Shawl by Bag-O-Day Crochet

Other channels I mentioned during the episode. If you haven't heard of their channels you should check them out!

Redheaded Sticher

Jen's Fiber Web

Comfort Stitching

Ladybug Stitches

Disorderly Stitcher

Antique Needleworkers

Mudpuppy Stitchery

Shifting Roots

Gardening in Canada

Mist and ice

I've mentioned to a few people recently how the December weather up here in the northwoods of Wisconsin has not been typical the last couple of years. 

Right around Christmas time the temperature rose and was up in the mid-40s Fahrenheit and then it started raining and drizzling right before the temperature went back down below freezing. 

Now my back yard is an ice rink. Fun times. 

Though it has been a bit amusing to see the chickens try to maneuver over the ice.  I don't have any video. I don't carry my phone with me all the time.  Shocking, I know.  

This morning there was so much moisture in the air the local weather people put out a fog advisory. 

It looked like my house should be on a moor, or something. Photos don't do it justice. 

It was so dreary out there. 

Oh look, an ice rink in the front, too. 

I did notice something neat this morning when I went out to do chicken chores. 

Droplets on the ends of the pine needles.  I haven't seen this before. 

Very pretty in real life.  It was hard to get photos of it. 

Today was a work day for me, after having a *full* week off.  I was expecting to have a ton of emails to go through.  Nope.  I was thankful for that. I took care of the things that needed taking care of and something was brought to my attention that was an error.  Ooops. In the grand scheme it's not the end of the world. 

It's just a few more days until the new year.  How do I feel about this?  Well, I saw this meme on the book of faces this morning and thought it was apt. 

 

The last two or three years it seems I've had one significant thing happen and it set the tone (or the mood) for the rest of the year.  I'm looking at 2025 and thinking "Be nice." As a whole, I think we are all due an easy year. Right? 

I highly doubt I'll be writing tomorrow. Soooo ... I'll see you next year! 

Christmas and the next few days

 Christmas this year was a quiet one. As I got ready to write this I realized I didn't take any photos. Again. I felt bad for not taking photos at Thanksgiving. 

The last several Christmas holidays have been different.  At first, I thought this year felt different because of the weather.  The weather has not produced a typical white Christmas the last few years. 

A few days prior to Christmas we had some pretty snow ... 

The new holz hausen with the fresh layer of snow on it. 

Then the temps rose and the fluffy snow is now hard pack and rained on and ready to turn into an ice pack out there.  There has been no sun for a few days.  If there was sun, I know it would be bitter out there.  

Christmas feels different for a whole host of reasons, I've concluded. The biggest one, I think, is that my little man isn't so little anymore. He's a big boy now, and doesn't have the excitement for Christmas that he had three or four years ago. I'm wrapping my mind around this new insight and maybe mourning it a little bit. Back in November I asked him what he'd like for Christmas.  He said he couldn't think of anything. His needs are well-provided for, apparently.  Oh, that reminds me ... the cross stitch I was making for him.  He really liked it.  I got the "One Piece" done in time to give as a gift.  I'll share more about it when I record a flosstube/podcast.  

So, until the grand babies start showing up, Christmas's are going to be quiet, dignified affairs for just the three of us, except when there will be four or more of us because we have extended family celebrating with us.

Actually, Christmas Day I was not feeling my best.  When I started perking up yesterday I realized that I've been fighting off something. I've been feeling blah for a while.  It might have been stress, too.  Work has been kind of crazy the last several weeks. I've got a few things rolling around in my brain, and that doesn't help either. 

Christmas Eve my husband and I made one last trip to town, before the big day and I said "I need to get lights." When my mother-in-law passed away we inherited her Christmas angels. I think the lights worked the first year we had them.  Then they didn't.  It was okay, because where I had them I figured we didn't need the lights. 

Then this year I said "I have to get lights." Only I kept forgetting.  

Anywho, I finally remembered and took the angels apart to verify what bulbs I needed.  They called for bulbs that I was not expecting.  So glad I looked. 

They are beautiful. 

And yes, that's Furby up here, giving her stink eye with her good eye. Ha!

The last few days I've mainly bummed/puttered around the house. Still recovering from whatever.  The crafty bug has not been spending much time with me either.  Last week I finished my Bly cardigan (which will also be shared in my flosstube/podcast) and I only have a pair of vanilla socks on the needles.  I pulled a cross stitch piece out of hibernation and have been working on it, off and on. 

When I pulled "Christmas 2022" by Primrose Cottage out of hibernation it looked like this. 

After spending a few hours with it, it now looks like this:

The light blue on the background is kicking my butt right now.  I can't see the thread when there's just one leg on the cross done.

White Christmas 2022 ornaments

Started: Dec. 2, 2023

Finished: 

Designer/Source: Primrose Cottage stitches

Fabric: 14 count aida opalescent

DMC floss in called for colors

B5200, 310, 321, 435, 562, 722, 728, 761, 818, 898, 954, 3841

Needle Size: 26

Made For: Myself. 

I decided today was sort of a crafty retreat day. ... of sorts. I grabbed all the things that I wanted to get a start on in January.  Maybe. Okay, I kitted up a bunch of things and filled out the project cards for them, and scanned in any paper cross stitch charts so they can be imported in to Pattern Keeper. 

Yup, a mild mess.  This is also a bit of a preview of things I want to share about in my next video. 

One thing in particular I wanted to make sure was ready was the "One Stitch at a Time" cross stitch.

 There is a stitch-along for it in the Across the Pond -- Stitch and Chat group on the book of faces. 

Yeah, I know, I've said in the past that I'm an any kind of -along dropout.  This one looks like I might be able to keep up with it.  It's been broken down to 10 parts for 10 months. Fingers crossed and wish me luck! 

I'm still pondering what my next knitting project should be. 

The other day I saw this online and I thought it was so very sweet. 

That's been the last few days, in a glossed-over nutshell. We still have the wood project going.  Oh, wait.  We finished the first holz hausen. I didn't take a picture of it. (Story of my life!) All three of us worked on it.  Until my back decided it didn't like standing on the snow buildup around the log splitter and I had a fun flare up.  My body reminding me how old I am is not a fun thing. 

I have a grand plan of recording a video next week.  I would have done one today but I really wasn't organized enough to pull together snow now. There's a lot of stuff I wanted to pull together so I felt somewhat organized hobby and craft-wise, for starting the new year. No plans or goals. I made the point of doing that for this year and I think I jinxed myself.  So no more of that! This is reminding me that I should probably go through what I wrote down for 2024 goals, and update that.  

Until next time. ... stay safe! 

Christmas is just around the corner

I updated my tree. Just a wee bit.  Decided to go ahead and put some of my cross stitch ornaments on the tree.  To heck with them maybe being too big! 

This week I finally got my act together and got gifts wrapped and placed. Thanks to Amazon I have a few presents from family members that I wrapped up and I'm crossing my fingers I didn't label any incorrectly.  Wouldn't that be hilarious?

This week is a bit of a crazy one at work. We had a publishing day on Monday and I turned around and started working on the next issue because we gave ourselves an early deadline of this Friday to get out the Jan. 2 paper. 

Printer holiday schedule and the Christmas and New Year's holidays have made for a wicked early deadline this go around.  But you know what?  I think we need it.  So me and my coworkers and really enjoy the holidays and not have to worry about deadlines and publishing days. 

Over the past weekend the hubby and I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and cut, split and stacked some wood. 

There is a pretty decent dent on the wood pile already.  I want to say we took 12 row feet (is that even a thing?) from it already. 

Do you see that orange stick? We got a log roller tool and it's a real game-changer. 

We are around halfway done with the first holz hausen. 

The chickens came over, looking for tasty bugs.  

Yeah ... the girls know that tasty little morsels of protein can be found in some of the wood when it's split. We may have created a monster. Ha!

This day I opened up the coop run and the birds came out, with suspicion. 

Just wait until the snow gets really deep. 

Speaking of snow ... another clipper is set to go through the area tomorrow.  Currently the temperature is four degrees Fahrenheit (-16 Celcius) Tomorrow's temps should be fun. 

Oh look, what's soaking before being blocked? 

 All will be revealed, at some point in the near future. 

Getting ready for the winter

 It's been a moment since I last wrote anything. 

What have I been up to? A little bit of this, a little bit of that. I actually started writing a blog post a couple weeks ago. Got distracted. Forgot what I was doing and started working on something else. 

It seems to be the thing lately.  I feel like what I've been doing lately is so boring and not very exciting. 

The long and short is that my hubby and I were finishing up the big wood splitting project. 

I had a supervisor.  

She said my workspace was a mess and I should do something about it.  Well, she wasn't wrong. 

So I sort of did something about it.  Or, I had my hubby do something about it *wink*

The final round stack of the project.

I finally harvested those carrots. it was like the final kick in the teeth to the garden season this year. Or something like that. I did not get nearly as many carrots as I thought I would.  A real bummer. 

At least the washing process wasn't so overwhelming.  I have two one-gallon bags of carroty goodness in the back of my fridge. 

I got the carrots taken care of just in time, too.  It snowed the next day and the ground froze. 

I admit, it was kinda magical and beautiful for a moment. 

Then reality set in, along with the cold. 

I am a member of one of those Aldi groups on the book of faces and someone mentioned something about homemade bacon ... 

Yeah, you know we had to give that a try. 

We used some pork we had in the freezer and I found a recipe. 

Right after pulling it out of the brine

After slicing it up and before cooking it.

One word: YUM!

One of my very good knit friends sent me a box of goodies and one of the items in the box was this fun chicken. 

Cute, right?  I put it in Furby's space for a while.  I had to move it because we both kept thinking there was a real chicken in the house. 

In the midst of all this I have been doing a wee bit of crafting. In November I really focused on my One Piece cross stitch and finally sat down and started working on the porcupine boxes. 

I really had to psych myself up for cutting the fabric on this.  

It's so cute. 

I can't wait to show off the final pieces. I'm still not done with the one.  I'm still deciding on whether to put the pom-pom trim on it, or not. 

I went digging for the cross stitch ornaments I made earlier this year.  I was so bummed when I discovered one of the frames broke. 

Fortunately I have extra frames, but it was a bit of a pain to get that cut fabric back into a new hoop. 

Oh, and a bit of other *exciting* news ... you are in for a surprise. 

We ordered more wood. 

Yes, you read that right! 

Another semi-load of wood.  My husband and I both decided it would be a good winter project and there's no rush on it. 

This past week we started working on the pile. I don't have any progress shots of what it looks like.  

Crazy, right?  Yeah, i know.  The amount of wood sitting in our yard is an immense security. However, no more wood after this! 

Last Wednesday I had an afternoon appointment in town.  This was the sky as I was leaving the Aldi.

Beautiful. 

So that's a bit of what's going on right now.  I've been pondering and ruminating a bit. Mostly about the crafting stuff. Last year I made the point of making goals for myself for 2024. Then things went kinda sideways in March. I'm debating on whether to try that again for 2025, or if I should just wing it. I seem to do really good at winging it when it comes to my hobbies.