At some point this summer, I will either change this blog to a less business oriented one, or I will create a new one. I do enjoy blogging, and sharing the progress on my projects, and hopefully once the “biz stuff” is out of the way, I will make time to blog more often.

The past 2 weeks I’ve felt like I’ve been trying to do a number of things, but not really finishing much of anything. Last week my son got sick with some stomach virus (the first one for him!). He was only really sick for 1/2 a day and then his energy was mostly back. I felt a bit under the weather after that, and took it easy for a couple of days. I’d always wondered how I would deal with a sick, vomiting child, as the smell makes me gag. I was amazed to find that I could just go about cleaning up the bedding and my son without gagging or feeling nauseous. It wasn’t pleasant, but at least it wasn’t made worse by me getting sick to my stomach as well. We’re both fine this week, which is good, because it’s been a busy week, plus I decided to start spring cleaning this week. I decided to start, but that doesn’t mean I’ve accomplished much yet I did finish the worst (for me) job – cleaning the fridge. Amidst all this, I’ve had little time for stitching.

I started a group on yahoo, where I’ve started a SAL for this Teacup Sampler:

Teacup Sampler byOlive Hope Design

I accomplished a little stitching on this sampler last week, but haven’t had time this week:

progress as of May 8/09

To join in on the SAL, join the group here.

I’ve also been working on the EMS Rose Sampler. Most of my progress on the 4th part (the letters) was accomplished earlier in the month of April:

progress as of May 4/09

I also have a finish to share! After working on it sporadically for almost a year, I finished knitting a sweater for my son, and it actually looks like a sweater:

sweater finished May 3/09

I was having visions of sleeves being different lengths, back and front not lining up, etc. It’s a little big on him, which is fine, as then it might still fit him by fall so he can actually wear it. Next time I will try using long enough needles to knit both sleeves at once. At least then I won’t have to concern myself over if they’ll be the same length

I’ve let my etsy shop sit empty for a few weeks. Partly because I did forget when the last items were expiring, but mostly because I was trying to decide what to do with it, whether to keep selling, or to close the shop. I will no longer be selling my cross stitch charts through etsy, unless it’s a special release or limited edition, etc. I do have some items that I want to work on over the next month to add to the shop. So while there’s nothing there now, the plan is to have some items there within the month.

In other news, we had a bit of snow this morning! Yes, snow in May. Somehow I don’t think the fish will be biting very much for Opening Day tomorrow – and I definitely don’t want to be out on the water in this cool weather!

…until the end of March. At least I am going to try a post a day Monday though Friday until the end of March. If I can get a post or two in on the weekend, I will, but it will be quite an accomplishment just doing Monday through Friday.

I hope you won’t find this post too boring, especially since I don’t have any pictures to show, but I’m just going to talk about my day today (well, and a little about yesterday). I will definitely have more posts with pictures more often.

First, what I accomplished yesterday: I finally finished knitting the first sleeve of my son’s sweater. That was quite an accomplishment! I knitted and ripped the same sleeve three times, and finally the fourth time, I have a sleeve. I’m not without my reservations, though, but I’m trying to hold out scrapping the whole project until I’ve at least finished the second sleeve. I’m crossing my fingers it’ll actually be wearable out in public when it’s done. If not, I think I may stick with scarves and slippers for a while.

Today, I framed a birth sampler that I should have had finished long ago for a friend’s son (he’ll be 2 in August!). We’re getting together tonight, so that spurred me on to get it finished in time to give to her.

I also finished charting two new designs today. One will be part of a set of Christmas ornaments, and the other is for a group exchange. It may end up as a complimentary chart on my website, or it may become part of  a set. I’m just not sure yet.

Well, what was supposed to be a 2 week break from blogging, turned into nearly 2 months. I didn’t plan it; it just seems that for the past 2 months, blogging never made it to the top of my to-do list, until now. I’m happy to report some progress on the design front: 3 new design releases!

Life Words 1, Spring Sampler, & Winter Sampler

There are now complimentary designs on my website! I have yet to make them easily accessible (ie, putting a tab in place to link to the page), but I will provide a permanent link via this blog (to the right). There are only 2 designs there now, but I do plan to add to them in the near future.

In stitching progress, I’ve joined a small group of stitchers for an annual SAL (stitch-along). We’ve chosen the EMS Rose Sampler for 2009. This was my progress as of February 4, and I’ve made a little more progress since then, although I spent a good part of yesterday evening frogging

EMS Rose Sampler progress, Feb 4-09

I’ve made some progress on the sweater I’m knitting for my son; I’m now on the sleeves. However, I’ve nearly finished knitting the first sleeve 3 times already, and each time I’ve found I made a mistake and needed to pull it all back to the beginning. Finally, on Monday, I figured out my error – I was misreading the instructions. Instead of making an increase at each end of the needle, I made an increase at one end of the needle, so of course it’s not going to work out right! Fourth time is the charm?

I have an ornament published in the lastest issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine! The whole issue looks great, and it reminded me that I need to go through those issues as well to add to my ornament list!

Apparently I was in such a time crunch to ge the ornament off to the publisher, that I completely forgot to take a picture of it before I mailed it. So, at least for now, if you want to see it, you’ll just have to get the magazine!

The Needlework Show started yesterday afternoon. I once again have a page set up, and am offering doorprizes. I also have a new design:

I hope you enjoy the show!

By the Sea (CS & CC magazine) progress Sept 7/08

I’ve been making lots of progress on this one since the last time I posted a picture. I’d left it for a while since I was madly working on my model, and then also knitting and crocheting. However, I’ve felt a push to get this done now, as I don’t want to start anything new until it’s done. Then, I want to start stitching some ornaments again.

In new design news, I had more stitching remaining on the model than I’d anticipated, so did not finish it the other day like I’d hoped. Today we are possibly getting our new windows in the living room and the bathroom, and that may interfere with the time I’d set aside for stitching. I should hopefully know within the hour whether it’ll happen today or tomorrow, and I can plan accordingly.

Progress at Sept 3, 2008

Well, I’ve gotten a few more rows done since I posted about this afghan last. Notice that pile of yarn? Well, 2 nights ago I was working on it, and I came to the end of the row I’m about to start next time, and I realized that somewhere I missed a stitch. I ended up pulling out 4 rows, and by the end of the evening I’d redone the work to the point of where I’d started that evening. Hopefully tonight I’ll make more progress on it, if I get a chance to work on it.

In cross stitch design news, I’m very near the end of stitching my latest model. If all goes well tomorrow, I should finish it. Hopefully…

Thank you to everyone that voted on your fabric and thread combination perference. I think I’ve allowed enough time for everyone to vote that wanted to, so it’s time to post the results! When I first started tracking the votes, it seemed pretty close, but in the end there was a clear winner:

Lambswool with DMC 4210:  65%
Plum Blossom with DMC 4150:  35%

I still have a few things to finalize with the new design, and although I will use the Lambswool, I’m going to go through my GAST stash, just to make sure that I’m completely without doubt about 4210 being the best choice. I will announce the winner of the contest draw later on this week. Thank you again to everyone who participated in the contest.

I decided that the perfect pick-me-up for the gloomy, rainy day that we’re having today, is to start a pretty spring design. With the colors and fabric picked, I’m all set to start stitching 2 designs from the Spring Bulbs issue of Linen Scenes. It’s all DMC floss, and I’ll be stitching on 28 ct Summer Sky jobelan by Wichelt.

Now for the contest: I need some help deciding on fabric and floss for a new design. Pictured to the right are my choices. On the left side is Wichelt Lambswool (28ct jobelan), using DMC Variations 4210; on the right is Wichelt Plum Blossom (28ct jobelan), using DMC Variations 4150. Which do you like better? Everyone who responds (either in the comments, or by email) will be entered into a draw for some stitching goodies.