crafting list for 2026

 I'm slowly tidying up and destashing again and I'm finding projects that really need to be finished.

So, I've made a list of 10 things that need working on and will not be touching anything else in the category until I've finished one of the outstanding ones ( this doesn't mean that these are the only  half finished projects)

Lets see how long this approach works for haha.

Knitting         Gansey sampler ( see previous posts )

                       Hat ( only cast on yesterday so no pic yet)

Cross stitch    Sheep ( see end 2025 post for progress )

                       Fox and Rabbit SAL 2026

                       Fox and Rabbit sampler 2023

This has become a favourite for stitching in the van as I now work from the PDF on my phone.

Spinning                          Argo     one jacob bobbin complete

                                         Nano    one polworth bobbin complete

 Both need the other bobbin spinning and plying, these will probably be cafe spins over the next couple of weeks.

Embroidery             Small flower pic.

Bobbin lace                  Finish Buck Point Sampler, this is ongoing as my Wednesday class project

                                    

                                      Add one project, to be determined but probably something easy for when out                                               and about.

Once I've finished a project, I'll add another. Will this work or will I abandon it half way through the first month? What do you think ?

                                                      *****************************

Simple list version to copy and paste going forward, I will cross out and date as I complete things

knitting       hat

                    gansey sampler

cross stitch  sheep

                    Fox and Rabbit 26

                    Fox and Rabbit 23

lace              Bucks sampler

                    another, to be decided

Spinning      Argo  Jacob

                    Nano  Polworth

embroidery  small flower

Thread finds in a charity shop, Sheep update

Hi, a quick update on the sheep cross stitch...

nearly half done ! I'm actually quite enjoying this one in spite of it being full coverage.

looking for the sheep at the Great Tapestry of Scotland

Well, we seriously underestimated the amount of time needed to take in the Great Tapestry of Scotland. Another visit is already on the cards for next year especially as we will be in the area having booked the campsite for next years music festival already.

My photos do not do the work justice so I'm going to find a couple of links and will post them at the end. Also, when faced with the sheer amount of embroidery, I decided to look for specific thing, mainly sheep!

These are just a few of the sheep spotted amongst the panels, all sides of life both current and historic were pictured, here are some of my favourites.

Looking at the different stitches and techniques, I am tempted to start embroidery again :-)

For further info and much better pictures, visit this site. The Great Scottish Tapestry    and there is an interesting collection of videos here covering the tapestry being displayed in different locations before ending up at its permanent home. These help show the sheer scale of the panels and the work of so many different embroiderers in Scotland

What am I up to now?

 I saw an idea on Pintrest, traced it back to a blog that gave some instructions , to do what ?

all will be revealed in due course :-)

what's in the bag? part two Elephants

 Past adventures with a needle

Some elephant stitching..........

I know that there are more elephants around, I must have had a thing about this pattern :-)

what's in the bag? part one

 As the destash continues, I'm discovering old projects from when I was at college.

I pulled out this bag.

The bag itself was part of a prize from Sewing World back in 2007 when they asked people to design and embroider a heart. You may have seen the heart hanging in my workroom photos. I was a runner up in the competition.

I don't often win things !

These days, the bag holds many treasure, some are just starting ideas and some are completed projects. I've posted some of these before but a good few years ago now.

edited to add, I posted about this in 2008 and in the same post I mentioned six unimportant things about myself.

SIX UNIMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT ME

This has been really difficult to work out but I finally came up with these.

When I was about 11, I won 1st, 2nd and third prize in a photography competition because I was the only contestant.

We have not had a TV for nearly 20 years although the purchase of a computer 8 years ago means we do watch DVDs. 

 (Still no TV in 2024)

I loathed Domestic Science at school ( needlework and cookery) and gave it up as soon as possible

I have never made anything that I can wear other than the occasional piece of fabric jewellery. 

( now knit hats etc)

We used to have an arcade pinball machine in our 17th floor flat.

First rode pillion ( on a scooter) at around 6 years old.

( final ride as pillion was around the age of 56/57 when I realised that getting on and off the bike was getting difficult due to mobility issues)

Here's a sneak peak at the bag contents.

I'm beginning to worry that this blog is morphing into one about cross stitch rather than spinning, hey ho, whatever. The truth is that its always been craft blog and if you scroll back 10 years or so you will see quite a bit of embroidery of different types.

I'm the sort of person who tends to fixate on different things at different times, often changing direction when my life takes a different turn. I never give up on any particular craft, just pop them on the back burner for a few weeks or in some cases years !

So for the time being the craft content will be mixed and blogs about my local area should start late April when we are allowed out and the shops begin to open again.

On a different note, we are puzzling over where to visit later in the year, I'm thinking about heading south to Somerset/Devon area for a change, we have friends in Somerset and north Cornwall so it would be good to meet up and gossip.

I did actually get the wool combs out and start on a fleece. I bought this Ouessant fleece back in 2019 so it was washed that summer and has been stored ever since in a cotton pillow case. I ten to store all my washed fleece in pillowcases as its easy to write the name on the outside :-)

I'm also playing with a small design destined to be a pincushion, its a long time since I've drawn out anything but will hopefully update you next week with the result.

later ...

In other news, the weather seems to be getting better, the birds are singing and we spent the last night booking 8 campsites and keeping our fingers crossed that we will not be back in lockdown later in the year !! We will be heading south to visit friends and catch up on the gossip :-)

That's about it for now, speak soon xx

link to free pattern http://e-subrosa.blogspot.com/2013/10/halloween-free-chart.html 

Hi,

Another strange week feeling out of sync with the world. Along with the sampler shown here last week I have inherited a set of 1930's tarot cards and a very useful laptop which I will drop into our nearest computer shop to have completely wiped and checked over before I set it up as my dedicated craft machine.

So much for my no spend attempt, in a moment of madness I ordered the cxc version of the complete dmc range plus cross stitch fabric... I'm putting it down to stress shopping !!

I do have a couple of projects in mind and as they are experiments involving 60 or so colours I couldn't really afford to do them in DMC, more about that later.

I've not really been able to settle down to anything crafty this week so I've just been working on my Quaker sampler in the few snatched minutes early in the morning before starting soring out various family paperwork etc.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a reasonable day to be able to wash and drip dry my last lot of spinning before I decide whether to over dye or not but the weather forecast seems to be permanently  against me. All I want is to be able to let the skeins drip outside rather than in the house.

Suddenly I've had an order for hats and handspun! I've not sold any in the last 12 monthly due to the various lockdown sand lack of tourists in general at the croft shop that I usually supply with a skeins during the year. To be honest I've not been spinning or knitting much lately, preferring to stitch at the moment however I may structure my day for the next few weeks to include both hobbies.

And I've cast on some fingerless mitts, large enough for male hands this time. Simple rib knit with short thumbs which are knitted complete with the body of them. I don't like the look of mitts with just a slit for the thumb and equally dislike knitting thumbs in  so I'm trying this option.

Incase you are wondering, I keep back any skeins with knots in and also spin four ply weight for my own knitting.

Ooh and we are having a snowy day, snow forecast all days o I'm staying inside nice and dry  :-)

interrupted service

 Hi

Over the next few weeks my attention will be needed elsewhere so unfortunately my posts will probably be short and sweet. I'm hoping to still put something up each Monday but suspect that may be a little erratic at times.

OK, down to business.

Today I'm sharing 3 samplers with you, two have recently come into my possession and another is currently being worked on.

The first has been in my family for several years, I remember it being in a frame at home and once things are a little more sorted here I will be looking to get it reframed properly.

I don't know whether this is a family member or whether it was simply bought as an interesting item.

This one is a lot more recent, 1995, stitched during my first era of cross stitch addiction !

 and finally, the small Quaker Sampler that I am stitching at the moment

As much as I'm enjoying stitching these designs, I have an aching to design my own so that may be a project for the future.

That's about all for now, thanks for reading, speak soon and take care x

weather change

 Hi,

Yep, we finally had some snow worth mentioning. You have to remember that in parts of the UK, even 1cm of snow sparks excitement, I'm not sure that we had any around here last winter but yesterday this happened.

We had a couple of inches or so, enough to make the local kids head down to the school playing fields which have a good slope on them. 

Crafty endeavors this week? some fibre prep 

about 100gm of jacob which empties another of my many fleece filled pillowslips.

The inkle weaving is finished so I'm experimenting with some 'holes' and the next this will to be to see if I still have a bag of random buckles tucked away.

I forgot to show this last week, I'm intrigued by this style of sampler and found this chart on gazette 94 blog.

My book arrived.

Bargain for the price :-)

Since I bought my new desktop computer back in 2016. I haven't bothered replacing the paint programs  like paint shop pro and corel. I just couldn't be bothered and frankly lost interest in that side of things for a while. 

This week I downloaded Gimp just out of interest after finding a couple of pieces of my design work from way back when. I had a play with a couple of photos to try and find my way around the settings.

and this one of a peat stack I particularly like

The next experiment was to tackle one of my designs.

Now this is fun!!

I suspect I will be playing with this for a while :-)

That's about it for this week,, take care, speak soon xx