January 2012

Crochet:
I'm going to start with the crochet projects. I finished somewhere between 30-32 peppermint candy coasters and felted them all. I made 4 pair of fingerless gloves, 6 scarves, 2 hats, 2 cowls, 2 pair of baby shoes, a baby blanket and a neck warmer along with 6-8 washcloths. All for Christmas! And I got them all done in time too.

The projects currently in progress:
1. Adapting a slipper pattern to fit an adult male, then deciding how to make them 1/3 larger because I want to felt them.
2. Adapting a pair of mary jane slippers so that they can be felted.
3. Finding a crochet shrug pattern that I like that is somewhat short and lacy even with a medium to chunky yarn so I can make shrugs to go with the girls dresses for the wedding.
3. Finding a fingerless glove pattern that is either lacy or cables to make for me for the wedding.
4. Finish the amigurumi alligator for my granddaughter and start a different animal.
5. Work the crochet along from Bernat's blog when they start it in February.

Modelstitching:
I finished the model I received and sent it back last week. I have already received my next model. Everything is pretty much going to take a back seat to this since she wants it ASAP. It's not a huge design and it's basically white on white (my first) so I'm curious as to how long it's going to take me to get it finished.

Cross Stitch:
Challenge #1 ended last year with only one old WIP finished - Rose Arbor by Mirabilia. I'm going to carry this over into 2012 and try to get two old WIPs finished. The two oldest ones I have available are Castle Sampler (Teresa Wentzler) and Emerald Mermaid (Mirabilia). Unless I feel the need to go stash diving, these will most likely be the two I work on, however little time I will have. (Which I will mention in a moment.)
Challenge #2 ended last year with very few new ornaments made. Although I did get one done right around ringing in the new year. Jason wanted a snowflake ornament made in honor of his mother. I got it stitched and now it just needs to be stuffed in time to put on the tree when we decorate it this year. Just now, thinking about my circumstances, I've decided to let this challenge be over for this year and reactivate it for 2013. When I restart this again it will be to make ornaments for all the children in the family - my daughter and granddaughter, niece and nephews. I've already started the tradition of giving a Christmas ornament every year to my daughter and now granddaughter, might as well bring the others into it too.
Rotation - Blue Dragon Fairy, Harbor Vista, and the sheep one I can't remember the name of. These will be worked slowly, maybe once a week or so, and in between model stitching jobs. I have already picked up Harbor Vista again. After Christmas was great because I had lots of down time after finishing all the Christmas gifts. It was nice to have a project to work on without thinking of starting up something new. I've almost got page 2 complete!
As for my situation that I mentioned above: I'm getting married this year. I took out a loan (from my 401K) to pay for the wedding and honeymoon and we've had to live on some of it. My fiance has been unemployed for a solid 3 years now. (Since before we met. And yes, he's been constantly on the lookout for a job and applying anywhere and everywhere.) Anyway, short of getting a second job (which there is nothing out there) I'm doing all I can to make more $$ to put in our wedding fund. I'm lucky that I found a Designer that pays her modelstitchers in cash. (I've done some stitching for a Designer who pays in stash and she still owes me well over $300. It's difficult when you are only getting paid in their designs. I don't mind stitching them for her but I don't like them for me.) So I'm putting everything on the back burner and stitching up every model job I can get my hands on between now and October. The sooner I can get a job done the sooner I can get another one and have the potential to earn more money. So that's where my lack of time comes in. Always working a model job. Of course, that's just this year until October. Who knows what'll happen after that?