Project 200 - 11/189

Here's another one. I seem to be churning them out at quite a steady pace at the moment, but I'm starting some of the bigger projects soon, so they might slow down.



11 down
189 to go

Project 200 - 10/190

So here we are. I've reached double figures :D

An optical illusion cloth this time...



Sewing up the last edge was a little difficult, I don't think I had my tension right because the shapes didn't slot together perfectly. But I think it looks good :-)

10 down
190 to go

Project 200 - 9/191

So here's another one. My first felt piece. Ages and ages and ages ago I found this picture online...



Mine isn't quite as intricate as that one, but I like it :-)



I need to give special mention to Cayden for this one. Because I'm completely OCD, once I'd cut out all the pieces, laying them out was a little bit of trouble. I couldn't have the same colours in the same layer next to each other, or in the same row. So we spent quite a while rearranging everything.

I think it looks good.

9 down
191 to go

Project 200 - 8/192

So here's another one. Nice quick little project I did in about an hour last night. Learned a new crochet stitch, not that I can remember what it's called at the moment.



8 down
192 to go

Commissions!

I got paid for some of my stitchwork :D

I made my sister Michaela this plushie M for Christmas:



And she requested a couple for her friends. I charged her £5 each and here they are.




Since then I've had several people show interest, and requests for other items too. I'm going to make up some little leaflet thingies and see if I can get some more work. And I'm going to see if I can sell the felt plushies on Etsy to order.

Project 200 - 7/193

Here's another one. A Futurama brain slug.




And here is the slug from the show, for comparison.



So, that's seven projects down. In theory I need to average 16 or 17 projects a month to complete the challenge. I'm not quite there yet, but while I've been at Mum's I've only had some of the patterns in the folder, so I've been limited on what I can work on. I go home in two days, so I can catch up.

7 down
193 to go

Photo missions - stripy

Finding the tenth picture was a bit hard. I'd intended to use a finish cross-stitch piece, but then didn't finish it in time.

Project 200 - 6/194

I've finished another Project 200 piece. Before I show you the picture, let me tell you that I DO know that one is the wrong size. I wrote about these mittens a couple of posts ago. To recap, I did make a gauge swatch, but I figured that a little big would be okay since I have big hands. I was wrong.



The second mitten was made to the right gauge, but I screwed up the thumb somehow. I always thought that to do stocking stitch in the round you just kept knitting round and round, but since I've managed to get a garter stitch thumb, I was obviously wrong.



And yes, I am aware that my mitten has a penis for a thumb.

Reasons Why I Feel Crappy Right Now...

1) I'm homesick. Really homesick. I've been in Basingstoke at my Mum's house since December 22nd. That's 27 days. I don't think I've been with her and/or Michaela for that long in a decade. Normally I'm only down here for a week. Two at the most. And I have this threshold that I tend to reach where I just can't stand being here anymore. It took longer than normal to reach it, only yesterday, but I'm definitely there. I want to go home. Unfortunately I'm here for another 7 days.

2) I miss Neil. Like crazy. I haven't seen him since July, and I have absolutely no idea when I'll see him again. We're both ridiculously broke.

3) I'm trying not to think about our anniversary in February, because I don't want to get my hopes up, only for him to not be able to make it. But I'm failing. It means a lot to me, and it's going to be horrible, just like last year. I'm going to be spending our anniversary alone, anger, bitter and miserable again.

4) I have some kind of indigestion/acid reflux/heartburn thing. I'm tired and want to sleep, but when I lie down I get ridiculously uncomfortable. And I can't stop belching.

5) Michaela and Mum are constantly yelling at each other. There are big problems, and I don't know how to fix them. I try not to get involved. I tend to just sit here rocking back and forth like a loony-person.

6) I'm out of the constant slow-release painkillers that my doctor has me on, and the doctor down here won't prescribe me any, so I'm pretty constant pain from my ankle and my head and my back.

7) As I mentioned before, I'm broke. I screwed up one of my money things again, and have actually handed control of my bank accounts over to my sister. Standing orders are set up for all my debts and my bills, and the remainder gets sent to another account for me. A pitiful amount, from which I have to get gas, electric, pet food, human food, etc. It's miserable.

8) I miss all my stuff.

9) I desperately want chocolate, but there is none. I'm currently munching my way through the shortbread Mum got for Christmas, and contemplating the tub of raspberry ripple icecream in the freezer.

10) Mum's smoking is giving me a sore throat and a cough.

11) I have to do some work with DPNs to finish off my next Project 200 piece, and I'm dreading it.

I'm just generally in a shitty mood. In the interest of fairness though, here are the reasons why I don't feel crappy right now:

1) My cat has become a lot less of a scaredy cat, and is willing to socialise.

2) I have shortbread and icecream.

Pets on YouTube

I posted a video of Smudge on YouTube



And one of Toby. Toby is an 8 week old Westie, and he belongs to a family friend.

Project 200 - 5/195

This one doubles as another Hogwarts assignment, AND as a birthday present. It was my first ever drop-stitch piece, and it was weird. Normally when one drops a stitch, one tends to make noises like "oh shit!". In this thing you were supposed to deliberately drop stitches, which felt very very wrong. And then, the stitches that were supposed to be staying on the needle decided they wanted to be dropped off too, and kept jumping off the needles. All kinds of fun and games. But this is the nice and beautiful result...




5 down
195 to go

Photo missions - Bright pink

I picked bright pink this week, because it's not a colour I normally like, so it's a proper challenge.

Project 200 - 4/196

Here you go. This is actually the first one I started, but I had to wait until I could get to Hobbycraft to get some eyes. As you can see, my penchant for mis-shapen, slightly ugly soft toys continues.



If you can't tell, he's supposed to be a mouse.

4 down
196 to go

Some stitching chat

First of all, let me introduce you to Mr Roy. G. Biv. He's note a Project 200 piece, so unfortunately he doesn't get his very own post, but isn't he adorable?



And on to other issues. For one of my Hogwarts assignments I've been making a pair of simple mittens, from the Project 200 list. I'm not good with DPNs so when I found a pattern for knitted flat mittens, I jumped at it. And when I brought some delicious yarn from Hobbycraft before Christmas I decided to use it for the mittens.

It wasn't hard to do. Just basic stitches, until it came to finishing off the thumb. For that I needed DPNs - knitted flat, my arse. I didn't have any the right size, so I had to wait until payday before I could finish it off. Plus, I have a tendency to only buy one ball of a yarn I like, then find a project for it afterwards and discover I need more. So I had to go get a second ball on payday too.

Today was payday. I got my second ball of yarn, and I got my DPNs, and just now I finished off mitten number one. Sort of.

As I say, I'm not too good with DPNs, or working in the round, and I completely cocked up the thumb. Completely. Somehow I ended up with too many stitches, then I dropped a load while I was binding it off, and then there was a giant hole... It's a thumb, it works, but it looks a little odd. And I used completely the wrong gauge. I knew I had the gauge slightly out, but I estimated it'd just be a slightly big mitten. Every knitter or crocheter reading this is screaming at me right now, and I know. Stupid stupid. Always stick to gauge. The mitten is a little large. You'll see when I post.

So when I do the second mitten, I'm going to attempt the right gauge. It's not like I ever actually wear mittens, so these are an experiment more than anything, and it doesn't matter if they don't match. At least, it doesn't matter to me.

Oh, and the seaming is dodgy too. The pattern called for mattress stitch, to make a nice invisible seam. I don't know how to do that, so I looked it up on You Tube. I now know the basics of how to do it, but the yarn I used is variagated and thick and fluffy, and I couldn't see the stitches in enough detail to actually succeed at the mattress stitch, so I just seamed as best as I could. I will always have another chance to try mattress stitch again.

So, the upshot of my ramblings? I'm conflicted. Part of me is really chuffed. I made a mitten! My first ever mitten! And I did my first ever three-needle bind off. It's a good thing. But at the same time, I feel horrible that it has so many problems with it. A tiny part of me wants to rip it apart and try again, but I won't. I'll just do a much much better job with mitten two.

Project 200 - 3/197

Here's the third piece. A nice simple blackwork sampler. Stitched in bright green on black fabric :D



3 down
197 to go

Project 200 - 2/198

Here's my second finished piece. The Transfiguration assignment from Hogwarts was to craft something from a book. So here is my 42 from Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

I'd just like to point out, before I show you the picture, that I am highly inexperienced with back and forth crochet - I tend to do most of my crochet in the round. As such, I lose stitches and add stitches and generally just make a mess of the edges. However, it was my first ever attempt at filet crochet, so I'm pretty chuffed.



2 down
198 to go

Photo Missions - C

So, in my New Year post I mentioned that one of my goals was weekly photography missions. This is the result of the first one.

The theme was things beginning with C. Here are some of duds...





And here are my final ten. I'm actually quite proud of some of them.