Ack!

I've been so busy recently I haven't really had time to post anything.  I also hit a bit of a crafting slump and didn't have much to show, and most people probably don't want to hear about the minutia of my daily life.

In short, work is work, life is really busy, and I'm slowly getting back to working on crafty things.

Here's where I left off Fire Opal.  I've got a bit under 1/4 of this page left to do before I can move on.  I was getting tired of working on her so she went away for a little while.  Hopefully I'll be able to start back up sometime soon.

I've gotten back to knitting a little bit.

This is the very beginning of the Carousel Socks from the new Knitty.

And here's a picture of my cat Tika with some yarn, because why not?

Snow Day

We rarely have snow days in my area, so it was nice to get a text from my boss this morning telling me the store was closed and I had the day off.  My paycheck is going to take a hit, but we should be alright.

This is the view out my bedroom window with bonus shot of my asshole neighbor's truck.  

In car news, my beloved Yellow Beetle was declared totaled this morning.  I knew it most likely was, but I'm still pretty damn sad about the whole thing.  Now begins the painful process of getting my insurance company to give me the check so I can put down for a loan on a new car.

I'll also be canceling my policy, once everything is cleared up that is, with my current insurance carrier and switching over to Manthing's.  Mostly for ease, and for a myriad of other reasons that includes my current carrier willfully ignoring Washington state law concerning insurance.  It's a long, long story on the whole thing that I'll avoid boring ya'll with.

In crafty news, here's what I'm working on:

I've actually had some more progress on my Imagine kit but the lighting is so bad in my apartment that I can't get a picture that doesn't look like mud.  So far I'm really happy that I subbed in blue Aida.  The colors just look so much better on it.

I've also been working on a simple top down baby cardigan for my cousins who are expecting another baby girl in March.

WIP Wednesday 1-11-12

We're still waiting to hear if my car is repairable or if I'm going to have to replace it.  So I've got absolutely no news on that front.  At this point all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best.

In other news, I have WIPs to show ya'll.

I'm still working on my Tree Frog Trio.  All I have left to do is the back-stitching and then finding a frame or something else for it.  I'll get to that sometime next week since I have more important projects to finish first.

Like this hat, which I cast on this morning during work and will hopefully have done in time for the event I'm attending this weekend.  It's a simple K2P2 ribbed hat knit in the round with black Patons Classic Wool.  Not terribly exciting, but effective.

I'll also be making an order sometime this week or early next week to pick up the missing thread and beads for a project I'm going to start soon.  I'll wait until I have everything together for that before posting a picture, though.  I'm weird like that.  

(Belated) WIP Wednesday

I promised I would post at least one picture of my current projects, and I will.

Design: Tree Frog Trio Kit from Dimensions Crafts

Size: 7 inches x 5 inches (18 x 13 cm)

Fabric: 14 count white cotton Aida

I've been working on this off and on during down times at work for a few weeks now.  I had a false start with the frog on the far left and needed to remind myself that the foot bone is not connected to the knee bone.  The single yellow stitch on the purple frog's chest was my center stitch marker, so that'll get picked out soon.

I had originally been working on this in an embroidery hoop.  It kept loosening and making my day difficult.  Then I discovered Q-Snaps.  I've been using the smallest size, which is 6" x 6", which is great for these smaller kits.  You can see a bit of it in the picture above.

I also received my copy of Joan Elliot's Bewitching Cross Stitch in the mail on Friday.  I picked up a majority of the supplies I needed at my local big box craft store this afternoon after I got off of work.  I'll need to order the Kreinik thread and beads online, but that's ok.  It prevents me from diving headlong into that project and forgetting about the ones I need to finish first.

Besides cross-stitch I also knit.  I've been knitting off and on since I was 11, so that'll be...12 or so years now.  Only within the past three years have I actually gotten serious about it.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the two projects I'm working on right now, and to be honest they're pretty boring WIP subjects.  Hopefully I'll have them finished up and ready for pictures come Friday.