Monday, January 20, 2014

Be Right Back!

I am currently on hiatus as I return back to work and school. Thanks for bearing with me amidst the chaos!

Friday, January 17, 2014

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 011

Happy Friday, everyone! Today is another HSHY post. I was planning on having some more projects posted up here this week, but when the mind said yes, the body said "NOPE! Arthritis flair up, instead." Hopefully, this nastiness will calm down before classes start on Wednesday. Can't write with messed up hands, you know?

Here's WIP 011.
It's funny, because I don't really feel like there is a big difference between WIP 010 and 011, but in terms of how many stitches I put in between the two photographs, there are distinct differences. The grass is a lot farther along and there's that little tuft on the right-hand side that wasn't there before.

Look for some more HSHY or Pokemon on Friday!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Pokemon Sprite #2/20: Bellsprout!

As mentioned in a previous post, my "new year's resolution" was to cross stitch a whole bunch of Pokemon sprite ornaments for my boyfriend so that was can have the nerdiest Christmas year ever in 2014. I never put down into writing how many sprites I wanted to complete this year, though, and after some contemplation, I've landed on the nice, round number of twenty. Although the number is rather small in comparison to the total number of Pokemon that Nintendo has put out over the last few years (718, yikes!) I think that twenty ornaments is an attainable feat, even if I am working twenty hours a week and taking fifteen units this upcoming semester

Anyway, I have finished my second sprite, and I must say that I absolutely adore it. When I was younger, I loathed Bellsprout. I thought he was weird and funky and...strange to say the least, but because of the following, I've been in love with this little guy for years.


After reading up on plastic canvas pieces, I have decided to leave my sprites uncut and on their 8.5x11" sheets until the plastic fills up. It creates less waste in the long run and should help keep my workspace from being perpetually bombarded by little flakes of plastic from cutting. The pattern is by Vicky of Birdie Stitching. What do you think? (The WIP sprite above is a Charmander.)


Monday, January 13, 2014

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 009 & 010

I have to admit, I'm just a tad bit proud of myself for keeping this blog up to date. In the past, I haven't been able to stay on top of things in terms of blogging and project progress when I get into lazy slumps. (We all have them, so I'm not going to deny that they exist!)

This image shows progress through January 3rd. (Yoshi made it with us through the new year!) As you can tell compared to WIP 007, I got a lot done today. Between getting my toes done at the nail salon and a quiet day at the house, I was able to literally make grass grow on this project--the rest of the black row, the entirety of the dark green line, and then the grass plus grass blades for nearly half the project.
 Like I said, a productive day to say the least. I added just a hair under 600 stitches and racked up 5 hours 20 minutes to my total time. At the end of the day I was 1,448/21,600 stitches in (6.70%) with 6 hours 28 minutes devoted to the cause.

Saturday was my mom's birthday bash, so I wasn't able to work on any personal projects for the day, but WIP 010 came into being on the 5th. (Can you believe that we're to the double digits now? I almost wrote 0010 in the title of this post.) More grass grew today, but not much else. I only put in an additional 98 stitches, but my total is up to 1,546 (7.16%) and my total time is at 15.5 hours now.

I'd like to get the entire canopy of Yoshi's house done by the time I go back to Uni, but that's yet to be seen--and a lot of stitching to boot! Also, I need to get another one of SO's pokemon sprites done this week, so who knows what all will get finished and what won't. For now, I'm off to clean house.

Friday, January 10, 2014

3 Years in the Making: SO's Blanket

My SO and I have been dating for four years in late February and the poor guy, I've promised him his own afghan since abut six months into our relationship. Almost three and a half years later, he's still without a blanket to call his own.

SO's blanket has undergone a lot of redesigns. At first I was going to make him a "sand dollar" style blanket, and then a ripple, then a granny square piece, and then and then and then. Finally, after about two years of fighting with the design, I settled on an old favorite: the giant granny square. This one hasn't been frogged.

And actually, it should be completed before the end of 2014 if I keep up with it at all. I'd like to get somewhere around 100-120 rounds when all is said and done and if I counted my rows correctly, I'm somewhere in the mid 70s range right now. Each side of the blanket currently takes an hour to complete, so four hours per round if I work diligently. It's a shame that winter is almost over because I'm not much of a large-project crocheter when it gets to be summertime in San Diego. Here's a picture of SO's blanket design. I basically recycled a pattern that I'd used on my own giant granny square blanket back in 2011.
When all is said and done, there should be over six miles worth of yarn in SO's blanket. Should keep him warm, right?

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 007 & 008

Well, yesterday was a big day (which almost ended in this post being delayed by a day or so.) One of my good friends graduated from the police academy today and the two to three hour ceremony that I thought we were attending ended up lasting from 2:00pm to nearly 8:00. The unexpected dinner was unexpected, but I didn't realize that I would be back to SO's house so late and in turn, typing this post so far beyond my bed time.

WIP 007 and 008 were completed on December 27 and December 31 respectively. I was still getting over that nasty cold on the 27th, so I didn't add very much to this piece (only 27 stitches), but working on it every day and documenting my progress has helped me to stay motivated during this first large project. I've actually been eying the Super Mario World world map (1000x1000 stitches) to start working on after this, but I don't even know if I can get Aida cloth large enough to accommodate a project that large by shopping locally. I suppose I'll have to look into all of that when the time comes.

Time for my favorite part of these posts, though! THE STATISTICS!

WIP 007 added 27 stitches and 21 minutes worth of work to my project totals, bringing total stitches to 818/21,600 (3.78%) and total time up to 8 hours 22 minutes.
WIP 008 added a smidgen more to the mix with 45 minutes worth of work and 36 new stitches sewn in. My totals as of December 31, 2013 (the end of the year, can you believe it!) were 854/21,600 stitches (3.95%) and 9 hours 7 minutes worth of work on this piece overall. I wish I could have done more, but such is life. If I can get it done by the end of the Spring semester at Uni, that would be remarkable, but also extremely ambitious. Honestly, if I could just get the black outlines and background of the piece done by the end of May, that would be a job well done. This semester won't be like the last. I'm not working nights anymore, so sneaking stitching in at work will be a near impossibility.
I hope everyone has been sticking to their resolutions and staying warm through this very cold spell. I now that it's been getting down to the 20s and 30s Fahrenheit at my house and I live right outside of San Diego! (It does give me an excuse to stay inside and craft, though...) Hang in there! Spring is right around the corner.

Monday, January 6, 2014

New Year Resolution: Pokemon Sprites Coming Out My Ears!


Well, I know that I've said it already, but happy new year, everyone! With the holiday season finally over and a fresh year upon us, new year's resolutions are also looming. This year, I didn't make any resolutions. Instead, I made a promise to SO that by next Christmas, I would have a bunch of Pokemon Christmas ornaments to hang on his Christmas tree. I've already gone to my local craft store and bought out their supply of 14 Count plastic canvas, 20 yards worth of ribbon, jump rings, and felt. Here's the horde from when I got back from Michael's (along with a Makibird pattern for Bulbasaur.)
I actually made Bulba over the course of two days. Working with plastic instead of Aida was an interesting experience to say the least. Hiding my threads as I moved around the piece was a good learning experience with the clear plastic and I've found that the stickiest substance in the universe is the adhesive that felt manufacturers put on the back of the "Peel N Stick" stuff you can buy. I tried using permanent spray glue to adhere to regular, stiffened felt, but for some reason it wouldn't stick, so for now I just plan on continuing to use Peel N Stick until I can find a better alternative.

Here's Bulbasaur in progress and him once he's all finished. I worked on him consistently for two days and I'm glad to say that he turned out amazingly for an experimental run. The next pokemon in my line up is Bellsprout. He's a lot more twiggy than Bulba, but I think with enough patience, he'll look just fine.


#001 Bulbasaur

Friday, January 3, 2014

Home Sweet Home WIP 006

Being sick has interesting effects on me as a crafter. Either I lie down in bed for days on end praying for a merciless death or I'm sick in that strange alive-but-not-well-enough-to-do-anything situation. When experiencing the latter, I tend to curl up with streaming videos and pull out the hooks and needles. December 26 was one of those icky/alive days where I curled up in SO's gaming room again and cuddled with a box of kleenex all day while he played on the Wii U and hung out with one of our good friends who was home from college. And for the record, SO was also an amazing boyfriend. He wore a lot of a hats on the day after Christmas, but he was still a really stand-up boyfriend. If I needed something, all I had to do was ask and he'd get it for me. I'm really, really grateful for all his help in making me feel better. Without him, I would have just been gooey and miserable for the entirety of my cold.

Being sick actually benefited my HSHY cross stitch tremendously. I was able to spend another 2-3 hours on it throughout the day when I was feeling perkier and whenever I got too tired to keep chugging, I'd just grab a pillow and blanket and crashed out for a few hours while he played video games or graded papers for his students.

Progress as of 12/26/2013.

In total, I've spent eight hours on this project so far and put down 791 stitches (3.66%), another big jump from where I was at WIP 005. I hope that I'll be able to complete a decent chunk of this project before going back to work and school on the 22nd. It's an ambitious goal, but if I could even get a quarter of this project done by then, it would be a huge accomplishment.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 005

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Today, as I sit back in my chair and reflect on this year's holiday season with my ever-present can of Diet Dr. Pepper in my hand, I have to admit that this year was pretty amazing. Everyone seemed to like their Chriztmw gifts, nobody got into a family feud during holida dinner, and everyone is safe and happy. Oh--and I got to cross stitch for two and a half hours over the course of Christmas day. It doesn't get better than that--ever.

There's a lot to be shown for today's WIP. I was able to stitch in 254 stitches, essentially doubling what I had completed over WIP 001-004. I would have been able to finish out the first three rows of this pattern, too, if I hadn't come down with SO's cold. Around 10:00am on Christmas morning, it just hit me, so I spent almost my entire day curled up in the corner of the game room couch while SO played Disgaea on the Playstation 2. Originally, he was going to show me Monster Hunter 3 on the new Wii U, but we were in the unfortunate group of people that tried to register their systems during Nintendo's registration server crash. It ended up being a good thing for me, though, because I was able to curl up in the sunshine and work on my cross stitch while SO entertained himself.

Here's the current progress picture as of Christmas 2013. Only 30-40 more stitches until I've got the first three rows completely finished!