Holiday in the Forest

 Two new designs in Nora Corbett's Holiday in the Forest series were released this month and I like them even more than the first two. They are Winter Bear and Winter Hare, and I think they are just as cute as can be:

Before the charts arrived I decided to quickly stitch Winter Nest so I would be caught up with the releases; I stitched it on a Silkweaver Belfast solo in four days:

It joins Winter Owl in the finish pile:

Nora said that there were going to be six in the series but one didn't work out so there are currently five. She did ask if people wanted more and several people said that they did so I really hope she designs some more because I think this is such a fun series.

Last Friday the floss I needed to complete my CEC Mermaid Mittens arrived so they are now done as well:

I've now finished eight mittens since last October, and already have my next one picked out and ready to go when the urge strikes.

Today I think I'll be able to finish the current Rosewood Manor model. Sadly, Karen recently traveled to the UK to see her daughter Rachel, who suffered a traumatic brain injury about five years ago and who was going to enter hospice care. Rachel passed away on the 20th, with her husband and sons, sister and mom and dad all there. She leaves a big hole in all of their lives.

I heard from Wichelt over the weekend and they are going to send a model at the end of this week. Sounds like it's a big one, so that will probably keep me pretty busy for the next few months. It's always exciting when the package arrives and I get my first glimpse of the design.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Still in the grip of mitten fever

 Back in November I placed an order with Needlecraft Corner and one of the free charts that was supposed to come with the order was a new Cross Eyed Cricket mitten called The Great Pumpkin. Then the shop owner fell and broke her leg so everything came to a halt for several weeks while she had surgery and started the recovery process. When my order finally shipped in December it arrived without the mitten chart, so Drema kindly sent it out to me. After almost three weeks it finally arrived last week and I was so excited that I stitched it right away:

I have loved black cats since 1997 when I took in a stray cat that showed up at our house, and have had at least one ever since then until this past March when our sweet Maxie passed away. I have tons of black cat patterns; this one is a particular favorite because it looks just like my beloved Tailor:

Last week I also obtained a chart from the CEC designer of an old freebie called Mermaid Mitten, and it was so cute that I then had to stitch it right away. I am missing one silk floss that I had to order so it's not quite done, but here it is so far:

While I like the colors in the Silk'n Colors used for the background I think they were a bit too dark for the little mermaids, who got kind of washed out. So nothing for it except to stitch it again, this time with a lighter SNC for the background!

I am much happier with the second version, and now just have to wait patiently for the floss to arrive so I can finish both of them. I wanted to stitch at least one mitten each month this year and so far I have three in January so I am way ahead of schedule!

Yesterday I was ending a thread on the back of the piece and my needle minder was so strong that it made my needle levitate, which just struck me as a fun image:

Last week I also emptied out the two ort jars on my stitching table into a fillable lamp that I bought a few years ago:

It will be interesting to see how many years worth of thread clippings I can fit in this lamp.

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!

Happy New Year!

 2020 was a strange year, that's for sure! Having tactile sensory issues I never thought I could get used to wearing a mask, but now I've reached a point where I don't know when I'll feel comfortable being around other people without one. I look forward to a time when enough people have been vaccinated that the risk of getting the virus becomes low and we can feel a bit more "normal".

I have to say that as an introvert the past year was not that much different for me except for the mask wearing. I am completely content at home with my family, pets and stitching, so I rarely go out except to get groceries or run other essential errands. Now that my son is out of school and doesn't need rides anymore I often go a week or more without even starting my car. My husband usually travels a lot for work but was home for months this year, so we got to see what it will be like when he retires in a year or two--good thing we still like each other after 30 years (in May) of marriage!

I have had fun the past few weeks stitching on little things just for fun. The first was the design I had started in my last post, Mirabilia Designs Doves of Peace (found in the 1999 CS&N Keepsake Calendar), which I finished on Christmas:

Then I spent a few days stitching the design I was originally planning on when I found the calendar; this is Nora Corbett's Christmas Ornaments (originally in the 2012 CS&N Keepsake Calendar, now available as a download from Herrschner's):

It's a small design; the stitching took a couple of days and then another day for the beading, which I love!

Once that one was done I pulled out a Lizzie*Kate chart that I recently bought called Cold Noses. This is a shop exclusive at The Silver Needle; it was originally released at a retreat in the summer of 2018 and was just recently released to everyone. I've wanted to stitch it since I saw it over two and a half years ago, so now I have!

I did add the purple floss as well as a few others and rearranged some of the called for colors and am very happy with the result. It also comes with a couple of smaller designs with the penguins that I will stitch at some point. L*K also has a new release at 123Stitch called Tiny Tidings XXIII which is basically the same design with a few color and other minor changes. I just think the penguins are so cute, especially with their little button noses!

I then spent a few days finishing the temperature SAL I've been working on since December 2019. I made a header and a chart key, which took a few days to chart and stitch, and just finished it yesterday:

No idea what I'll do with it now, but I am glad that I finally stitched a temperature chart. I thought it would be hard to get out of the habit of checking the previous day's temperature first thing in the morning, but it's been a few days now and I don't really miss it at all.

I finished it pretty late in the afternoon so I didn't feel like taking the tree down afterwards (I'll do it today--ugh!); I decided to make a small start on the latest Rosewood Manor model instead. It's a fairly small one and has really pretty colors and I think I will enjoy working on it, so that's my plan for the next few weeks.

Hope everyone has a safe, healthy and stitchy New Year!