WIP Wednesday, Quarantine Edition 1

Due to the Coronavirus, I've been out of school for the past week and a half.  I've been using this time to bounce between hobbies: reading, scrapbooking, cross stitching, etc.  Since I have all this time off, I also decided this would be a wonderful time to work on some of the larger projects that I've wanted to do for a while, but just haven't had the time for.  Of course, one of my biggest projects right now is my Disney World Scrapbook, but I'll save that for another post.  I also decided to embark on my largest cross stitching project to date as well.

Before getting into my project, I should not that I started a large, full coverage project in the past, but it just wasn't clicking with me.  I hope to go back to it one day.  The project I started is a stained glass version of Minnie Mouse (keeping with that all important Disney theme that seems to consume my life right now).  I bought the pattern on Etsy a long time ago, and I even bought all the supplies to make it, but I never actually got around to starting it.  From the fact that I had all the supplies and I had all this time at home, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

What I like about this pattern is the fact that it's a little more complicated with many different colors, but, at the same time, the colors are all group together, which means I don't have to switch colors all the time to blend colors together (I hope that makes sense).  In short, it's a way to grow my cross stitching skills without doing something I'm totally not prepared to do yet.

So, where exactly am I in the cross stitching process?  I've only been working on this for about a week, and I feel like I've made a decent amount of progress.  While some cross stitchers may be horrified, I don't limit myself to the page I'm working on for the pattern.  What I mean but that is, Minnie's head, for example, was printed on multiple pages of the pattern (the pattern is 3 pages total).  Rather than stop and pick up again for just a few more stitches that happened to be on the next page, I kept going, thereby completing all of Minnie's head.  I know, I'm making it more complicated for myself, but, I actually don't think I am.  There are parts of the pattern that only have three or four stitches on a page, so I save those until I see the rest of the stitches in that color in that area, and I do them all at the same time.  It works in my mind.

When I first started this project, I struggled a lot with counting stitches and making it all work.  Now that I've been working on it for a week, it's definitely become easier, and I haven't been messing up nearly as much (although now I'm afraid that I've jinxed myself).

I know with the exception of Minnie's head, it's hard to see what it's supposed to be.  Trust me, I feel the same way; I keep having to check back with a picture of what the final product looks like to make sure I'm doing everything correctly.  I am.  I know that as long as I follow the pattern, everything will work out.

Like I said before, this project is quite big, at least for me.  It's going to be about 10 inches wide and 13 inches tall.  While that may not seem big, it's a full coverage project, which means all of that is going to be covered with stitches, you won't be able to see any of the aida fabric underneath.  It's a lot.  I've included a picture of what the project looks like on the full piece of aida fabric so you can see what I've done and how much work I have left to do.  It's a lot.  My goal is to finish this sometime this summer, get it framed and enter it in the county fair.  I've never entered anything in the fair before, and I know I haven't been cross stitching for very long, but I'm excited to see if it gets anything.  Even if I don't, it will be fun to know that something I worked incredibly hard on is on display at the county fair for everyone to see.

This project is definitely a labor of love, but I'm loving ever minute of it!  The person who made this pattern made a whole bunch of other stained glass style cross stitch patterns (some Disney, some not), and I really can't wait to start another one, once I get through this one.

Check back next week to hear a little bit more about my progress and see how much I've gotten done over the course of the week!

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It's WIP Wednesday!

Let's start with the basics: what in the world is WIP Wednesday?  The short answer is it stands for "Work In Progress Wednesday".  The longer answer is, as always, a bit more complicated than that.  I love to do a variety of different crafts and activities (I focus on scrapbooking, coloring, knitting and cross stitching, along with covering everything I own in vinyl thanks to my Cricut).  I know, it's a lot.  In the past I've gone through phases where I become completely obsessed with one of my hobbies and burn through it really quick in a few weeks before moving on to the next one and starting the whole process all over again.  Lately, though, I've been finding more of a balance.  While most of my energy has been focused on cross stitching, I've also been reading a lot more and have a knitting project going.  I honestly haven't scrapbooked in a while, but I do color every once in a while when I find the time.

Today, I just wanted to give a brief update on my projects.  I can't go into too much detail about them, as two of them are Christmas presents for other people, but I figured it would be safe to speak in generic terms.

Ever since I started cross stitching and knitting again (I've known how to knit since high school and taught myself to cross stitch with the help of YouTube over the summer), I've tried to keep only one cross stitch and one knitting project going at a time.  For a while, this worked out great for me, until I went to my boyfriend's took out my cross stitch project and realized I didn't have my needles with me!  To make matters worse, I left my project at his house and couldn't get it back for a few days.  Since I had a lot to get done, I didn't want to waste time, so I started a second project.  I'm about halfway done with the second project and about three quarters of the way done with the first project I started.  The first project has more smaller figures to cross stitch, so it's easier to feel like I'm making progress since I can finish one or two figures in an evening (depending on how many colors are involved and how complicated it is).  As for the second project I started has much bigger shapes.  Unfortunately, it has been exceedingly difficult because most of it was one color, and it was hard to keep track of what line I was on and where I was in the project.  Thankfully, the hard part is over.  My goal is to be done with both of these projects before Thanksgiving, but I know I'll get them done long before then (it's important to be realistic though).

As for my knitting project, I'm not in as big of a rush to finish it.  Yes, it would be nice to wear during the winter months, but I also want to keep it nice looking in preparation for next year's county fair (I have a few projects I want to enter already).  I'm making this fairly simple wrap (please note, the pattern is NOT mine, but it's absolutely adorable, so I wanted to share it).  I'm keeping the color the same and everything.  The body is extremely easy to make, but I'm not entirely sure about how to do the hood.  I'm hoping my boyfriend's mom can help me with that one, as she's a wonderful and proficient knitter.  What's nice is the fact that I'm using large needles (size 17), paired with bulky yarn.  This means it will be a much easier project to finish.  I've only done a few inches in the past week or so, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace soon.  Since I don't have to be done anytime soon (unlike my other two projects), this project has been pushed to the back burner a little bit in favor of more pressing projects.  My goal is to have this one done by Christmas, as I have a much larger and more complicated one to do afterwards (another one to enter in the fair hopefully).

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