Crafty ADD Update #3

Wow - I'm amazed at how much I ended up getting done on my different projects this week! I figured I wouldn't get much done on them because of my HUGS project, but I was wrong! Read on to find out why :)

Knitting

I bought the yarn for this project in case I had a break in my crochet project waiting for Mom to show me the next step. But I really didn't think I'd start it this week! Boy was I wrong! I only had a two day break in between finishing the crochet squares and when Mom and I got together, but during those two days I had two different times where I was out driving around and needed something to do with my hands. Clarification, I wasn't the one driving!

Anyway, yarn projects are much easier to do in the car than anything beady...so the knitting came out! Plus I made myself some little stitch markers for my projects. You can't see them really well in the picture, but that's ok. Why did I make them you ask? Well, I'm not far enough along in my knitting to even know what they are normally used for, but I realized something the other day. My biggest problem with knitting is that it's hard to see what progress I've made. So I have two markers. One that will represent the beginning of a week, and one that will the beginning of the day I'm currently working on :) That way I can SEE how much progress I've made!

Not that I plan on picking it back up until the baby blanket is done though. Speaking of which...

Crochet

I started putting the squares together! Sad thing is that I realized when I took the picture that I messed up the pattern :( So I'm going to have to take a couple squares out and rework them. Oh well. We also discovered that I do NOT have enough squares made up! I don't know how many more I need though. I figured I'd just put together all the one's I have and then start making the rest of them when I get that far :)

I'm finding putting the squares together a lot harder than making the squares. I think it's because I know that I'm much slower at it than I was the squares, and because the weight of the squares pulls on it and makes it harder to keep an even tension. I'm getting better though! Day by day :)

Oh yes, and I really didn't think I'd get this far on the crochet project this week, but we ended up spending several hours over at my inlaws early in the week and I spent the majority of that crocheting! Taking along the HUGS project would have been too awkward. And they are used to me having my hands flying while we chat :)

Cross-Stitch

I finished my penguin book mark! Well, all but cutting it out and putting on the backing. I'm not going to do that until after I sew a couple more bookmarks though because I can maximize the fabric that way. Unless of course someone responds to this post saying they want to buy it, and then I'll cut it out! :D I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the next bookmark...I have a lot of jewelry ideas in my head...so I think I might put it aside for a week to give me more jewelry time.

Jewelry

I can't show you what's on my bead board right now because it's a present and the person might read this post :P But I do want to tell you guys about my bead embroidery project, the final product, and why I was making it!

Like I mentioned before, this is my first ever bead embroidery project. I've been wanting to do one for awhile now...but finding the right inspiration was hard. I've thought about doing something in an ACEO, "Art Cards Editions and Originals," because I'm fascinated by them lately! So I was all primed when this challenge came along.

A crafty friend recently went through a tragedy in her life. Some of us who all know her decided to all create something along the theme of "Hugs and Kiss for...." I knew immediately what I wanted to do! Thus my HUGS project was born.

I spent the majority of the week working on this. I have no idea how many hours went in to it, but I'm guessing 8-10. Yes, I know how to sew, but I've never done any embroidery and certainly no bead embroidery. So I went slow...

I don't really like the backing I put on it. I like the color of the fabric, but I know that for pendants and things most other bead weavers use things like ultra suede. I can see why. The fabric was easy to sew through, but I'm worried that it's going to frey. :( Oh well. It's meant to be displayed, not handled, so it should last pretty good :)

I don't want to give away any personal details, but those of us involved in the project have heard back from the gal we did it for and our goal was accomplished! We were able to cheer and encourage her during this hard time, and that's what we wanted. PLUS, I get to send her the piece I worked so hard on! Which is fantastic, it would have felt wrong going to anyone else.