WIPocalypse - October

Guess what? I am on time for Octobers WIPocalypse! So far only two people signed up for this month, so I really am an early bird ;-)
This months question is again an easy one - rotation or one project at a time? Well, as you can see/read, definitely rotation! I do have a few focus pieces (currently Kriemhild and Middle Earth), but in between I rotate my other project on an irregular basis, it just seems to be the best for me. I guess I will try a rotation plan again next year to swipe through all my projects and we will see how that goes (last time I managed to stick to this plan for like 5 months).

As for my progress for this month, I have two projects to show.
First up is my work on the One-per-day challenge. Since I started late on this, I will continue for a few more days. So far I went from here:

To here:

I finished page 3 and did a total of 2320 stitches so far and I am pretty happy with that. There are about 2800 to finish the next page and finish the row and I hope to do this for my November update. Since there is a lot of background here, this stitches up really quickly and it's pretty easy to do my 100 stitches a day. And by the way, since it's October I am super happy to use that extra cute needle minder! I don't remember where I got it, but it so adorable =)

The next project, that is also still on my frame, it - as always - Kriemhild. I went from here:

To here:

There are only 15 stitches across, but they took quite long. Her hand was pure confetti, but at least it is finished now and I think the confetti is getting better now. There are 60 stitches across to finish the row and I really want to do this before the year ends. But looking at this picture, I must say that I am once again overwhelmed by the detail in this chart, the rock looks so real!

So that's all I have for this month. My plans for next month are to finish the row on QS Trapped and add at least 3 columns to Kriemhild, who will stay on my frame for a few more days. I want to change projects towards the weekend and maybe work on Whispers for a few days, it's such a perfect project for gloomy days.

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgousness SAL - October

I am only two days late - I am getting better at this! And I again managed to work on two projects for this months GG SAL
Things are going back to normal now - we went to our photographer and got a couple of pictures printed for our thank-you-cards and we finished putting them together today - finally! Then we also went to another wedding on Saturday, two of our best friends got married and we did our best to help them as much as we could (honestly, we would have been lost without all the help from our friends, so we were even more motivated to help). The celebration was great, but the whole thing was pretty exhausting for us ;-) So I am still a bit behind with all my stuff here ;-) But I hope it will get better now and I will be able to follow your blogs on a more regular basis in the future =)

But back to topic, I guess you want to see a few pictures! So here we go!
The first project I worked on was In the Moonlight by Cindy Grundsten, I went from here:

To here:

Not much to see - still background here. I did another 1 300 stitches on this and I will do my best to add another column for next month, this would mean catching up to where I was before I had to start over (and I would hopefully be more motivated to work on this again..:).

The second project I worked on is my Map of Middle Earth, I fear I have only 600 stitches to show for this month, but I went from here:

To here:

I will keep this on my frame for a few more days to finish this column and to (hopefully) add another column for next month =)

I also knitted a pair of baby socks for my friend (the one who got married), but I already gave them away. I am currently doing another pair for her that match the baby socks, but I still have a way to got there.

I fear this is all I have to show for today.
Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse September

Better late than never - right? So here is my update for September, which is really tiny! September just flew by! First the wedding, then I went to a retreat from university (which was pretty boring, I read a lot, but no stitching), then I was at how for three days and then we went on our honeymoon and then October was here.
We spent a really nice time in Greece, the weather was great and both my husband and I need a break, so we spent a lot of time relaxing in our private pool:

And well, lots of food, a bit of culture and for me a lot of reading and swimming. But I am back in Germany now, being back home is a nice thing, but it is so cold here :D

Well, back to stitching! I only have a super tiny update on Kriemhild to show, but at least I managed to finish page 38. I went from here:

To here:

There is a bit more confetti by now, since I managed to finish her dress (at least for this row). Now it's only one full age and a very small partial page to finish row number 5! Kriemhild is staying on my frame for a few more days (I think), because I really want to get a bit more done. I want to finish this row this year and I currently feel like I need to speed up a bit. Sometimes I feel like I need to take a month off from working on her and I feel that coming, so after the current row I am taking a small break.
In October there is another One-per-day-challenge going on and I plan to attend. Since I am joining a bit late, I am going to continue a bit into November, so I am going to work on my project for one month and hopefully daily =) I decided to pick up QS Trapped by Melanie Delon, I have not worked on this for ages. Here is my starting point:

I am continuing on the first row, there is 5200 stitches left, which might be a bit to much to do in one month, but I definitely want to finish page 3 (29 across) and at least make a start on page 4. I again plan to stitch (at least) one square per day, so my daily goal varies from 90 to 110 stitches per day. I am going to post updates on my Instagramm (@lady_stitchalot) during the month (not daily, but once or twice a week), so feel free to visit me there =)

This months question really made me laugh (and cry a bit) - it's about finishing styles... hahaha... me and finishing things... a well, I must say that I really love to see wall hangings and I think I would like to finish a project like this one day ;-) But I must say that a lot of my projects are things that I can best imagine to be framed in the end =)

WIPocalypse August & GG SAL September &Wedding update

Ah well, time flies by! I was so busy before my marriage (the party was on 6th September) that I hardly got any stitching done and I didn't find the time to make a blog post about WIPocalypse and then the time for the GGSAL was already drawing near and since I don't have to much to show for any of these, I decided to combine them into one post.

Our wedding was great, we had a lovely ceremony with my family and friends, but the whole week was very exhausted. It all began on 30th August, when our neighbors suddenly turned up on our doorstep with a giant wreath and food and beer and they decorated our door and we had a small celebration (they call it "Kränzen") and here is how lovely our door looked afterwards:

So on that night we sat outside drinking and talking until midnight and the next day on the 31st, we had our Polterabend, where all our friend from university and work and so on turned up. We had a lovely BBQ party and there is a tradition where your visitors smash porcelain (for good luck, you are not allowed to throw glas because that is supposed to bring bad luck) and the bride pair needs to clean it up (to show that they face things together) and then your lovely visitors just spill the mess again and we have to clean again (because life isn't fair ;-) ). Well, this was actually a lot of fun. We had a bit of a rain storm that night, where we all running to bring in the music box and the food and we all got pretty soaked, but it only lasted a few minutes and the party continues until like 4 in the morning (well, I went to bed around 2:30 but my husband kept going). I guess I don't need to say that we were pretty done on Sunday... And Monday...
And then we were already back into preparations and the 6th was already upon us. The day was great, we had some lovely weather, the ceremony was amazing, good food and all our friends around. I wore a huge white wedding dress and if any of you ever plan to get married in a huge and heavy dress, remember to bring a second dress because the dress got really heavy over the day and after the wedding dance I changed into something more comfortable. The dance went good, we settled for "Once upon a December" (he proposed in  December, so that actually fit) and later that night, when I had already changed, we did a second waltz to "Blood Brothers" by Iron Maiden, which was amazing!
Even thought this was all beautiful, I was pretty happy when it was all over and I just slept for like 2 days ;-) Last Friday on the 13th, our neighbors turned up again and took down the wreath (it's called "Abkränzen") and that's basically an excuse to try and drink up all the leftover, so we had another exhausting night :D And we still have a lot of beer left :D

Well, now let's focus on stitching. My WIPocalypse update is really short, I only did two columns on Kreimhilds Revenge and went from here:

To here:

I really hope to do better for next month, the current page is nearly finished, so at least that should be possible for October.

As for the GG SAL, there is not update on Middle Earth for this month! I worked on it so much during the last month that I decided to give it a months rest and pick up something else. I actually even worked on two projects and the second it still on my frame and will therefore make another appearance next month.
First I worked on Wolf Kiss by Dimensions, it was only like 3 days, but I went from here:

To here:

After that I decided to dip up In the Moonlight by Tilton Crafts again, it has been ages since I worked on it. Last time:

And now, only 300 stitches added so far, but it's a start:

So this is all I have for this month. As always, there are link ups for both monthly SALs. You can find last months WIPocalypse entry here and the GG SAL here.

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - August

Here we go with another GG SAL update. It's less than 3 weeks to my wedding, so I am quite busy with the preparations by now. We decided to do a Polterabend, which is a celebration before the actual wedding and very traditional around here. You basically celebrate with your neighbors and friends and it's mostly drinking and smashing porcelain (for good luck). We are planning a bbq party with a lot of people from work /university. Around here there is also a tradition called "Kränzen", where your neighbors make a long garland out of greenery and decorate it with flowers. The whole thing is then placed above your door, so every one sees that there is to be a wedding. Traditionally this happens very close to the wedding day, like one or two days before, but by now it often happens on the weekend before because it goes with a lot of drinking. Traditionally this is organised by the neighbors and the bridal couple doesn't know when it happens, but since we are doing a Polterabend on the weekend before the wedding (on the 31st), we think that the whole thing will happen then ;-)
Anyway, we are busy organizing stuff for that (drinks and food and so on). Apart from that we are learning to dance now (waltz) and it works better than we thought. We still have a way to go, but we are practicing almost every night (at least for half an hour) and I am confident that things will work out.
But this post is supposed to be about stitching! I worked only on my map of Middle Earth, but I did a lot on it! I did not only manage to finish page 8, I also did the first column on page 9. I went from here:

To here:

You can see the beginning of the Iron Hills now, wich is actually the last writing for this row! I am not at 63 000 stitches now, so I did l about 2 500 stitches during the last month - I just couldn't stop.

I hope that I will be able to get my butt up to work on a few other projects (like In the Moonlight, Candy Cane or Wolf Kiss) for the SAL this year, I only seem to be working on Middle Earth. Last but not least, there are plenty of other entries for the SAL this month and you can see them here =)
So this is all I have for this month, by the next entry I'll be married, I can't believe it! =)
Happy stitching =)

WIPocalypse - July

It looks like July is already over and it's time for another WIPocalypse update. I was doing the one-per-day-challenge last month, so I decided to wait until the end of the month to share my final update on that. The good news is that I met my goal for that challenge, at least stitch-wise. Unfortunately I did not manage to stitch every day on Crossing the Stream by Golden Kite, but on most. I think there might be like 5 days on which I didn't work on this, but overall, I am really happy.
You know I already shared a tiny update (like 300 stitches) on this at the beginning of the month, but I am sharing the official starting point for July again:

And I managed to stitch page 4, which is 3 350 stitches:

So we do have 13 467 stitches done now. I definitely putting this away for a while now, working on the 32ct was a bit exhausting and I need to make up my mind on whether I should continue with page 5 or go down and start row 2. The point is that I am working on this on my Qsnap and I don't want to damage my parked threads by moving the Qsnap over them. Another page might just fit, but maybe I will just go down.

The bad news for this month is, that I hardly stitched on anything else. I did two columns on Kriemhild and a bit on my Middle Earth and that's it. I mean the amount of stitches I did is fine, but I missed working on different projects and some days I really struggled because I wanted to get my daily stitches into CTS, but also stitch on something else. I really wanted to get more done on Kriemhild, I did those 2 columns at the beginning of the month and then the month was suddenly over.
I went from here:

To here:

I must add that I also participated in a readathon this month and putting a stitching-challenge and a readathon into the same month is definitely not for me. I had a few days where I didn't get around to stitch because I was busy reading and I still felt like I was not getting enough reading done to meet my goals. A book that definitely kept me from stitching was "The Priory of the Orange Tree" by Samantha Shannon:

First I must say how amazing this cover is! You can see that it's really shiny and the colors are super rich and pretty. I love the way the artist did the dragon, it looks really impressive and alive and the contrast to the background is amazing. I would definitely stitch it.

The story follows a lot of different characters. The story is set in different locations and follows different characters, but what connects all of them is the fear of the nameless one, an evil dragon (called wyrm) that tried to destroy the world a thousand years ago, but he and his wyrms were defeated and banned into the abyss. Legend has it, that as long as the house of Berethnet rules the queendome of Inys in the West, the nameless one cannot return. So we follow Ead at queen Sabran the Ninths court in the west, who tries to protect the queen from assassins who try to end her line, but her survival and the survival of her bloodline is essential for the worlds safety. While the people in the west fear all wyrms, people in the east distinguish between dragons (good) and firebreathers (bad) and we meet young Tane, who trained all her life to become one of the legendary dragon riders. The conflict between east and west runs deep, but when the nameless one begins to stir, they need to unite to defeate him.

I must say that this is a longer book, it's over 800 pages, but they just flew by. Samantha Shannon did a masterpiece with this one, such rich world building and a lot of background story. You know there are a few books that just follow a red line and everything the characters do is just to get to the final battle and that's it. But here have a world build around the story, we have twists and turns, a lot of character development, you even need to read a few hundred pages until you get what the priory is that is mentioned in the title. The story and the world are really complex and I am really happy that the author decided to write a longer book to develop all the ideas. This is a standalone, but on goodreads Samantha wrote that the world has more tales to tell and she would love to return to it, I really hope she does! 

Well, one of the best books I read this year, if not the best book and just needed to talk about this. If you like high fantasy and/or dragons, give it a try ;-)

The last thing left for this month is to answer this months question: How do you get yourself out of a stitching drought? Ah, good question. I don't get worried if I don't feel like stitching for a few days and especially if I just feel like doing something else (like read Priory...), I just do that and don't try to push me to much. If I am in a real slump, I try getting inspiration from blogs or Instagram or flosstube or something like that that and then I try to do something like "half an hour a day of stitching and if I really don't like it, I do something else" and that usually does the trick.

Last but not least (this post in longer then I thought) I am sharing this/last months link-up with you, so you can see how everyone else did in July.

And plans for August... Well, a few last things are left to do for my wedding in September, we are currently learning to dance (works better than we expected) and we still need to pick up a few things. As for my health, I am officially done with my medication, it has been over a week since I last took the pain killers. I still have a bit of pain sometimes, but it's getting better every day =)

Happy stitching =)

Gifted Gorgeousness SAL - July

So here is my tiny update for this months GG SAL, you can find all the updates here. Not much stitching going on these last days, but Middle Earth is still on my frame and I plan to work on this for a few more days, so I hope that I have more to show next month ;-)
I did like 440 stitches on Middle Earth and went from here:

To here:

I am actually pretty close to a page finish, just about 1 500 stitches and I definitely want to do them for next month =)

Health news: after feeling dizzy for a few days, I went to see my doctor and we decided to try without the pain killers - yay! The process takes two weeks where I am reducing my daily dosis, I already went down to 50 percent and therefore had a pretty bad weekend which I mostly spent in bed. But I hardly have any pain and the dizzyness was gone after the first day, my head certainly feels less foggy. My doctor actually said that the dizzyness was just a sign that my body requires less medication and therefore it's a good sign. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to be rid of
this stuff and be able to enjoy a good glass of wine :D

Wedding update: We bought our weddingrings! That was a hard decision to make, in the end we went for something completely different :D Also we decided on a budget before we went shopping and I was pretty confident that in the end we would fall in love with something super expensive and already wrung my mind around how much we could afford and now guess what - we didn't even half the budget! And then my sister decided to buy a pair of earrings to go with my dress as a wedding gift, so right now I feel like the richest girl in the world :D

And another dumper: My computer decided to die. It was completely fine last weekend and when I opened the thing on Sunday, the system was dead. All my stuff - gone! I am happy that I store my patterns in my dropbox, but most of my progress pictures are gone =/ I think I have an old backup somewhere from a few years ago, but the whole thing is pretty annoying. Fortunately, only the system was broken and we were able to reset the computer, so it's working again. I still need to install a new feedreader and collect all my blogs again, I really need to get my butt up to do that...

Well, this is all I have to tell you for this month =)