WIP Wednesday: Letters From Hogwarts SYOA

Just Before a Frame Move

I fell down a very stitchy Harry Potter rabbit hole a few weeks ago and I haven't been able to look back since. I found a new stitch-a-long via a friend on instagram, and found a whole new type of stitch-a-long.

What I found was a year long stitch-your-own-adventure type stitch-a-long, which frankly is amazing. The lovely person behind Cunning Cross Stitch has created a story in which we follow along at the end of each chapter there is another section of the cross stitch to complete. The amazing thing about this one? You get to make your own decisions in the story, which ultimately determines what elements you end up including in your design - pretty amazing right?!

What is better is that they are offering this amazing cross stitch for free. There is a delightful facebook group for support and I really cannot say quite how excited I am about it. It is taking me a little while to stitch everything up, and I am still working on the introduction charts, and haven't carried on with the story as of yet, but we are now into chapter 3 of the story.

There are also some behind the scenes pages as well on the blog detailing the thoughts and processes behind each chapter. It is all well worth a read if you have time. But for now, here are my progress pictures.

Current Progress

WIP Wednesday - Deck The Halls Stitch-A-Long

Back at the beginning of the Christmas season I decided to take part in a mystery stitch-a-long (SAL) run by Caterpillar Cross Stitch. When I decided to get involved the first part of the SAL had been published, and it looked cute, so the decision was made. The SAL was organised in such a way that a new section of the cross stitch design was released every two weeks in the lead up to Christmas. It was a totally doable time frame, and I joined the lovely SAL facebook group to see other peoples progress and ideas.

What I failed to take into consideration, was that I was trying to make a lot of my gifts for my immediate family, and didn't really have the time to dedicate to keeping up with the SAL. So here we are, in March and I haven't finished it yet. I have still been working on it, even though it is tempting to leave it now until December so I can carry on with the festive making, whilst feeling legitimately festive. I'll probably have a load of other gifts to make then too... a makers work is never done! ;)

I picked this project up again mainly because I was feeling the need to work on my WIPs after moving house, and I really fancied a cross stitch project. It fit the bill nicely, and I got a little more done. To be perfectly honest it has been put back in the draw now, and hasn't really been much of a priority for me at the moment.

I am having a little bit of a funk in my making as I write this. Most things have taken a little back seat whilst I get used to settling into my new home, but I also seem to have a million and one things to do and people to see. Is it too much to ask just one off shift at home! Although saying that I'll probably just get bored and want to go and do something.

I digress, I am still making progress on my Caterpillar Cross Stitch, Deck the Halls SAL, very late indeed, but I am still enjoying it. Hopefully it will be done and ready to display one Christmas soon. I have currently completed sections 1 and 2 and am now working on section 3. It is an enjoyable cross stitch with an easy to follow pattern, and I believe you can buy the whole SAL as a complete kit from the Caterpillar Cross Stitch website here. So if you feel like being unseasonally festive, go give it a go!

WIP Wednesday - Arbor Vitae

This picture is a little washed out.

Over the Christmas period I made quite a few presents for my close family, so I decided that it was time for a project for myself. I had swatched for the Arbor Vitae and it had been on my to make list, so it felt about right.

The pattern is by Joji Locatelli from the Pompom magazine issue 27. The yarn I've decided to use was three skeins I picked up when I was on a weekend adventure with my other half. We had a lovely weekend in Bath (where we had our first date many years ago, which ended in a rather unpleasant happening...) where I dragged Sam into A Yarn Story and picked myself up three skeins of Arranmore Donegal Heritage in the Rauri colourway, a 4-ply in a lovely dark red colour with little neps of different colours.

These were my holiday skeins and reserved for something nice for me. This jumper seemed perfect for it. I just have to hope that it will be enough.

Unfortunately with the Pompom magazine they tend to give the yardage for a given project in the number of skeins of the particular yarn they made it in. It's somewhat confusing, but can be worked out. I just wish it was a little bit easier.

The jumper was an odd construction, at least one I am not used to. I know I haven't knitted many jumpers, and the ones I have are either yolked or raglan but this one has the back knit separately from the front until the under arms, and the front knit in two before being joined. I'll admit I did enjoy the odd construction. It gave me something to concentrate on, and learning new things is always interesting and somewhat fun.

Trying it on, on the train.

The front and back yolk of the jumper went by pretty quickly, as I find nearly all of the jumpers I've knitted do. It gave me a lot more practice at cabling, and I'm really inclined to do more as I have really enjoyed the process. Maybe it's time for a cabled hat. I got most of the body done on my christmas holiday around the place, with plenty of long train journeys to get a good chunk done. I used the jog-less join technique for alternating my skeins. There is a brilliant tutorial on YouTube by Grace of Babbles Travelling Yarns, she explains is brilliantly and was where I first heard of the technique. I used it on the body of the jumper where the yarn changes, and is a great way to avoid sudden tone changes and to fade colours.

I finally finished the body of my jumper as well as the neckband on the train home after my Christmas and new year celebrations, so I am on to sleeve island for the foreseeable future. I'm okay with that, sleeves I find are just like really long socks, and they aren't that complicated. I found all the stocking stitch on the body hard going however, it felt like it would never end. I'm rather glad it did though. As I'm starting the sleeves I really do hope that I have enough yarn for this jumper, it's getting a little too close for my comfort. I was never a fan of yarn chicken, at least I do have a gauge swatch to undo if things get really desperate!