Needlework Update: Third Quarter

These were the goals I listed out in June. Now it's October, and it's time to see what progress I made on them.

1. Publish both foundation stitch videos, the first one being the one I already recorded.
2. Finish my sweater.
3. Finish the Pentagranny blanket.
4. Start a pair of legwarmers.
5. Publish two more patterns.
6. Publish at least one free pattern.
7. Continue charity stitching.
8. Add at least one new product to the Stitch Whisper Etsy shop.

• I only published the first of the foundation stitch videos. Check it out if you are interested in a video tutorial on foundation stitches for single, half double, or double crochet.

• I did finish my sweater.  As the sweater progressed, I realized I wanted the borders of the sweater in a contrasting color, specifically grey.  In September, my husband and I took a weekend trip to Topeka, where I visited Yak 'N Yarn, which is a lovely yarn store, and I found the yarn I was looking for to make the border.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

• I also finished the Pentagranny blanket.  You can read my review of the pattern here.  It came out better than I had hoped, and has joined my stack of baby blankets to be donated to a local crisis pregnancy center.

• At long last, I have begun making those legwarmers that I've had sitting on my Ravelry Favorites page for the better part of a decade. I'm very much enjoying the project, which I'm making using some self-striping Regia sock yarn that I bought ages ago.  I'm most of the way through the first legwarmer, and it's going fairly quickly, so I should have the second done well before the end of the year. I'm looking forward to wearing them this winter.

• Over the summer, I published the Bottoms Up Waffle Stitch Hat pattern, which is the last crochet pattern I'll be publishing this year. It took a few tries to get the decreases the way I wanted them, so that pattern took longer to write up than anticipated. I also published the Tree of Life Mitts, which are knitted.  Both are available in the Stitchwhisper Designs Etsy Shop. I'll be publishing one more knitted pattern in the next month or so, and that will wrap up 2023!

• As for free patterns, I published the Big Gauge Stole, which is knitted.  I also published the Pinstripe Hat Pattern for crochet.  The samples for the hat pattern went in my donation bag.

• My charity stitching time has largely been taken up by the Hipster Preemie Hat pattern, but I've also started working on a batch of dishcloths to donate to the local food pantry.  I have three dishcloths that Practical Crocheter made for that donation project already, along with a cloth that I made years ago and recently found. A few weeks ago I whipped up two more, using yarn leftover from my sweater project, since that yarn is a cotton acrylic blend.  A friend also recently gave me several skeins of worsted weight cotton that she had hanging around and isn't likely to use.  I plan to use it to make most of the other dishcloths I want to donate, starting with five I made this last weekend.  Four of those will be future free patterns, so keep an eye out!  Each dishcloth will be donated with a bottle of dish soap as part of the Each Stitch Counts project. As I've had bits and bobs of various machine washable yarns to use up, I've also started making more bonding squares for another donation to Today Is a Good Day.

• The newest additions to the Stitchwhisper Designs Etsy Shop have been a mug and tote bag design that I put together with my friend Makayla, who did the artwork.  I'm very pleased with our collaboration! More "merch" will be forthcoming.

• In other stitching, I played around with the Two Hexagon Sweater concept, and you can read the post I wrote about that. The resulting baby sweater went in the donation pile. I also whipped up four net stitch pouches, based on Practical Crocheter's ornament cover pattern to make little sacks to hold pomegranates bought for decorating our family sukkah for Sukkot this year.  Mine are much plainer than hers, and I worked them in a bigger gauge, since the project was very last minute. I plan to make different ones again next year, but in metallic thread and with a smaller hook.

 

My goals for the final quarter of 2023 are to:

1. Finish my legwarmers
2. Publish the final for sale pattern for the year
3. Create at least one more video tutorial.  This one will be about foundation stitches for pattern stitches that you find in some of our patterns.
4. Publish at least two free patterns. One of those is just a matter of turning an existing free pattern on this blog into a pdf.
5. Make at least nine more dishcloths to donate.
6. Make about 15 more bonding squares and send them off.
7. Donate my stack of baby blankets
8. Send off the rest of my donation pile for the year.
9. Start on a set of coasters for my house.
10. Make a list of planned publications for next year.

What are you working on?

This post has been linked to Busy Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Senior Salon, Wonderful Wednesday, The Stitchin' Mommy, and Thursday Favorite Things.