Progress on the sleeves! I have four more repeats of 5 rows then I’m on to the ribbing (then I need to repeat the entire thing for the other sleeve) – once those are done, all that’s left is to finish the yoke and this sweater will be done. If I dedicate a little bit of time for it each day, I’m hoping I can finish it before the end of the month. We’ll just have to see how that goes. Normally I knit in the evenings, but I have been so tired I haven’t had the energy to do too much. My kid is in love with the colours, and she may get a year or two of use out of it I hope before she out grows it, as kids tend to do.
Progress on the sleeves is coming along! I’ve got 7 more rounds of 5 to go, every 5 rows (approx) is a colour change, and then I’ve got the cuff and of course the second sleeve. After that it’s the collar, and then this sweater for my kid will be complete! Hopefully. I’m trying to be better and get at least a few rows done each day. Working with fingering yarn is always a drag on larger projects and I’ve been feeling quite tired so it has been taking me longer than I was hoping.
I’ve got 50 more rows to knit (with a decrease every 5 rows) then I think the first sleeve will just need a ribbed cuff and and it will be completed! I’m looking forward to starting the second sleeve, hopefully this week. After that I believe all that’s left is the yoke / collar, and then this sweater for my kid will be officially completed.
Knitting this is a big deal, because it will actually be my first completed project of 2023. As much as I wanted to do a lot more knitting, life got in the way. Still, it’s better than nothing!
Progress on this sweater for my daughter is coming along! I started the sleeves, learned how to do sleeve caps (love them) and have just the rest of the sleeve plus the neckline to do. She may even get to wear it this fall!
My Mom taught me to cross stitch when I was around 10 years old. It was her main hobby (besides reading) and I always admired the pieces she created. She would do these elaborate, sometimes blanket sized, pieces full of colours. It was no surprise when I wanted to take it up, but it turns out that I do not have her patience or perseverance when it comes to this hobby. I would get bored easily, want to start new projects constantly, and I’ve never completed anything large. Now that I’m older it’s a bit easier, but because of the number of hobbies I have, cross stitch is probably one of the more neglected ones. Especially since my eyesight has been going. I’ve been thinking about investing in one of those magnifying glasses that you can clamp to the couch, so that I can see my stitches clearly.
Cross stitch happens exactly as it sounds. You stitch tiny little X’s over and over. Sometimes that’s mixed in with other types of stitches (back stitching for outlining, half stitches just for a different look, knots, etc) but the majority are the repeating X’s. I have a huge collection of kits, as well as patterns I’ve bought online or ones I’ve printed out. I subscribed to a yearly magazine for a while that included a tiny little seasonal project, but they mostly sat there, unused.
I have bins of canvas, threads neatly organized in craft cases, bags of threads less organized, and everything in between. The size of my cross stitch collection is (IMO) under control and quite small (I have one plastic tote dedicated to it, I make sure everything can fit into the tote minus my containers of floss) compared to other crafts I have (knitting, I’m looking at you) and I prefer to keep it that way. Like most of my hobbies, if I don’t set aside dedicated time to it, it tends to get neglected. I’d like to do a little stitching each day and then at least over time I might be able to see some progress. As it is now, I tend to rotate my hobbies in and out, so I’ll work on knitting for a few months, then swap over to cross stitch or miniatures, then swap over to my 4th hobby which I’ll talk about in tomorrow’s post.
How do you handle having multiple hobbies? Do they all get an equal amount of attention or do you tend to hyper focus on one and rotate them out like I do? Let me know in comments!
stargrace 
