September Update

 September brought very few finishes for me, even though I felt as if I stitched and crocheted often.  Some months are just like that, though.  I did make my monthly Christmas ornament.  I chose Noel by Nikyscreations in the JCS 2018 Christmas Ornament Issue.  I stitched mine on 40 ct Vintage Country Mocha with the called for DMC floss.  It's small and cute, and I love it.

 I also made my way through the month's installment for Redagape's Casual Granny CAL.  This is the Happy Hippy Square.  I chose colors that make the flowers look like suns.  I think they will be cheerful in my blanket.
I have been focusing a lot on Hooked on Sunshine's Atlanticus and hope to be finished very soon.  This will be a Christmas gift for someone special and am using Lion Brand Mandala yarn in Chimera.  I have learned with this design to count, count some more and then count again 😉😉😉😉😉😉

January Ornament Finish

 And finished!  At last, I have finished my first ornament for the Christmas Ornament SAL with Andrea.  This one was an adventure for me.  I cannot locate my DMC 169.  It must be kitted somewhere, and I subbed it with CC Blue Moon.  Am very pleased with that.  The chart is from PNPS 2017 Christmas-Winter Issue and is by Nikyscreations.  Unfortunately, the chart was poorly edited.  There are no instructions that this was to be stitched with one strand of floss (oh well...), had to guess what color to back stitch the wing, and the wing was not properly outlined on the chart.  Muddled through, and am content.  I am still quite fixed on small ornaments with beaded edgings.  I find I can always fit these on the tree no matter how loaded up my tree gets every year now 😁

I also have my first 2018 finish to share.  This is Cherry Heart Design's Granny Goes Large.  I worked this up with my Paint Box DK Rainbow Color Pack.  This huge bag of yarn simply had no place to live in my house, therefore this blanket was born.  It's big, bright, a bit dizzying and hard to photograph 😎.  This year will be a stash busting year for me.  Whenever possible, I plan to use what I have on hand (thus the floss substitution noted above) and see how much stash I can clear out.  While we all think our cross stitch stash can get large and take up space, I don't think it can ever hold a candle to how much space yarn takes up... 😂