... *steps up to the podium and clears her throat before adjusting the mike*

My fellow stitchers, welcome to the State of the Stitching Address for Q1 2005. It's a pleasure and an honor to be her- *stops because she hears something from the back of the room, and then cranes her neck to hear an "get on with it already!"

Oh. Kay. Let’s get on with it then.

The Starts/WIP pile

This quarter, I learned to crochet. Now you can figure out where some of the time went that should have been spent stitching – I was playing with yarn instead. That and there's been a few more nights that I've spent sleeping instead of stitching.

Despite that, I managed to start 3 new pieces: The Sixteen Spot Ladybug (from Dimples Designs), the Viceroy Butterfly (also Dimples) and Chatelaine’s Mini Mystery H.

So what if they're small pieces. Two of them are Dimples bugs! If you've never stitched one of those (to a deadline, no less, on someone else's piece that everyone else in the round is going to see and handle), you'd understand.

The TW Knotwork bookmark freebie from Vegas got some attention during the month while it lived on my desk (and still lives there). As of the end of the quarter, I was almost done with the knotwork – which leaves the border and the backstitching to be completed. This will definitely be a second quarter finish. Fortunate Traveller got some attention during the February SAL – that’s when I worked on the border, but I neglected to take a pic.

And then there was Guardian. Guardian got lots and lots of attention during the quarter.

Here’s what he looked like a few months ago: Click here to see the pitiful three years of attention he'd gotten.

Here’s what he looks like as of last night, before stitching: Click here to see what 3 months of spotty progress, interruptions with crochet, bugs and a mini-mystery got me.

You have to understand also – it got me a mistake. There was a mistake in his tail and that's why I put him down quite some time ago. I couldn't figure out where I made the mistake. When I vowed to pick him up again, I still couldn’t find the mistake. So I compensated for it. And compensated for it. And couldn’t figure out why I kept having to compensate for it until a couple of nights ago. See the framing of the scene? It’s supposed to be 174 stitches wide.

Mine is 173 stitches wide. Yup. One. Stitch. Short. Actually, more like one column of stitches short. I only caught this as I was working the knotwork, and I have no idea how I didn’t catch it when I was counting the darn thing out when I was stitching the framing of that scene. Well, the very wise woman who designed this piece told me a few months ago that I didn't want to stitch the knotwork. When I mentioned that I was going to use an overdye for it, then she nodded and said it would be ok then. I probably should have listed to her first statement. If I had decided to not do the knotwork, I wouldn't be in the position of shorting knotwork by one stitch, but I've figured out how to do it. I just need to remember to do it every time I circle round. That's right, I'm stitching that border one loop at a time.

I've been reluctant to put him down because I've done so much on him and I don't want to lose that momentum, but I'd really like to work on other things for awhile too. So I'll be putting him down shortly (after I finish a second loop round) in favor of a shimmering mermaid or something else (don’t know what yet).

Everything else is pretty much an unworked on WIP.

Finishes:

Yes, folks, I actually finished some things during the first quarter. For the Wee Beastie Round Robin, I finished both the Sixteen Spot Ladybug, and the Viceroy butterfly. You have to give me some credit that they were also new starts that got finished. Yes, I know they were on schedule to be finished too, but still. After a few weeks of diligent work, Dracolair's Phoenix also got completed. I'm quite proud of that piece, as it's the first Dracolair that I get to finish and keep for me (instead of the models).

Chatelaine’s Mini-Mystery H (a gift from my SS) also got completed during Q1. It too was a new start, but not one with a deadline. So I should get some credit there, right? I'm pretty happy with how it turned out too. Especially that Jessica stitch in the middle – now I *LOVE* that stitch. Now, I do have a pic for that, but for some reason it didn't copy over to my webspace, and that cheeses me off. But I digress.

Now while all of those seem like small accomplishments for the first three months of the year, you have to add in the time spent on WIPs (mostly Guardian)… which was lots when I wasn’t crocheting.

Year Long Goals

Well, I haven't started the stocking for DH yet, but it's still early in the year. I did manage to make great progress on Guardian, including starting to work on the border in the overdye that I picked out. That seems to be coming along very nicely by the way. Castles by the Sea is all kitted and ready to go, and may replace Knotwork Bookmark at work, but I’m not sure about that yet.

I managed to finish Mini-H and The Phoenix, so those goals are on track. I'm betting that I'll finish Shimmering Mermaid this quarter as well, and then I’ll have to frame her up (I'll frame Phoenix at the same time).

I've acquired the patterns for the sampler I may cobble together for a baby gift, and another pattern for a wedding present, so that’s on track.

So, that's the current state of the Stitching. The State of Crocheting? No, I'm not going there. Let's just say that the scarf I started this quarter is coming along nicely. And we won’t talk about the knitting needles either.

Happy Stitching!