One Down

Tally for this week - one scarf done. It's an infinity scarf (big looped scarf you can wrap around a couple of times, if you haven't seen them). This makes 1 scarf down, 10 to go, 11 shawls to go and 15 stitching to go. No problem, right? (Delusional? Why, yes I am. It's still early in the year!)

Off to a Good Start

Well, 15 days and 15 cross stitch projects started. There's an assortment in there of linen samplers, regular aida cross stitch, stamped cross stitch and embellished cross stitch (that's the one where they basically print a picture on the cloth and you highlight it with stitches). Now let's see how this goes. I'm really REALLY good at starting, let's see how much I can get finished in 2011.

And just in case anyone had the fleeting thought I may have stopped there, I signed up for an 11 scarf challenge. OK, so not much of a challenge as I already had at least 11 scarves I wanted to knit up, or that were already in PIG status. Oh well, scarves are fast, right? (Now that I've tempted fate, watch for updates on just how bad a scarf can be!)

New Year - New Insanity

The impossible was accomplished in 2010 - I completed the 10 in 2010 shawl challenge, one of 399 out of thousands who started who succeeded. Abendwind, Wintersturm, Colonnade, Lady of the Forest, Citron, Ruffled Shawl, Kartoffelfeur, Traveling Woman, Wuestenhimmel, and Adamas all got done by end of the year.

Now, far be it from me to rest on my laurels (or leftover yarn, or patiently waiting stash projects, or...well, you get the idea). I immediately jumped into the 11 in 2011 (same idea, just add one shawl to the mix) AND as if that weren't enough insanity, signed up for the Winter Insanity Stitch Challenge (the site is in Finnish, so you'll need to run it through the translator of your choice). The object of this one? Start one stitching project every day for the first 15 days of the year, then try to finish them all by the end of the year.

I DO have some realization of my limitations, so I'm not actually expecting to finish this one during the year (especially as a lot of the things patiently waiting in my stitching stash are BIG projects), but I do know that once started, a project will get finished eventually. (5 - 10 years is still finished! Eventually!) I'm also taking this as an opportunity to expand my horizons a bit from the basic aida cloth and stamped cross stitch to Real Cross Stitch Samplers on Real Linen Fabric (A lovely 1854 Danish sampler reproduction was yesterday's start - with a special thanks to my friend Jackie for the hand-holding to get me started on Real Grown Up Stitching!)

I'll add pictures at some point, but right now have the printer hooked up, and I'm still on the back up computer that only has 1 port. I can have either printer, or camera, but not both at the same time. I may wait until I've got everything started for the 15 days, then post a mass picture so I don't have to do so much flailing and cable swapping (trust me, Me + Electronics = Ugly Situation Fast!)

Here's to a new year filled with new opportunities and growth for everyone (I'm NOT going to say challenges - everyone I know had a 2010 TOO full of "challenges" of the bad kind!) Now get out there and try something impossible! You just might do it by the end of the year!