Hey fellow stabbers of the cloth!
It’s been a hectic three weeks of the new year to say the least! Between trying to complete my college course and then being hit by a bug (illness) that can only be explained using very bad curse words, it’s been difficult to find the time and energy to stitch. Thanks to my amazing other half, who basically ‘forced’ me to take some time for me and take a break from things that hurt my brain, I managed to get some done so that I have something to write about this week 🤣🤣🤣 He’s always finding ways to help me see when I’m burning myself out and offering ways I can exercise self care, whether that is by just snuggling up on the sofa with me and watching paranormal/crime stuff or enforcing stitchy Sunday – which is the best day of the week.
Train of Dreams is my at home stitch, which means that I either can be bothered to stitch during the day, or I can’t. There’s no one around to motivate me to do it if my ADHD brain takes over and I’m all squirrely.
Tattoo’d is normally the one who focuses me a little and keeps me on task. We both can’t stitch at mine as I don’t have the industrial strength lamp and magnifier that the Mr needs, and when we spend time here it’s nice to have the evening just for us to watch junk tv and generally laze about.
Sooo that means poor old Train of Dreams really has been seriously neglected so far this year – I have done a measly 66 stitches on it the whole month so far (rings the bell of shame and marches through the town in a sackcloth!).
It’s so close to the end, with just under 5000 stitches left too, so I feel even crappier that I haven’t had the time, energy or get up and go (it got up and went) to pick it up and just finish the darn thing! Those poor Draglings have been stuck in the crease in the frame for years! Please don’t call Dragon Protective Services on me – I will let them out soon!
I’m quite proud of my bag of zeros (completed colours) – it keeps me motivated to empty out the last few colours in my project box (I’m a kitter-upper through and through).
(how Bob Ross-esque eh 🤣🤣)
I can’t wait to add them to the zero bag and get them back with their other bobbinated pals in my thread storage upstairs! I’m sure they have been sorely missed…. though I could just be going a little fuzzy headed again (someone pass me the ibuprofen pleassseeee) and it’s making me delirious 🤣🤣🤣
We will be chatting more about thread storage and other stuff in a couple of weeks!
Thanks to Tattoo’d, Lust has had a lot more attention than Train (shhh 🤫 don’t tell the Draglings!), I am not earning my speedystitcher award this month though (maybe I should change my name to snail stitcher for now 😂😂😂). My brain just hasn’t been working well enough to concentrate and, to be honest, the only thing that has stopped me from completely losing my mind with all the 154 has been watching the number go down every Sunday.
Getting it below 70k of that colour felt like an absolute impossible task (it started with over 75k 😩 not that day obviously 🤣🤣). I’ve never been good at sticking to one colour for long so it has been challenging for me, to say the least. With stitching on Thursday and Saturday night I got it below 69k and Sunday finally managed to get it all the way under 68000
It’s starting to fill out a little more – which really helps – I’m trying to stick to the 154 and treat myself (haha yep it’s a treat) to another colour or two along the way just to break up the monotony – every stitch has to be done at some point and I don’t think I could handle doing all the 154 at the end – I would end up binning it, burning it or chopping off my own hands so I had an excuse not to do it 😂😂😂 I’ll admit that’s a bit dramatic but right now it’s how I know I would feel 😂😂😂
I’ve been so fuzzy headed that I’ve had to unpick over 100 stitches at a time more times than I care to admit because I haven’t checked the thread number (which, embarrassingly, is right at the top of the screen on pattern keeper so there no excuse) and stitched a whole bit in the wrong colour 😩 But despite this it’s coming along really well.
On the dress I was playing with a little cross country stitching, and that is so not me usually, but with the background I’ve gone back to my usual filling in method. It calms me and gives me a little order to it so it feels like I’m making progress, and frankly while I was feeling ill I couldn’t have coped with counting and would probably have just made a load of mistakes – well more than I already did 😂😂
So that’s been my stitching progress so far this year! On my course I have learned so much about domestic abuse and legislations in place to protect victims. As much as I have found it difficult to concentrate (due to the demon illness) it has been a real eye opener into the types of abuse that happen, what the law deems prosecutable, and all the support that is out there for victims/survivors to access. It’s definitely a subject that is not advertised enough for there to be a better awareness, not only for women but for men also.
For information and awareness here’s a couple of links you guys might find interesting:
It’s also been blooming freezing here (for England anyway), it got down to -6 this morning, which is the coldest it has been all year – and I’m not a fan! Been living in my Stitch Snuggie for the last few weeks at home to combat the chill 🤣🤣🤣 I know you guys in North America make our cold weather look like summer, and you guys in the Australia are in a heat wave but seriously the UK is not prepared for extreme weather conditions like you guys are – we turn to icicles in the winter, all shops close at the first sign of snow and driving becomes ridiculous, in the summer we all melt into a puddle of goo, turn into lobsters and complain about the heat non stop! We can’t be happy with any weather here 🤣🤣🤣🤣
We hope you enjoy seeing and reading what we have accomplished. We have a Facebook group where we chill and chat and share stuff and would love to see what you guys are working on too! Head over to The Hoop and Thread to join in the chat, fun and laughs! Pull up a chair, pick your poison and settle in!
Rockin' That Needle 
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