How much is that doggie jumper in the window...

 I can't remember if I've told you, but I'm part of a group that knits, crochets or sews items to sell for mental health charities. The group was set up by Jane George, whose 19 year old son Llyr, committed suicide in 2020. In the past 5 years, she's organised us, run stalls, and together with the group, has raised almost £100,000. A huge chunk of the donations go to small, local mental health charities, rather than the larger ones who are known nationwide. 

My speciality? Knitting dog jumpers and I'll be passing three along on Tuesday:

I'm in awe of Jane - so much good has come out of unthinkable heartbreak. If you'd like a look, the website is https://www.knitformentalhealth.co.uk/ and just recently this little charity https://gryffsmindspace.co.uk/ had a £2k donation.

A lot of others do much more than I do, but every dog jumper sold helps!

A few recent finishes

Found a east market bag pattern, and got addicted.

Also made my mum a twiddlemuff

Rachael xx

 

A Token of Love

 I can't tell you how ridiculously happy I am to be able to cross stitch again after about 6 years of not being able to see well enough to even work on 14ct.

After my second cataract op. I tried a bit of a WIP that's been lingering and realised that it's now something I can do (not something I've had to give up ou!) I got rid of a lot of my floss and patterns, but did keep a few bits. 

But.... then I fell down the Long dog rabbit hole and fell in love with them all over again. I just had to buy The Token and personalise it for our son who sprang a surprise wedding on us this spring. There would have been no chance of me tackling this then, but now I'm raring to go. After dithering over colours for almost a week I finally made a decision (largely thanks to good advice from Helen!) and now, I'm off....

 I'm using Pompey Tides from KLT Charting and it feels like just the right colour to me.

Hoodstock Hoodie

 I had this on my to do list for a while and a friend had recently finished this pattern. So here is my progress so far. Just pinned together to check the length and size. 

Rachael xx

Onwards and upwards!

 The start of a new month and I have a small finish to share - the blackwork piece I was working on is done :) 

I don't have a use for it, just did it because I could - and now the eyes are good enough to have a go at cross stitching again. 

Much as I'd love to start a new project, I'm going to work on my WIP first - I just checked and I bought the floss in March 2008! I have no idea whether my stitching will be up to standard, but am going to give it a go - definitely won't finish it before I start something else, if I can do this, because I have another sampler that I really want to do for someone... Fingers crossed I'll see some progress this/next week.

Oh, yes - it's purple!

Vivienne Powers Ackworth Patchwork Sampler, using Dragon Floss Lasting Friendship.

On the down side I've completely forgotton the safe place I left a) a cross stitch WIP with more work on and b) a blackwork thread pack I was planning to do this summer!!

I've just realised we don't need to use the comments section to make this work - as four of us have admin status, we can just add to each others' posts, just as if if it was a thread on a forum; we could identify ourselves by either initialing our comments or maybe use a different colour print. This might make the chat easier. (JC)

Updated to add, I finally found the thread pack :) No sign of the WIP yet, but I'm sure I've put it somewhere (really) safe...

Do you mean, adding to your post like this? (HR)

The only problem with this is that, because it's not a comment, it doesn't show up as a new post. There's no way of knowing whether anyone has added to it or not. (HR)

Yes, that's what I was thinking, Helen - may work, but as you say, there's nothing on the admin page to say if it's ben updated...  Maybe comments will work better? (JC)

Another rabbit hole

 Should I really have clicked through to this site???

Will I never learn.....?

Actual purple cross stitch 😀

I couldn’t resist adding my little purple piece here as it’s the only purple based project I have on the go 😆 I plan to stitch Indiscretion by Long Dog Samplers by the end of summer. I am stitching on a lovely piece of printed aida from Zoe's Gifts ‘N’ Crafts with DMC 550

*Jo*