Stitch this?

It's harder for me to find time to write about what I'm making than it is to do the making, but while of course it sucks for those of you hanging on my every word; I like me a lot more when I have lots of creating time as opposed to nothing better to do than blog time.

I'll open on a work in progress that's thanks to a surprise announcement.

It's been on the go for a few weeks, but I have started it over once, since as usual my approach to using a pattern is on the looser side and my initial start wasn't doing the business.

This is going to be a jacket for Will and I's very first nibling; who is due to arrive a week after our wedding. The pattern I'm starting from is this 'scrappy socky stripey cardigan'. I have a vision for this, inspired by the father-to-be (Will's brother), so there are of course many amendments being made. I shan't spoil the surprise of what exactly I'm going for until it's handed over, but I am very encouraged by the fact that everyone I've explained the concept to so far has assured me that I'll be the very coolest auntie if I pull it off.

In the winter break catch up section, let's return to my newest craft and look at some of the embroidered things.
One of the decisions I made about the wedding early on was that I wanted to give people a real incentive to join in. Pinterest and the wedding blogs are crawling with ideas for photo scavenger hunts to pop on your tables, but I got the impression nobody actually did them.
So why not offer prizes for completing those challenges?

A lucky dip seemed like the way to go - a mixture of things we'd made, things we've found, and little treats - and since I was in the throes of a stitching passion, embroidered brooches were just... obvious.

I'm sticking to the woodland theme but having all sorts of fun trying different stitches and techniques, and I don't think I can pick a favourite. Indeed, the more I think about continuing to write about them, the more I think I should pick out a few to go into detail about.
What do you think, readers, which of these would you like to read more about?

Let's talk goals a minute...

It's a shame a bin liner full of raw fleece is so unphotogenic, but goal number one is turning one of those, containing maybe a third of a llanwenog ewe's fleece, into yarn, before I bring home any more fleece.

This has been bumped up the priority list because, as part of participating in Open Farm Sunday with our friends at Court Farm Shop in Bishop's Cleeve, we get to buy fleece from the shearer, and meet people who have sheep and fleeces to spare. Mum has a portland fleece (from a ewe named 'Delight'!) in the attic with my name on it, as soon as I have space for it.


Other goals:
That cat embroidery from my previous post had turned into a patch and been attached to a jacket, but it needs more companions - I have two bi-flag themed patches in progress to join it, in hopes it'll be cool enough to wear a jacket when we go to Pride (It won't be, it's been over 26c here for the last week and a half with no signs of cooling down and I am SUFFERING).
So, those need to be a) finished, b) attached to the jacket in time for the parade on 14th July.

I haven't finished the Pincha shawl yet, but it'll be done by the time it's cool enough to wear a scarf as long as it's my project to take on the move.

Wedding crafts wise, I have one half finished crocheted vine, a couple of dozen paper flowers and a tree stump to work on eventually, but the more urgent thing is sorting out the art for invitations. I've done half of it, but perfectionism is kicking my arse over my amateurish watercolouring and I'm stalled.

There's a bunch of dressmaking and cosplay stuff just abandoned in a corner waiting for me to ease sleeves, shorten torsos and actually make space to cut things out, but who knows when I'll get any motivation for that.

And, being me I've taken on another project on a whim, this time roping in a little gang of other people. I'll pop some more stuff about that up here next time probably, once I'm ready to send things out.

In the meantime, I would love to hear about everyone's craft goals for the summer. Are you super organised and preparing for midwinter gift exchanges already? Are you drowning under dozens of half done projects like I am?

Don't try to appeal to my impulse control, I haven't got one.

If I were left unattended with a reasonable income and plenty of storage space, I'd probably pick up a new craft or artistic technique about twice a year at least.
 With attentive company, a fairly low income and a bit more than half of one small flat to store my things, it's a little less frequent but I still have slips. And when Hobbycraft send you a birthday voucher, put shiny things by their tills, and have one of the sales assistants give you a nice pitch for a line of kits I think a slip is entirely forgivable.

 Plus, now I've made this lovely thing! (Instead of many hours work on any of the other dozens of projects in progress stashed about my home.)

I sort of wish I'd timed how long it took. I could guess at an average of a couple of hours work on it a day since I started it just over a week ago, but it would be a guess and probably a conservative one.

Of course now the embroidering is done I'm not sure what to do with it.

We have enough throw pillows about, enough art hanging on the walls, and I don't really know how I'd go about turning it into a patch or where I'd put it once I had(if you've any advice on that though, do let me know).

The upside I can insist upon is that I can now make better use of the assorted embroidery threads I bought myself to make friendship bracelets out of many moons ago, and the stash that came in grandma's sewing box (though I wish I knew why she needed at least six shades of pastel pink).