See you later January! — Hey Porkchop!

I definitely didn't mean to leave everyone for practically the whole month of January.

I was working through some health stuff last fall, it's something that has been bothering me for years and I finally decided to get a second opinion. Which turned into twice a week dr's appointments (lots of knitting time!) and all was going ok-ish until the past few weeks when everything sort of imploded. I'm always trying to look on the bright side of things because there is always someone out there who has it a lot worse than you, but I'll admit I'm feeling not myself lately! Major GrumpChop Status!

On the bright side, hanging out on the couch has given me a LOT of knitting and stitching time!

I decided to make my own personal yarn club this year, I filled up a Buffy bag with yarns I reallllly want to knit with in 2014. So far I've made one pair of socks and cast on for a second. I'm making toe up Monkey socks with Miss Babs Northumbria Deep Sea Jelly Fish! I've been keeping this project in my purse and haven't really been knitting on it during the evenings becauseeeee....

My 2014 big knitting goal was to knit another shawl! I picked two colors: Madelinetosh Sock in Pop Rocks & Dragonfly Fibers Djinni Sock in Winter Woods. A few days later Ysolda started sign ups for Follow Your Arrow and I was totally in. I absolutely LOVE where this shawl is going. It's funny because I don't ever wear bright colors but knitting this is pure joy. I find it really comforting and relaxing. Each clue has been very achievable, it takes me about two afternoons of knitting. I'd consider myself an advanced beginner in terms of knitting skill level. I'll admit that every Monday morning I look at the spoilers before I pick my clue, lol. The European folks usually have a few photos up by the time I have lunch. It is really hard to pick though but I keep leaning towards the girl-y lace-y options. Again, not very like me but it's totally a blast!

In the afternoons I've been cross stitching too. I'm working on my Once Upon a Time Sampler. I'm excited for you guys to see February. I think my favorite month is November, I've been debating turning that one into a zip pouch or something. I stitched up a little owl Valentine's Day pattern too. I'll have more details on it once we release it :):)

I saw a few people had questions about framing. We have our projects professionally framed. I'm still working on the best way to take photos of finished projects for the pattern covers and how to pick mats that look nice with frames! Sometimes we go to a local framing shop, other times we go to Michaels. Both times (in Chico, CA) we've had good experiences. The only thing I recommend is be patient. Maybe have a snack before you go in. ;) Lately I tend to get incredibly overwhelmed very fast and just pick ANYTHING to get out of the store and had my most favorite project, 12 Days of Christmas, framed with a horrid red mat! What on earth was I thinking?! I need to go back and get it switched out. That being said, framing is expensive.

I framed myself above little owl project myself this afternoon because it fit in this frame nicely, it came with the double mats already. I got it at Michaels-abuy one, get one free deal and since I stitched it on perforated paper, I just popped it into the frame and held it to the backing with acid free archival tape. I think it was around $34.00 for two frames, both with double mats. One is wood, one is white. There are all sorts of ways to frame projects yourself, some people use framing fabric adhesive and tape their projects around mat board, there are also mat pins and lacing as options. I'm waiting for a few books from amazon and the library about finishing your cross stitch, once I have more details I'll report back.

I am not sure why my blog hates firefox, it's the browser I use! I'll have Chop look at it this weekend and see if we can get the comments fixed. When in doubt, you can always email me at: thefrostedpumpkinstitchery at gmail dot com :):):)