Current State of Affairs

Finally, I think I got my knitting mojo back three days ago, when I cast on the Mystic Pullover from New England Knits in this beautiful turquoise Cashmira. I plan it as a heavily modified version without the pockets and I intend to follow my notes on the purple Phildar sweater for the sleeves and the decreases.

I also resumed my cross stitching process - the Buttercups Flower Panel. I'm stitching from here and there - the easy background when I'm not feeling like following the complicated chart and the flowers when I feel the need for some color.

These are the two projects that are actually viral at the moment, and here are the other WIPs that I do intend to finish (eventually :)

This large-scale cross stitch is my own design based on a paining by Frederick Arthur Bridgman - A Street in Algeria. Frankly, I'm not very happy with my choices for the color palette and the big canvas (Aida 14,  I should have made it on much smaller canvas, 18 or even 22). It's enormous and I don't quite feel like finishing it, so this is a may be:

This blue cotton cardigan is a modified version of a free Japanese design I found on Ravelry. It's for my daughter and I'll finish it for early May (if I can get my head around my notes):

The linen blouse is for me, it's OK so far, though the process is a slog, but I should have it ready for late spring - summer:

I had forgotten to include this project - the two picnic cushions:

My son asked me to sew him a cosy for his tablet. So I dug into the bags of sewing materials and came upon these almost finished things.
This dress was intended as a little black dress, but I ruined the velvet by ironing it. I still have no idea how to sew velvet, if I'm not allowed to iron it, even through a cloth and from the back. Anyway, I'm thinking of using the lower cotton part for the inner lining of the tablet cosy.

The other two interesting and decades old sewing projects are a dress and a jacket. They are both Burda patterns, started really many years ago. Unfortunately when we moved to our new apartment six years ago I threw away (I still shiver out of horror when I think about it - how could I !!!) all of my sewing and knitting magazines, my tracings, my notes. Then I was in a state of mind to sell, donate or throw away most of the old stuff and I thought if I needed sewing magazines, I would buy new ones. I should have given it a second thought, but ... oh, no use crying over the spilled milk now.
The dress is a possibility, though an ill-fitting one - it feels narrow around the bust when I move my hands and the shoulders are 2 cm drooping. The fabric was expensive silk blend (impossible to photo shoot!), I should probably finish it anyway:

The jacket is a disaster. It's very wide shouldered (with those enormous shoulder pads, once popular), it looks two sizes bigger on me now (and I know I haven't shrank). I like the fabric though - some checkered bouclé, and please notice the perfect invisible pockets :))) But I fear repairing it is beyond my abilities :(

And yesterday I also went to my first Pilates class. It's been more than three years and a half since I last attended a proper sports class and I feared that I've gone all jelly. The good news is that I still have most of my muscle strength and stretchiness (the latter being more of a natural one rather than due to my own diligence :). The bad news is that today I feel as if I've been processed through two grinding stones - every  bone and muscle in my body aches. I plan to make it a once a week Monday class and I'm putting it in writing here, hoping to make it permanent and not an accidental Monday whim. The facilities and the instructor are excellent, it's a half an hour walk from home and my plan is to go there on foot as a pre and after class exercise.

Well, seems I've got enough WIPs, back to work :)