A New SAL for 2016!

Just a quick post to let you all know about a new SAL coming out in 2016 that I have been anticipating for a while and will be very excited to join!

Anyone who has followed my stitching knows that I am a huge fan of Mabel Figworthy and her beautiful hardanger designs.  In fact this year I have been stitching one a month, each of which was formerly a design from her 2013 Songs of the Weather SAL.  I am so excited to report that Mabel will again be releasing another SAL for 2016:

 

 

Although sign ups are not being taken yet, you can find more information on the SAL here. 

 

I have stitched several of Mabel's charts over the years and I cannot stress enough how amazing they are!  There are full instructions and clear diagrams for every stitch and if you are still stuck Mabel is always happy to help via email in any way she can.  If you have always wanted to try Hardanger, or even if you are a Hardangerista - beginner to advanced, this will be a fabulous SAL for stitchers of all levels!

 

I can't wait!  For purely selfish reasons of course it means that I will continue to have a little hardanger slot each month in my rotation in 2016!

 

Happy Stitching!

Plum Pudding by Glendon Place - March Progress

I was very excited to make a long awaited start on Plum Pudding by Glendon Place.  Nic and I decided to unite over our shared love of purple and SAL on this one together as it has been on both our wishlists for so long!  We settled on stitching on it for the first week in each month which makes it easy to remember :).

Here are the materials - as it happens both Nic and I are using the same fabric, 28ct Jazlyn in Candytuft by the Crafty Kitten and gorgeous Dinky Dyes silks:

 

 

I love love love stitching with Dinky Dyes silks!  Granted I know I say this about most silks, but you may be surprised to find some brands conspicuous by their absence in my stash as I'm not a fan of them!  I think Dinky Dyes silks are an excellent place to start for stitchers that are new to silks.  They are the least expensive of the branded silks, come in gorgeous colours but are also easy to substitute in designs as the skein lengths are the same as DMC.  A lot of silks come in 12 stranded 6 yard skeins or 7 stranded 5 metre skeins but Dinky Dyes come in 6 stranded 8 metre skeins just like DMC.  So if you have a monochromatic design that you want to make more exciting, you will need exactly the same amount of skeins in Dinky Dyes silks as the pattern calls for in DMC - no thread maths required!

 

Anyway, here is my progress for the week.  I only managed three stitchy sessions on this one but am happy that I have completed the centre of the mandala:

 



 

It was hard to put down, but I will look forward to picking it up next month!  Next up to stitch will be my Operation Threadporn projects for the month once I've settled on thread choices - I swear that choosing threads is the most difficult part of this whole challenge !

 

Happy Stitching!