All Aboard for Valiance Keep!

I saw Warcraft with Cora on Friday. She's the one who got me playing WoW in the first place. The movie isn't without its problems, but we had so much fun! We were geeking out at so many details and things in the background. Seeing Stormwind was awesome, of course, but Ironforge was breathtaking too. And the weapons and armor and spells and the gryphon and the murloc! It was great.

Stormwind Map last time:

Stormwind Map now:

That little brown blob at the bottom of the column is a pier in Stormwind Harbor. It may not look like much but it makes me happy to see a notable bit start to show.
I think Borean Tundra is where the boat from that one travels. Possibly. But it's equally possible it may have changed or I misremember.

My beloved's Harry Potter scarf is cruising right along given how little time I give it. It's mindless knitting... which is actually sort of my favorite kind. It's so soothing.

HP scarf before:

HP scarf now:

No update on Forsaken.

Jean says she hasn't had time to touch the Disney project. I'm not going to lie, that makes me a little nervous. When she gives it back to me I may have to make it my focus piece or we might not stand any chance of finishing it by Thanksgiving.

Watch Out for Sharks When Collecting Your Rock Lobsters

I finished page 1 of my Stormwind Map! That makes it 4.8% complete. 8000 of 166500 stitches.

Stormwind Map last time:

Stormwind Map now:

Just the barest edge of Stormwind Harbor

In other news, I have a new start! A new old start, of sorts.
I had originally started Wanderer's Cove in the supersized version and was stitching it cross country. This works well enough, but I was really feeling kind of bummed because I felt like I wasn't seeing much progress and like I'd made too many mistakes when I first started. Well, I haven't done anything with it since February and I know that's because I've had other things taking priority in my rotation (gifts, etc) but now I'm thinking it might have more to it than that. I just wasn't happy with it. And how silly is it to stitch something for yourself that you aren't happy with? I started to think that maybe, possibly, it could be that I needed to start over.

Since I was already starting over, I decided to haul out both the regular and the supersized version of the charts. It had always struck me that the mock-up of the regular looked more vibrant, but I always just figured it was the mock-up itself. Yeah, most emphatically no. I went and compared parts of the charts to one another, the main yellows in the window specifically was where I first looked, and the yellow in the regular chart is so much bolder! DMC 3822 vs 726. Well, forget that. I'm not going to spend years and years on a chart that is going to be washed out in comparison to what I want. I restarted with the regular version. It's the same 28 ct new khaki lugana I had originally started on. I just flipped the fabric around.

But see! This is why mock-ups are important! Well, one reason anyway. My Forsaken has been forsaken... still nothing about it despite my finally deciding to ask about it again on the bulletin board.

RIP SS Wanderer's Cove:

I had started in the lower left-hand corner

New start Wanderer's Cove:

Restarted in the upper left as most do

The Best and the Worst in One Post

Not many people are as blessed as I am to have a best friend like I do. My Jean is indescribably wonderful. She and I have been friends since we were in diapers and we share a closeness that is really rare.

But I'm not saying this to brag. That would be weird. I'm saying this because I'm updating on the project that I designed for her. Her son's paternal step-grandmother is a nice lady and a huuuuge Disney nut. She's also rather wealthy and difficult to shop for. So every year Jean and I try to come up with some handmade Disney project to make for her for Christmas. Year before last was appliqued potholders, last year was a scarf, this year is a cross stitched banner that Jean and I are actually both going to be working on.

I designed it using coricamo.com and then since I couldn't figure out a way to get the thing to center justify, I copied it all over in Microsoft Excel so that I could manipulate that.

Coricamo.com, by the way, is awesome. So happy with it. It made this so easy! And the fonts available made the end design a lot more fun looking than it might otherwise have been.

Wrinkles. Many wrinkles.

This picture gives zero sense of scale. I think this thing measures like 28" long or so.

This is stitched 2x1 on an 18 count white opalescent aida. The sparklies are hard to see but they are there. And they are the only reason I went with aida.

Which reminds me, I need to rant about aida. I haaaaate it! Hate! It is so stiff and bulky and cumbersome and rough and basically the worst. How anyone can prefer it to an evenweave like lugana is quite beyond my capability to understand. There are absolutely no upsides to aida.  You sit there and try to bring your needle up through the back and it resists you at every turn. The fabric is so dense that it won't let the needle poke up so you can orient yourself to get it through the right hole. That makes it sound more complicated than it really is. It's more of a process that you do without thinking. But that's the thing! With aida you suddenly are thinking about it precisely because it won't allow you to let it happen naturally. Stupid, hateful aida.

Those letters took much longer to stitch than they ought to have. I started it on May 16th and just passed it off to Jean on June 4th.

It will eventually read:

In this house

we let it go

because hakuna matata

and the bare necessities

will always be our guide

to infinity and beyond.

All it takes is faith, trust,

and a little bit of pixie dust

while we just keep swimming.

We whistle while we work.

We believe in happy endings

and we know that

life is always better under the sea.

Because in this house

we do Disney.

Whining Whiners Who Whine

I have now spent over a month fighting a sinus infection. (It's totally all my tiny eustachian tubes' fault. Evil little things.) I got my first round of antibiotics on May 11th. After the pressure and headaches got so bad I was pretty much rendered unable to human, I finally went back June 3rd. They put me on azithromycin this time instead of amoxicillin, which is what I'd asked for in the first place. It's been years since I've taken antibiotics in part because I don't want to abuse them, but I know amoxicillin isn't my particular friend. I can't help but feel if they'd just gone with the z-pak initially I wouldn't still be miserable and I wouldn't have needed two courses. Grumble, grumble. Fingers crossed that I can throw it this time! I'm so tired of being so tired all the time. And I'm going out of my tree not being able to pursue any of my fitness goals.

I did meet my stitchy goals though so that's something.

Stormwind Map last time:

Stormwind Map now:

In sunlight, even.

It is now 3.6% complete, which is both heartening and kind of a downer at the same time.

I've been itching to work on one of my HAEDs, Forsaken, but the last few times I've stitched it I've been kind of leery about all the black that's going in. The vibrant, luscious greens are part of what I love so much about the chart. If it's really going to wind up being black with just some greens I don't know that I want to continue with it. I went to the bulletin board and asked for a mock-up and was told Michelle would get word, but haven't heard anything since or seen it updated. I check daily. I really want to ask for an update but I don't want to nag either.

In a similar vein, I'd asked about Umbrella Sky No Fish (another HAED, original art by Marta Dahlig) and why the mock-up looked exactly like the regular Umbrella Sky. This was back on April 3rd when it was released. Instead of just leaving it up and removing the mock-up, they pulled it entirely and it isn't even available on the website anymore. Glad I scooped it up when I did! I've compared the Fish and No Fish versions and they do seem to be just what they're labeled, but I'd still like a mock-up. Maybe that's the one I'll replace Forsaken with if I decide to scrap it. But... not if I don't ever get any updates on either of them. :/

Stormwind Week 2

So for my Stormwind Map I'm parking for the first time ever and really kind of loving it. But 10 x 10 squares, which sort of seem to be the most common method, just really didn't feel right. I played around a bit and I'm most comfortable going row by row of a column 20 wide. I stitch all of one color in that row and then park the needle in the row below or wherever it next shows up. As I am one who completes both legs of a stitch in one go, the first row is left to right and the next is right to left. It works for me. It may perhaps not be the most awesomely frugal technique so far as floss usage goes, but oh well.

My goal with Stormwind is to complete one column a week. That's 2000 stitches. So far, so good!

Before:

Now:

Oh, and I remembered to get a picture of the mock-up:

This is the original artwork:

I had to alter the image quite a bit to get it to be something that I could work with. And I had to change around some of the colors.  The Trade District is not meant to be green. This is known. Speaking of which, the Trade District colors... I'm a touch leery. Seems a bit too vibrant. I'm hoping that it's the rendering and the actual stitching will look more in line with all the rest. I have got all my floss blends sorted and they do appear to be perfectly lovely. It'll be ages before I get that far though so I've decided not to worry about it too much yet.

My Stormwind Map is my focus piece but I have been putting in a bit of time elsewhere. My shared Disney project is getting love on my lunch breaks at work. I'll post about that just before I pass it off to my friend.

My beloved's Harry Potter scarf has been getting attention, though rather more spotty. I work on it watching Game of Thrones or playing board games. Table games? I don't even know what to call these things anymore.

It's a pattern over at The Leaky Cauldron, Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone Style Hogwarts Scarves. I'm stitching it with Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Superwash in Hollyberry and Caution with Knit Picks' Majestic Wood fixed circulars (16 inch) in size 8. I was going to go with double pointed needles instead of a circular because I love me my dpns, but decided that a circular might be more practical for this. I think I cast on 74 stitches rather than 70. I've also increased the stripes from 22 rows to 24 after the first couple stripes. They looked a touch short. I think maybe the WotA is a bit on the thin side for a worsted weight.