The Next Mystery SAL: The Summer Magical Mystery SAL 2020

Great news: There will be a Summer Mystery SAL this year! I haven't done a Summer Mystery SAL before - I'm usually in recovery mode after going on my annual trip to the UK and try not to plan too much as a result, this year such a trip seems unlikely and unsafe so I decided to go ahead and make plans for the summer.

Because it's summer and many of you will need to deal with bored kids etc. I'm doing it a bit slower than usual. Instead of every four hours I'll be doing once a day! This means that the SAL will last a fortnight (two weeks for the USA-ians) instead of a weekend. This post has all the information you need to stitch it - well except the patterns hehe. Please take the time to read everything carefully. Dates are right at the bottom of the post!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 7

Welcome back for day seven of the sixth round of mystery stitching! Today is my oldest son's 19th birthday, his last year as a teenager, while also being the end of his first year as an adult. Lots of things happened in the last year for him, many personal milestones - and many things that didn't happen because that's how things have gone for all of us this year. He's looking forward to the future though and has planned some things that will hopefully be able to happen. In the meantime I feel old and wonder where all the years went since I had a devil of a job giving birth to him - he seemed quite happy to stay put hehehe. But I think everyone gets that when their kids grow up, so onward to what this post is *really* for... the next part of the mystery!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 6

Welcome back for day six of the sixth round of mystery stitching! I'm running a bit late with my post as I had some unexpected ripping to do (ok, ok, ripping is NEVER expected when you just discover it). I had a bit of a panic moment too as I noticed things were not lining up as they should have and I was worried the pattern was wrong - fortunately it was just my ability to count yesterday.

Joining the Dots - Part 3 - 5 Years Later

This is part three of the additional items that go with the Fob a Month - 6 fob that I posted five years ago. It was one of those things that slipped through the cracks of life, things that you think you have done but apparently had not. The lack of the needle book was pointed out to me not so long ago and I've been meaning to do something about it ever since. As this is the first non-SAL Friday of the year it seemed like the perfect time to make it happen after all.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 5

Welcome back for day five of the sixth round of mystery stitching! I hope you all noticed the extra space between the part three and part four stitches - if not now is the time to double check! You don't want to add today's stitching to a mistake *wink*. If you aren't in the Mystery Facebook group or you haven't looked lately: I'll be posting the information post for the Summer Magical Mystery SAL sometime this weekend. Its mostly written but I need to sort out some thread suggestions and take photos of them for people who like a starting point for colour changes.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 4

Welcome back for day four of the sixth round of mystery stitching! Yesterday I was a bit delayed in posting the links to the post on fb because oldest needed help in locating all the stuff he needed to smoke some jerky. It was only a trial run to try the smoker setting on the BBQ and a recipe he wasn't sure of but the end result was fantastic and it all vanished before dinner. Hopefully he won't wait too long before he does that again!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 3

Welcome back for day three of the sixth round of mystery stitching! I am getting closer to announcing the Summer Mystery SAL - I have the design but still need to finalise the colours (and in some cases the placement of colours - so that would potentially affect the amount of floss needed) and then I need to split it up to find out how many parts it will be. So you can see that I'm closer to being able to give more information, but not there yet.

A Blackwork Christmas - May

Welcome to the fifth edition of A Blackwork Christmas SAL! This month I decided to go for the hottest colour available: red. This rounds off the yellow-> orange -> red series of hot colours I've been doing these last few months. They look so bright and cheerful hanging on my lamp!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 2

Welcome back for day two of the sixth round of mystery stitching! I hope you didn't have too much trouble getting started yesterday! It was a bit of a count to get those first stitches in but now they are there it should all be a lot easier.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Part 1

Welcome back for day one of the sixth round of mystery stitching! So good to see you return for another round of mystery stitching! It's been great watching your mysteries grow as the patterns happen! I don't know about you but when this started I thought it would be for a short time only while stuff was sorted out - how wrong I was! Although locally things have been a bit more relaxed rule wise I'm still staying home just to stay safe as I'm immunocompromised and don't want to be part of the next wave of sick people. That means I'll keep making these patterns for a while longer - so if you are staying home for whatever reason you can still get your daily dose of mystery stitching for the foreseeable future.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Final Post

Welcome back for the final post of the fifth Mini Magical Mystery SAL! Don't worry it's not over - the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 starts in an hour! This post is just a final post showing my stitching of part fourteen and what I have done with my version.  I do hope you all had fun! I have loved seeing your stitching in the Facebook group!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 14

Welcome back for day fourteen of the fifth round of mystery stitching! This is also the final day of patterns for this SAL - I'll be back one more time to show what I have made tomorrow (an hour earlier than usual). The next round of the Mini Magical Mystery will start tomorrow at noon as per the information post.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 13

Welcome back for day thirteen of the fifth round of mystery stitching! Just one more part to go and this SAL is over - I really do hope you are enjoying the mysteries as the next one starts on Monday! Don't forget to share your progress in the Magical Mystery SAL Facebook group, it's really inspiring to see what you are doing with yours!

NFSAL 2020 - May

Welcome to the fifth of this year's NFSAL posts! This month I'll only be showing Carla Eldridge's stitching - she'd had some stitching time and did some serious berserker stitching to not only catch up but get this month's pattern done ahead of time!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 12

Welcome back for day twelve of the fifth round of mystery stitching! I got a lot of positive responses to the question about a summer mystery SAL and so I'll get plotting - I have no idea yet about things as it's not designed yet but I thought it best to ask before designing. I'll give more information as soon as I have it.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 11

Welcome back for day eleven of the fifth round of mystery stitching! I hope you like how the pattern has been progressing - we'll be doing something about the empty bit in the corners today! Last night while doing a chunk of backstitch for some finishing of another project I wondered if anyone might be interested in a summer Mystery SAL. It would be similar to my other mysteries but then with just one part a day with maybe 100 - 150 stitches max each (for reference: normally you get six parts per 24 hours with 80-100 stitches each, so 480 - 600 stitches per 24 hours) so that you have more time to stitch and more chance of keeping up during the busy summer months. Let me know what you think in the comments or in the fb group!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL - The Back? The Bottom? The Whatsit?

Welcome back for... errr... I'm not sure what to call it. It was originally intended to be the final pattern that I gave but obviously it's not over for everyone yet and I'm still continuing with the patterns. Sometimes things are complicated and I'm terrible with naming things at the best of times.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 6 - Information Post

Hi and welcome to the sixth information post for a Mini Magical Mystery SAL! With lockdowns still enforced for many people I'm continuing with another mystery to keep you stitching! This pattern is the same size as the other five and has 324 stitches total. This mystery will start the day after the current mystery ends: 25th May.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 10

Welcome back for day ten of the fifth round of mystery stitching! We have hit the double digits now and that means that this Mini Magical Mystery SAL is almost over - the information post for the next one should be up soon - it's basically the same as this one but with the dates changed. Also up soon is the pattern I designed to go on the back, or as an ending, or as an individual stitch, or whatever you want to make with it. I think that with lockdowns ending for some it might be time to share it even though for me it's not over yet.

Easy Christmas Cards SAL - May

Welcome to the fifth part of the Easy Christmas Cards SAL! I had a bit of fun with the stitching this time. I decided to challenge myself and see what I could make with what I could find on my desk... which turned out to be a lot more than anticipated! I *may* need to clear my desk up... just maybe though! Please note that this post is picture heavyish so only load if you are on Wi-Fi!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 9

Welcome back for day nine of the fifth round of mystery stitching! Today I had the fun of going out to get the blood test that was scheduled for two weeks ago but cancelled due to Corona - funnily enough my Dr wanted it done after all to see if the "new" meds (as of last December) were doing their job. Oh well... off I go again! On the plus side that DID get me up and about nice and early so there is that.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 8

Welcome back for day eight of the fifth round of mystery stitching! Day eight has arrived and with it snake heads? Well that's one way to get rid of the octopus! (... Or did it?) If you aren't seeing what I'm seeing that's fine, I have a bit of an overactive imagination and see shapes everywhere hehe.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 7

Welcome back for day seven of the fifth round of mystery stitching! We have reached another half way point! Our octopus is getting added to today - I wonder if you can guess where it's going to get stitches added tomorrow?

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 6

Welcome back for day six of the fifth round of mystery stitching! As I was stitching part five I kept on thinking of skeletal frog's legs - I think it was partly due to the green some of them are. I'm glad to say that today's part will hide them again! If you saw a phantom entry in your RSS feed that's all my fault - I hit the wrong button in my pre-caffeinated state.

35 x 35 for 2020 - May

Welcome to the fifth 35 x 35 for 2020! I had so much fun with last week's rainbow colours that I decided to use them again - but this time using the new colours that are a bit more muted. I did have to add a blue to the colours that isn't in the new range as the new range doesn't have any proper blues, just a lot of purples/purplish blues.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 5

Welcome back for day five of the fifth round of mystery stitching! I have noticed that some of you have started to get pretty experimental with thread use - such fun! These little things are perfect for trying out new to you thread on a manageable scale - if it turns out to be horrible thread you know you don't have much to do with it (or rip out) and if you love it you know that you need to find a bigger project to use it on!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 4

Welcome back for day four of the fifth round of mystery stitching! I managed to get the coffee stain mostly out so I decided to keep the square I'd backstitched. Having washed it I felt it best not to iron the fabric dry in case some of the coffee stain was still there and I didn't want to risk heat setting it (just working on the basis that things that have been washed and dried in the drier tend to retain stains better than if they had been line dried). As a result I didn't get to stitching parts one and two till later in the day when it was fully dry.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 3

Welcome back for day three of the fifth round of mystery stitching! I'm still running behind with my stitching - I'd planned to do it last night but stuff happened that needed dealing with and stitching was put aside (and then of course there are the usual distractions that happen when you put something aside for a moment).

Blackwork SAL 2020 - May

Welcome to the fifth part of the 2020 Blackwork SAL! I'm running a bit later than planned - I thought I had the patterns ready but I didn't so had to "quickly" make them - it takes about an hour so I really couldn't have them ready faster than this.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 2

Welcome back for day two of the fifth round of mystery stitching! I'm definitively running behind schedule today - and that also means my stitching didn't get finished so there's not much to show today, Everyone has days like this so you know what I mean when I say it felt like nothing went to plan. However I still have the rest of today to catch up as I did get the stitching for tonight's post done yesterday!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Part 1

Welcome back for day one of the fifth round of mystery stitching! So good to see you return for another round of mystery stitching! It's been great watching your mysteries grow as the patterns happen! Some of you are not sure what to do for a back and others may want to commemorate what they have done with something too - for them I have made a pattern that I will give in a separate post before too long - I'll be adding mine to the end of the chain so won't be adding it till the very end.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Final Post

Welcome back for the final post of the fourth Mini Magical Mystery SAL! Don't worry it's not over - the Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 starts in under an hour! This post is just a final post showing my stitching of part fourteen and what I have done with my version.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 14

Welcome back for day fourteen of the fourth round of mystery stitching! This is also the final day of patterns for this SAL - I'll be back one more time to show what I have made tomorrow (an hour earlier than usual). The next round of the Mini Magical Mystery will start tomorrow at noon as per the information post.

Bookmark SAL - May

Welcome to the fifth part of the Bookmark SAL! I'm running a day late thanks to my rheumatism playing up. I was also procrastinating today as I was not looking forward to adding the multitude of photos (and therefore comments/captions) I'd made to help with how to do the straight stitches in this pattern. I decided that for now getting the post up was more important and that if people want I can make a tutorial separately (just let me know in the comments here or on Facebook on one of the posts announcing this post) which will mean that those that don't need it can get going sooner.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 5 - Information Post

Hi and welcome to the fifth information post for a Mini Magical Mystery SAL! With lockdowns still enforced for many people I'm continuing with another mystery to keep you stitching! This pattern is the same size as the other four and has around the same number of stitches as the third and fourth mysteries. This mystery will start the day after the current mystery ends: 11th May.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 13

Welcome back for day thirteen of the fourth round of mystery stitching! I finally got the information post for the next Mini Magical Mystery SAL up! You can find it here. This morning I put the bread that oldest helped me make yesterday in the oven. It did some rising overnight and I discovered why the rising form for sourdough bread should only be used for sourdough bread: it absorbs all the liquid from the bread, so it didn't rise as well as it could have done.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 12

Welcome back for day twelve of the fourth round of mystery stitching! I'm running a bit behind schedule today - we'll see if I can manage to get this up on time, as I have four minutes to posting time! My rheumatism is playing up and moving isn't my strong point today and to top it all off I was *certain* I'd done the stitching yesterday - I hadn't. Fortunately it doesn't take long to do so here I am typing away with minutes to spare when I had 15 to start with. Spoiler alert: I didn't make it so the post is late but I refuse to skip adding the pattern and spellchecking! But if anything this is proof I'm stitching right along with you!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 11

Welcome back for day eleven of the fourth round of mystery stitching! Just three more days of patterns and you will know what this one looks like! Fortunately there will be a new one on the Monday after so you don't have to worry about not having your daily stitching. I'll get the next information post up soon, but it's basically the same information as for this and the previous three Mini Magical Mysteries.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 10

Welcome back for day ten of the fourth round of mystery stitching! Today I discovered that way back in part five I'd made counting mistakes and I'll have to rip out half the stitching I've done since. This is where I'm very glad I'd decided to stitch with a thread over 1/4 of the design as otherwise I'd have had to have ripped out much more.

Weavers Animals Band Sampler SAL - Part 5

Welcome to the fifth part of the Weavers Animals Band Sampler SAL! This month the amount you get to stitch varies depending on your chosen size as for the people doing the standard size there is a border that is skipped for the small size. Both sizes will finish the current band and start at least one new band.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 9

Welcome back for day nine of the fourth round of mystery stitching! There is a lot of jumping around in the day eight part and now, day nine - I hope you like what it looks like after you have finished stitching for the day! The downside of not baking bread myself during the week is getting teenagers moving to get the bread before they'd normally naturally emerge - youngest has already finished his schooling for the year as it's his exam year - complete with cancelled exams which were replaced with the results of tests of this and last year and a project or two (three for one subject) for every subject - his most hated thing. He's now in the six week wait between the last project handed in and the final results - far too long in my opinion and he's hating it - and skipping mornings entirely. But then he's 16 and does that in holidays anyway hehehe.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 8

Welcome back for day eight of the fourth round of mystery stitching! On to the second half of this pattern! At this point it can still go in any direction - will it stay so angular or will it become more rounded? Only I know and I'm not telling you... yet... *evil grin*. What I will tell you is what I did for my special Sunday loaf yesterday. I used four different doughs to make a four braid loaf. Plain white, Abby bread, nine grain bread, and the prehistoric grain mix that's so very yummy.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 7

Welcome back for day seven of the fourth round of mystery stitching! When you have finished stitching this part you will be half way with the mystery! Hard to imagine isn't it that the first week of the two is already past, for the fourth time. Today I made a four strand braided bread, using four different bread doughs It's still in the oven as I type this so I can't show you today what it ends up as. Instead I'll go straight on to the embroidery!

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 6

Welcome back for day six of the fourth round of mystery stitching! Having bought bread yesterday while out (or more accurately: I stayed in the car while oldest hopped out and got the bread) I don't need to bake bread today - but I have something planned for tomorrow that will be fun - if it works as planned!

Ornament of the Month 2020 - May

Welcome to the fifth Ornament of the Month for 2020! This month I didn't use any beads for the pattern - and most of the backstitches are actually straight stitches, so it stitches up quite quickly.

Temperature SAL - May

Welcome to the fifth Temperature SAL post! Goodness didn't April go fast! At least it did for me, but I can imagine that for some of you it dragged like a millstone. As is fairly usual for April the temperature was all over the place - warm to chilly and even frost in the mornings - something I didn't see much of over the winter. Most of this doesn't show up in my version as I'm stitching the maximum temperatures.

Mini Magical Mystery SAL 4 - Part 5

Welcome back for day five of the fourth round of mystery stitching! I had a check-up at the hospital this morning (nothing new, just stuff we are keeping an eye on - even now) and because I have hay fever I was required to wear a mask just in case - not the norm here in the Netherlands where only health workers have to wear masks while working. You get some seriously weird looks as a result while wearing the mask - most of which seem to include the "oh god she's got it" expression. No bread baking today as a result of going out - we got baker shop bread on the way home.