November TUSAL

My TUSAL jar is filling up nicely now we are in the penultimate month of the year.

You can see it resting on two current projects.  The one of the right will be instantly recognisable to anyone who has read this blog this year - my continuing progress on the Discworld Mappe.

Here is the piece I have been working on today:

Look at that adorable tiny castle!

Überwald is a huge mountainous region of wintry climate that is the Disc's answer to (fictional) Transylvania, as in, a land populated almost entirely by horror tropes. It was once a part of the Evil Empire (along with smaller states Borogravia, Zlobenia and Mouldavia). The ruling nobility of the land is composed of feudal werewolf and vampire families. Lately, the dwarfs have also come into power. There are many trolls in the distant mountains, warring against the dwarfs, but in cities such as Bonk, trolls are considered semi-sentient slaves. Humans are still mostly in the roles of "townspeople" or "exploited citizens". Most Igors come from Überwald, where they traditionally serve those on the far side of sanity, using the excellent local lightning for their experiments. Überwaldean is said to be a good cursing language. The principal town/capital in Überwald is the twin cities of Bonk-Schmaltzberg.

As stated by Otto Chriek, Überwalds' scenery is psychotropic: If you say something portentus like "zer dark eyes of zer mind", there would be a sudden crash of thunder, and if you point at a castle on a towering crag and say "Yonder is ... zer castle", a wolf would howl mournfully...

Source: L-Space

A couple of people have commented about "being close to a finish" but I'm afraid not!  I should be at 60% complete by the end of the month which means there is still nearly half the chart to go!  But I am getting through the full coverage section and the millions of mountains so it's all good progress.

The other design on the left of the TUSAL jar is a new start.  Totally unplanned but the Stitchonomy FB page decided to host a small Winter SAL as everyone enjoyed the Hallowe'en one so much.  This will be 27 snowflakes in a circular design when we finish.  Each one is tiny, less than an hour's stitching.  So to make it harder - why not stitch it entirely in beads on dark sparkly linen?

stitched on opalescent blue 28 count linen

The fabric is a random piece of linen from an eBay grab bag.  The white and crystal beads are Mill Hill and the blue ones I bought from a local craft shop a while back.  I got a large bag of four different coloured blues so there will be plenty for this design.

You can find the Facebook group here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/StitchonomySAL

It's a public group so you'll be able to see all the loveliness without joining.  The design was free if you signed up before a certain date but will be available from her Etsy shop at the end of the SAL.  https://www.etsy.com/nl/shop/Stitchonomy

She also has a Patreon account where you can sign up and get early access to the SALs plus a free daily small chart - https://www.patreon.com/posts/22270940

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Finally, it's time to sign up for the Advent Calendar Blog Hop!  For this hop, each participant is allocated a day in December to make their post on.  They will show something they have stitched on a Christmas theme and answer the topic question I set.  I then copy their photo onto my blog post in the style of an Advent Calendar.

So if you'd like to join in, please leave a comment or send me an email.   Let me know if there is a date you would particularly like or one you'd like to avoid.  I will be in touch towards the end of the month!

Here is a link to last year's so you can see how it works:

Advent Calendar Blog Hop 2018