Beading the Goldfinch Piece, etc.

The Mill Hill Buttons and Beads Goldfinch project found its way to the top of my UFO pile yesterday. I started the beading. To do this I really need to sit at my desk, pour the beads into white container lids, and use my magnifier.

To my horror, today I realized that all the grasshopper green beads on the leaves of the flower should have been only done with half cross-stitches so they'd sit diagonally. I sure could have saved a lot of time if I'd done it that way. Now I'm trying to decide if I'll take all those beads off and redo them correctly. And if I don't, I guess I'll need to continue the full cross-stitches on the rest of the green beads.

I got the blue house in the right place last night.

The tops of the trees are stitched on the top square.

This is about the size of one of the four sides.

There aren't any fancy stitches so it shouldn't take long to stitch up. However, I keep distracting myself with other projects in the rotation.

I also picked up the sock yarn blanket that I started at the Needler's Retreat last year.

All of this has barely made a dent in my bin of sock yarn ends. I really like the drape of this. I even use small bits of yarn that yield only a couple of rows and simply grab more to finish the mitered square.

My squares start out with 41 sts using a 3.25mm needle and are 3" on each side and 4" from point to point.I throw in a big square every once and a while

Here's my pattern once you have the 41 sts on the needle:

Slip the first stitch (Sl1) of every row purlwise then move the yarn to the back to knit.

Row 1 -RS - Sl1, Knit to 2 st before the centre stitch, ssk, pm, k1 (centre st), k2tog, k to end of row. 
Row 2 - WS - Sl1, knit to end of row.

Row 3 - Next row - Sl1, knit to 2 sts before marker, ssk, slip marker, k1, k2tog, knit to end of row

Row 4 - WS - Sl1, knit to end of row

Repeat rows 3 & 4 until there are 3 sts remaining.

Sl1, k2tog, psso. Cut 3” tail of yarn and pull the stitch through.

Some mitered square patterns have the knitter do a double centre decrease on the centre three sts on the right side rows but that leaves a bit of a ridge. I prefer having a centre stitch and decreasing on each side of it.

Here's the previous one I did.

I did an i-cord edging to finish it off. I keep it in my yoga bag and use it to cover myself up in the Shavasna portion of the practice. Shavasna is my favourite part of yoga because we are simply lying down on our mats, covered up, nice and cozy and relax for a few minutes at the end of each class.