Gryff: AKA Coontastic Gryffindor Update 25 May 2020

[lavenderbee]

You are doing great with this one Richard. Lovely to see the shaping of cat's back as well as colours on the tail. A wonderful update & I look forward to the next one

[Carole]

I shall miss seeing Gryff for the next month, even while I'm looking forward to seeing your other project

[richardandtracy]

I re-started Gryff on 1 August, but have not made anywhere near as much progress as I had wanted. We've being having adventures with 'Fluffy' and then I've needed to cut the thigh high grass on our bank (most of the 1 acre garden is a 'wildlife' garden and we leave it to grow up until July/August to allow the wild flowers to set seed). This, even with a 2 wheeled brush cutter, takes hours & hours. Then the plums & blackberries have ripened at the same time & I'm busy jamming.

Anyway, I shall stop making excuses and show the progress. I am continuing with page 5 of the plan:

And the actual progress:

I suspect the Olympics have not helped in the last week. I have tended to watch and listen, as opposed to just listen.

Regards,

Richard

[kandifloss]

Lovely, good progress as very detailed stitching. You've been busy on other things but hope to see another photo soon

Kandi

[rcperryls]

Welcome back Gryff!! I'd stitch him for at least another month, considering the distractions you have had. The only one I can sympathize with is the effect that the Olympics has on stitching. Very hard to stitch because it does require a lot of watching not just listening. I find that projects with large blocks of color work best, especially for events like gymnastics and diving and short races. ( Also helps to be able to pause and rewind)

Carole

[wendywombat]

Who hoo Gryff is back He's looking good!

I have to agree about watching TV and stitching. I made loads of errors this weekend whilst watching Moto GP My Hardanger coasters suffered

[richardandtracy]

..and what a weekend it was, the Dukes coming 1st & 2nd.

Carole, you are right, I may have to continue beyond the end of this month with Gryff, just to give him a fair amount of time.

I've had to stop jamming for the moment, as I've run out of sugar. The last batch of 3kg of blackberries weren't as sweet as they could have been, but I had to have them. Didn't get any last year, the crop rotted on the bushes before they ripened. I suffered all year from blackberry jam withdrawal symptoms. The symptoms are being grumpy, going off in a sulk and having a short temper. Just like normal for me then .

Regards,

Richard.

[fccs]

I suffered all year from blackberry jam withdrawal symptoms. The symptoms are being grumpy, going off in a sulk and having a short temper. Just like normal for me then .

Regards,

Richard.

Gryff is looking wonderful - and I also vote for a little more time with him.

I've been watching a lot of Olympics, too. And since I've been watching them on NBC Sports on my Apple TV, they've been much more enjoyable. I think our regular NBC coverage is pretty bad and the commentators are even worse. Plus, watching on Apple TV, I can pick whatever sport I want. It's nice. But...it does take more watching than listening. Last night I was watching the springboard diving - definitely have to watch that...listening to them describe the dives just doesn't cut it.

[mysterystitcher]

I am glad you've been stitching. I am sure you will tame it yet.

[vanessanjf]

Wonderful work even though you have been very busy

[charmagne_capalad]

Wonderful progress amidst the "busy-ness"

[Carole]

Brilliant to see Gryff again and I agree that he should definitely get a bit more time.

The Olympics were very distracting. Not only have I not done any stitching but I've hardly had time to get online either. You just can't stop watching, can you

[mysterystitcher]

Well, it depends. If you have a trap, like I have, you can let the trap do the work and watch later, when it suits you the best.
And I've had a little break on stitching again and concentrated on knitting. There's this one blanket I must get done. Maybe I'll return to the wedding present after that. It won't be long anymore with it. I mean the wedding present.
The cat picture is awesome! You will tame it yet. I know it.

[richardandtracy]

Been away on a camping holiday and have not had much time to do anything in the last 10 days. Good thing I didn't take the stitching with me, as we had our usual effect on the weather. Our van nearly got bogged in a campsite up on Exmoor due to the amount of rain that came overnight and the tent porch leaked. We also had a fair bit of rain elsewhere in the holiday. However, by our standards, it was a comparatively dry holiday and we had 4 days without any form of rain at all. It rates as a vast improvement on the year when the tent was ripped open by a storm and our house porch flooded and the living room/dining room under-floor space flooded to within 1" of the floorboards while we were away...

This is the current progress on Gryff:


I'll keep going on this page until I finish before moving my attention back to Luz.

It is amazing how the lump of snow on a twig (top right of the current page) has just appeared in the last couple of days work, before then it was a meaningless patch of colour, and as I completed it, the stitches turned into something...

Ahh well, I now have a new project. In May we were told our old van is rusting away, and may not pass the next annual safety check (the MOT) next year and we may well have to get rid of it. So.. yesterday we bought a much smaller replacement. We have gone from a Mercedes Sprinter to a Mercedes Vito. The van now needs a removable motorhome interior and guess who is making it... Yeah. Add that to the list.

Regards,

Richard.

[SteveM]

I too was on holiday last week but with a roof over my head and a lovely place to stitch when the kids were in bed. Yet I still only managed 800 stitches on my HAED in a week.

Gryff is progressing nicely.

[Mabel Figworthy]

Isn't it wonderful how chaos turns into something recognisable almost without our noticing it while we stitch! This is going to be another wonderful portrait.

PS I sympathise with the wetness - we were in Beaulieu over the weekend. Taking down a double marquee in a downpour is not nice...

[rcperryls]

Good progress on Gryff. I am always amazed when things appear, as if by magic, from what looks like a mad assortment of unrelated colors. Great job. And sounds like an interesting camping trip.

Carole

[Squirrel]

Great to see this and the progress you have made. Hope the holiday was good apart from the weather.

[fccs]

I love your Luz piece, but I'm so happy to see Gryff again. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

[wendywombat]

Of your two WIP's I have to say that Gryff is my favourite!

Good to see him back again.

Your holiday trip reminded me of when we took a small camper van down to Cornwall in the year of the Big Blow which devastated the south of UK. We lost our 15' greenhouse in that.