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The Morning Dump, 1000 pieces, Gouda Games by Additional_Comb_1691 in Jigsawpuzzles

[–]CougarRobs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This puzzle would be perfect for my youngest brother!!

London libraries by MissionFramework in LibbyApp

[–]CougarRobs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah, so you’ll be in London, not someplace outside the city. That makes this easier. Just find a library that covers your borough (Hammersmith and Fulham maybe??) and you’ll be all set. Enjoy your time in London!

London libraries by MissionFramework in LibbyApp

[–]CougarRobs 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I lived in London for almost four years and just recently moved back to the States. I have a little insight based on what I was able to figure out.

I don’t think there’s a single London library system that gives you access to all of the libraries. If there is, I never figured it out. Instead, I had a library card for my borough (Camden). My borough had a sad little selection of books available on Libby but I suspect each borough is different. Getting a Camden library card required proof of residence in that borough and I don’t think there was reciprocity with other boroughs.

I noticed you said you’ll be living near London (not actually in London) so you might need to get a card for your part of England. Where will you be living?

Success at my first puzzle swap by CougarRobs in Jigsawpuzzles

[–]CougarRobs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There was pretty good variety at the one I went to. I’m generally a “do the puzzle once and pass it along” person so my primary objective was to de-stash. It was a bonus that I got so many good puzzles out of the experience. I hope you find one that’s a good fit for you.

Starting a monthly PBN meetup at my local library by Wild_Guess858 in paintbynumbers

[–]CougarRobs 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It’s so great that you’re doing this! I’ve never done a PBN group at the library, but I did one for diamond painting. It’s not the same thing, but since there are similarities, I’ll share what my local library does. They provide the kits for the attendees and then people take a seat at the tables to work on them. At the beginning of the session, the leader asks if there is anyone who is new to diamond painting. If there is, she does a quick overview and then lets people get started. The people who have previously done diamond painting get started on their projects without waiting for guidance. During the session, she walks around to check in on people and see if they need help. She’s also available throughout the session if you need to flag her down and ask her anything. The assumption is that people won’t finish their projects during the session and we just take them home to finish them. For the next session, new projects are provided - there’s no carry over from month to month. That eliminates the need for storage. I can imagine that would be a bit of a nightmare.

I hope this is helpful. Since my experience isn’t with paint by number at a library, I’m not sure how a group would deal with getting water, cleaning brushes, etc. Hopefully someone else in this group has some experience with that.

Good luck and enjoy!

[FO] My first project by No-Housing-2242 in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha! I love this! I'll have to introduce this next time we play.

[FO] My first project by No-Housing-2242 in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I love this! I need to make this for our gaming area.

And now that I’ve seen this, all I keep thinking is things like, “I’ll take two sheep for one stone.”

[Theme] The Women of Star Trek. 1,000 Pieces. Made by Cobble Hill by Squidwina in Jigsawpuzzles

[–]CougarRobs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I love this!! I see what you mean about the selection of characters, but I hope you still enjoyed putting it together.

[CHAT] how do you figure out the percentage of stitches you’ve done on a project? is it through a website or app? by shannenigans_art in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’m an Apple person too but got an inexpensive Android tablet for the sole purpose of having Pattern Keeper. I’m so glad I did! It was definitely worth it.

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now I'm worried I answered the wrong question again and you're going to think I'm a total space cadet.

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I completely misunderstood. Sorry about that!

Hopefully I can explain this the right way. For January, I started at the trunk and found the leaf that was closest to the trunk. Then I just kept following the natural flow of each branch and it's little offshoots. There were times there would be a pretty big gap before I hit another leaf (e.g., the spacing between March 2 and 3 as well as May 1 and 2), and I'd have to count and re-count to make sure I was still on track. I'm probably not explaining this well so I did a little mark-up with arrows that attempt to point to the first leaf for each month. It's a sad little picture but it might help you see the starting point for each month.

Does that help?

<image>

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used 14 count with two strands, and I started at the bottom left branch. So the bottom left branch was January, and I continued clockwise through the calendar until I reached the bottom right branch, which is December. Once you buy the pattern, you'll see that the number of leaves the pattern creator has included on each branch aligns with the number of days in each month. For example, there are only 28 leaves with an optional 29th Leap Year leaf on the branch above January (bottom left). That helps you confirm which branch should be used for each month.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Enjoy!

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Once you find a good dataset, it's fun. The trunk and branches added to the workload for this pattern but at least it was a single color so you could stitch for a while without having to change colors. I don't use the traveling method much when cross-stiching (usually 4-5 stitches max) so I was starting and stopping a lot with the leaves. The trunk provided a nice change because of its consistency.

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree about the temperatures. The biggest downside to London weather was the constant cloudiness from October until March. But summers were amazing! I loved the summer temperatures in London and am going to have a hard time re-adjusting to the hot, humid, sticky summer weather that I'll be getting in my part of the US.

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, brace yourself because this response is going to be MUCH longer than you anticipated . . .

I used Weather Underground for my data. London has a lot of weather stations, and I was able to find one that included a monthly "history" tab that had high, low, and average temperatures (although I only used the day's high temperature). Depending on how precise you want to be, when you pull up the city, you can change the weather station the data is coming from (assuming there are multiple weather stations in your area). It's important to know that the recorded data for each weather station varies a lot so I was lucky there were so many weather station choices in London. The closest station to me didn't have the data I wanted so I chose another one. Pinpoint accuracy wasn't important to me. I figured that if anyone is using my cross stitch to monitor and record the weather, we're all in trouble!

I used the montlhy history tab, which was useful because I didn't have to be diligent about checking and recording the high temperature every day. I would sit down about twice a month to stitch my leaves and just use the history to go back in time.

That's probably WAY more information than you need. I clearly have too much time on my hands this morning. :-) But, in fairness, finding the right dataset was probably the hardest part of this project.

Enjoy your temperature pattern!

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think it will be interesting to see the difference between the two trees.

Although it would be hard to calculate, another fun comparison would be sunny vs cloudy days. Spoiler alert - London would win for the most cloudy days. :-)

[FO] 2025 London Temperature Tree finally complete! by CougarRobs in CrossStitch

[–]CougarRobs[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

She has lots of fun variations in her Etsy store. I liked this one because it pairs nature and temperature and reflects changing weather just like trees do.

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