The 2018 A-Z Blogging Challenge!

Welcome to the 2018 A-Z Blogging Challenge!!  I tried this once before in 2015 and finished up to the end of H.  I tried again in 2016 and completed the challenge!!  Now I am going to try once again. The goal of the challenge is to blog every day (except most Sundays) through the month of April.  Beginning April 1st (the only Sunday included this year) everyone participating will blog about something beginning with the letter A, April 2nd we blog about B, and so on. I plan to blog mostly about arts and crafts topics.  I have started making a list of everything I want to blog about, but I will admit that I am still contemplating a few letters where I am not sure what I will write about.  I need to carry my list with me so that I can be sure to add to it whenever I am struck by inspiration. 

Join me for the month of April and cheer me on as I tackle this challenge!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 39

And another week has come and gone! 

I spent the majority of my spare time this past week working on only my Sock Madness Round 1 socks and I managed to get them all finished up late this afternoon - which explains why I delayed posting this blog until now...

What I learned knitting this pattern - I am not a big fan of duplicate stitching...  The end result looks nice, but it was so slow to do and I also have a boat load of tails to tuck in (I need to get onto to those soon or I will never finish them...)

Here is the finished project:

Now I need to wait for about a week until the next pattern comes out.  I think I may work on some crochet pet snuggles to donate to the Humane Society.  I want to use up my old acrylic stash and this is a quick and easy way to do so.  I'll post some pictures of what I do with them (assuming I do work on them) next week.  And I plan to get some more work done on my Rowe Cardigan.

Until next week!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 38

Back for another week and a bit late in posting today!

I finished my qualifying round socks for Sock Madness and am on a team to compete through the rest of the competition!  Here are my finished qualifying round socks (excuse the stitch markers still there - they were needed to indicate each ten rounds completed so the moderators could easily see that we all knit enough rounds)

I spent some time on my Rowe Cardigan and am getting closer to completing the back!!  The bottom stitch marker is indicating where to measure for distance to starting the shoulder decreases while the second marker shows my progress since my last post.

And Sock Madness Round 1 began earlier today.  So far I have my cuffs knit and am ready to start adding some beads.  You should be able to see significant progress by next week - hopefully a finish!!

Back to my knitting - hope everyone has an amazing week!!  Craft on!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 37

Another week!  I have spent all my spare knitting time this week working on my Sock Madness Qualifying Round socks.  I have made some great progress and am finished the gusset decreasing on both socks now.  All that is left is to finish the feet and toes!  The deadline to finish for qualifying to advance in the madness is at noon on Thursday.  I should be able to finish them in time!  I am actually hoping to have them done by the end of the day on Tuesday, but we shall see!  Here is what they look like now:

Once I have these done and while waiting for the teams to be announced (and the next round to begin) I plan to continue to work on my Rowe Cardigan.  It will be nice to work with larger needles and heavier yarn again!

Until next week when I hope to have a finish to show you!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 36

Another week!!  I can hardly believe that February is gone and that I am still consistently posting every week for this project!! 36 weeks!!!

This past week has been another productive one for me.  First up - I finished my February Mystery Socks and I love them!!  I did play a game of yarn chicken with this pair.  I am not sure why I came so close - usually these skeins have enough yarn in them for most typical socks.  I don't think this one was particularly yarn hungry!  Either way - I won the game of yarn chicken with only a few yards to spare!  Here is a picture of the finished socks and the leftover yarn:

I also spent some time working on my BAMCAL afghan from 2017.  I had all the pieces crocheted and only had to sew them together and add a border.  I am happy to say that this little blanket is now a finished object as well!  This will go into my donation pile (note to self: start thinking about where to donate these blankies - the pile is growing!)  Here it is:

I also managed to finish my BAMKAL afghan.  I finally stitched the squares together and added a little border.  This poor thing is so wonky!!  The squares are not all the same size and I basically "made it work"!!  This might get donated to a pet shelter unless it looks better after it has had a run through the washing machine.  Right now I am not sure I would like to donate it to a person...  It is not the nicest quality job I have done...

Sock Madness 12 began on Thursday March 1st and I am now happily knitting through the qualifying round pattern.  We have a full two weeks to complete the pattern in order to be placed on a team for the remainder of the competition.  The two week window is sufficient time for me to get the socks all knit up.  The color work portion is all done and the remaining portion of the socks will all be in the purple.  There is an option for heels and/or toes in the light color but I do not have enough to manage either option - so the rest will be purple!  Here is where I am at now:

There is no progress to report on my Rowe Cardigan...  I spent a bit of time instead finishing the BAMCAL afghan and working on the BAMKAL afghan.  Once my qualifying socks are complete I will focus on Rowe!

When I list everything down here it looks like I made some amazing progress this past week!!

We are heading into Spring Break now, but I unofficially began Spring Break on Wednesday after my last class was done!  Although I did finish up a few lingering tasks so that I would be able to enjoy my break!!  We are going away to a water slide park from Monday through Friday - hubbies choice - but it gives me some time to sit poolside and knit or read to my heart's content!