Seventh Year of Projects - Week 44

I can't believe how close to the end of the YOP year we are getting!!  And I can't believe I have consistently posted for so many weeks!!

This has been a productive week.  I started and finished my Sock Madness Round 3 socks!  The pattern was released on Sunday morning and I cast on in the early afternoon.  I knit like a fiend and managed to finish by 1am on Friday morning!  This might be a record for me to knit a pair of socks!  I managed to finish fast enough to make the cut and to advance to Round 4!!  I was the last one to cross the line and move ahead!  I took spot #20 of  20 places!  Next round will have only 10 advance - I am not sure I am fast enough to manage that, but we shall see!  The pattern was fun and really did knit up fast!  Here is what they look like:

Once my hands were rested a bit (not really, but...) I got back to my Impressionists MKAL shawl.  I finished the third clue and am now working on the fourth (and final) clue.  I have eight rows left to do (ranging from 514 stitches to 534 stitches per row...) plus the cast off.  Right side rows increase by 4 stitches and wrong side rows increase by 2 stitches...  The cast off is a picot bind off and I am considering adding beads to the picots!  I have a bit of time to decide on that before I cast off.  I hope to have this one done and blocked for next weekend.  I had hoped to have them as a finish for today, but I didn't make it...  I can't wait to have this off the needles!!  The picture is all scrunchy and bunchy since it is on a relatively short cable (especially for the number of stitches).  My progress since the last update is from the green marker.

And I want to spend some time with my Rowe Cardigan this week coming up!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 43

Back for another week!!  This week I have been monogamous!!  That does not happen too often, but it did this week.  I had fallen behind on my Impressionist MKAL and have been trying to catch up since I am between rounds on Sock Madness.  When I last showed you a picture of my shawl I was complete on Clue #1.  Clue 2 and 3 had been released but I had not worked on them yet.  So this past week I have finished Clue #2 and almost finished Clue #3 (I have four rows left of Clue #3 - but my last row was 468 stitches and each row increases by either 2 or 4 stitches, so the rows take awhile!)  Clue #4 was released yesterday morning and I hope to get this shawl done before the next round of Sock Madness!  It is hard to get a picture of the shawl now as there are so many stitches bunched up on the cable...  Soon I will be posting a picture of it all done and blocked :)

Here is a picture of where I am now.  The first marker shows the beginning of Clue #2 and the second marker shows the beginning of Clue #3.

Here is the yarn I plan to use for the next round of Sock Madness.  It is also yarn I dyed myself.  And as I was getting this all typed up the pattern dropped for the next round of Sock Madness!!  I'll be casting this on momentarily!! 

Until next week!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 42

Oops!  I am late by a day this week - I think for only the second time this year around!  Still keeping myself on track and posting weekly though and I am so amazed that I have keep going with this so consistently this year!!

My week has been busy!  I have only worked on my Sock Madness socks this week and have touched nothing else!  But I do have a finish to report!  Actually that is why I am late posting this - I wanted to finish my Sock Madness socks before posting and then it turned out I finally finished my socks around 11pm... I now know how to knit brioche and I like it!!  I don't think my color choices were the best - not quite contrasty enough...  Oh well!  But they are done and I am still in the running!!  Round 3 will begin in about a week from now (Round 2 finishes on Friday at 7pm). 

This week coming up I plan to work on my Rowe Cardigan and my Impressionists Shawl MKAL.

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 41

Another week of crafting has come and gone!  It felt like I had a very busy week with work related stuff, but I seemed to get some crafting done as well!  YAY!!

I did a few rows on my Rowe Cardigan and am now ready to begin the decreasing for the shoulders.  I hope to find some time this week to get that done.  My progress since my last update is from the second marker (the first one marks a measurement point for the armhole)

I finished up the first clue on the Impressionist MKAL and am much enjoying this knit!  The second clue has come out (Saturday morning) but I have not had a chance to get going on that yet.  My progress since last Sunday is from the marker (which is barely visible between the first two blue stripes...)

And the Second Round of Sock Madness has started so all my spare time has been focused on that.  The pattern came out Friday night but I was too sleepy to cast on.  I had an all day function at work yesterday and have another this afternoon so my weekend knitting has suffered!  Rest assured I will be knitting more this evening once I am back home again!  I on on the third block section on the first sock (we need to do nine) and have the cuff of the second sock complete.  I decided to reverse the colors for each sock.  I am happy that I am being "forced" to learn how to knit brioche!  SO far I am loving it (now that I have the hang of it!)  My colors might not be the most contrasty and maybe not the best choice for this design...  Oh well!

Until next week!!  I hope to be done with my Sock Madness socks and hope to have some other progress to show you!

C is for Crafting

I will admit to being an avid crafter.  I like several different types of crafting and tend to easily pick up new crafts to try!  Probably my favourite is knitting, but I also enjoy crochet, counted cross stitch, and various art projects (including watercolour, acrylic, and mixed media).  I have plenty of supplies to do some paper crafting, but have not really set aside the time to really give it a go.  Hopefully soon!

When it comes to knitting I enjoy making socks, cowls, scarves, and shawls mostly.  I quite prefer to work with fingering weight yarn and am also comfortable working with a sport weight.  Occasionally I work with a worsted weight, but not this is not my preferred weight to work with.  I seem to mostly make accessories and I think this is mostly because I don't have to worry so much about the fit although with socks fit is important!  Currently I am working on a worsted weight, heavily cables cardigan, a pair of plain vanilla socks, and a fingering weight shawl.  i do have a few other projects partially completed, but these three are the ones I am most actively working on.

I will soon get to adding pictures to my posts again! 

B is for Bullet Journals

B is for Bullet journals. A while back I stumbled upon some information online about bullet journals and thought to myself - this sounds and looks like something I want to try!  So I began on October 26, 2017 with a journal, black pen, and a ruler.  Now I have more pens in all sorts of styles and colors than I can count (well maybe not quite that many, but a lot!) and oodles of other "tools" for bullet journaling.  My advice for anyone who is new to this and who wants to give it a try - keep it simple so you do not get overwhelmed!!  You can effectively bullet journal with a simple notebook and a pen.  You do not need all the other goodies.  They are fun to have, but not necessary!  You do not have to be super artistic either!  There are many YouTube videos of people bullet journaling who do absolutely amazing art work, but that is not required!  Practice and journal at your own pace and know that there is really no "wrong" way to do this.  That is one thing I love most about bullet journals - you can tailor it to exactly what you require!  Personally I include stickers and trace images I find online to add some decoration to my bullet journal.  I use it as a tool to help me keep organized and to help increase my productivity - it doesn't always do that for me, but I try.  Some weeks (or months) I use my journal very seldom, and other times I keep up with is daily; it all depends on my motivation and energy!

A is for Art Journals

I have hopped on the A to Z Challenge bandwagon again and I hope to make it through the challenge like I did two years ago!.  For me this will be a wonderful exercise in daily blogging (and challenging my imagination!!)

A is for Art Journaling.  Over the past year or two I have been enjoying playing around with art journaling.  I find it to a be fun, relaxing, and creative way to spend some time.  I will admit that I have not been too active in my art journaling, but I want to get back into it again soon! 

Here are some pictures of pages I have completed in the past:

My two main art journaling books.

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 40

Back for another week in my Seventh Year of Projects!!

This has been a fairly productive week.  After I finished my Sock Madness Round 1 socks I wanted to do something completely different for a bit so I got to work with my acrylic yarn stash and began crocheting some pet snuggles.  I managed to work up three of them and have now begun a little pile of mini blankets to donate to some pet shelter (I'll decide which one later once I have a goodly pile done up).  I'll get back to making some more later this month.  I am aiming to use up all my acrylic yarns to make up charity projects.

I also picked up a pair of vanilla socks that I had begun a while back (over Christmas I think).  I made some good progress on these as well.  I have one done to the end of the gusset decreases and the other is beginning the gusset decreases.  I might get more done on these this week coming up - time will tell.

And I caved and cast on a new project.  I have joined in on the Impressionists MKAL and the first clue was released yesterday.  I managed to get a nice amount done since I opened the pattern.  I hope to work on it some more later today.

And in deciding to do this shawl, I have decided to frog my Find Your Fade shawl.  I have come to realize that I am not completely happy with the combination of colors I dyed for the project.  I love the colors each on their own, but was not really loving the fade that it was going to create.  I decided to use three of the skeins I had set for my Fade to make my Impressionists Shawl.  And I must say I am happy for the decision.  I will make a Fade one day - once I dye up (or find) some yarn that speaks to my heart more strongly.

Until next week!