Sixth Year of Projects - Week 22

Blocking is pure magic!!  I had two projects that needed blocking and made the time to get those done this past weekend.  One project - Celtic Myths Shawl - is a recent finish and did not languish long awaiting blocking to finish it off completely.  The second however has been waiting forever (or so it seems!)  For the past several years I have participated in an Advent Scarf Knit Along.  This December will be my fourth year!  Anyway, I finished the 2015 scarf back in December 2015 and have still not blocked it!  For shame!  Actually I did the same last year - I blocked my 2014 Advent Scarf in December 2015...  At least I am consistent!

So, blocking is magic!!  I use my colorful mats that I bought at Sam's Club and some T-pins and away I go!  I add a little Eucalan wool-wash to the water and let it soak for an hour or so.

Before

Soaking

Close up - before

After!

Before

Soaking

After!

In other news, my Coffee Cantata Socks have seen some growth in the past week!  Here is how they look now!  Again, thanks to everyone who encouraged me to continue knitting this project!  I appreciate the push!  Maybe these socks will be done before 2016 is done!!  At least I should have them done before the next round of Sock Madness begins in March 2017!  I need to free up my Addi Turbo Sock Rockets for more sock knitting!!

And I started an Advent Scarf this morning.  The pattern is being released four days early so that each day's clue is not too daunting!  The design is mosaic and I am eager to spend a little bit of time each and every morning knitting!  I will make a cup of tea and will work the pattern each morning.  I tried to buy an Advent calendar tea package (a different tea for the 24 days of Advent) but I was slow and missed out.  I ended up buying another tea sampler package and this one had 28 different flavors and types.  Bonus is that we will have the pattern coming out over 28 days instead of 24 and I will have just the right number of teabags to make it through!!  I am quite easy to please!!

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NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 21

I spent a good amount of time today working on my Coffee Cantata Socks and am almost done the second leg portion.  I think I have about 16 rounds to go and the second leg is done.  Then we move on to the heel flaps and then down the foot.  Hopefully it will move faster once I get to the foot since only the top has the cabling!  I am using my Addi Turbo Sock Rockets - I love these needles!!  I am a fan of doing my socks magic loop and I tend to work my socks two at a time in tandem - which means I do some on one sock and then do some on the second sock.  I don't usually work one sock from beginning to the end first and then do the same for the second sock - I go back and first between each!

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Sixth Year of Projects - Week 21

Back with a few finishes this week!!  I finished off the fingerless mittens for Sarah and since I had a bit of yarn left I also made her a little cowl to go along with the set.  I have to get the mittens and cowl into the mail for her tomorrow!

I also finished knitting my Celtic Myths Shawl yesterday!  It needs blocking and i plan to get that done this week so I will post a after blocking picture next week!

And after the encouragement here I decided to continue along with my Coffee Cantata socks.  The first leg is all done now and I am continuing along with the second leg now.  Thanks for the push to keep knitting on these!!  They will be gorgeous when they are done!

Excuse the poor quality pictures - my good camera has a dead battery and I cannot locate the charger...  Until next week!!

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 6

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 19:  It's been a while since I posted...  I have been busy with school and keeping up with teaching and grading, but have also managed to get some crafting done (not a lot, but some!)

1) Coffee Cantata (Sock Madness 10 Round 6 socks) - Zero progress here.  I have not touched these in over a month or longer!!  I might frog these as I am just not feeling the love.

2) Celtic Myths Shawl - this is coming along nicely,  I have added several repeats on the edging and it is coming along nicely.  I have spent a bit of my spare time on this one the past couple weeks.

3) Sock scrap-ghan - I have added a few more little squares to this project. I have 89 squares now and am still a long way fro being done! 

4) Scrappie - I cast this on in the beginning of October and have not worked on it much in the past several weeks.  I need to get back to it and get it done - it is a fun pattern and great for using up scraps!

5) And I have been working on a new sock design.  It is getting closer to completion and will hopefully be ready for testing in the next couple weeks!

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 12

So I am back!!  I have been back at work (University professor) and am settling into my new routine.  I have less time for crafting lately...  Oh well, work keeps me in the lifestyle I have become accustomed to!

And a side note - my eyes have healed up perfectly and the doctor was pleased when I had my one month follow-up appointment a few days ago!

So my crafting updates:

1) Coffee Cantata (Sock Madness 10 Round 6 socks) - Zero progress here.  I have not touched these in a month!!

2) Celtic Myths Shawl - this is coming along nicely,  I have added several repeats on the edging and it is coming along nicely.  I have spent a bit of my spare time on this one the past couple weeks.

3) Sock scrap-ghan - I have added a few more little squares to this project. I have 89 squares now and am still a long way fro being done!  And I have a few ends to tuck in - I need to keep up with those so that it is not a daunting task later!

4) Bubbles Blanket - All done!!!  This was finished back on September 3rd!  It is so soft and squishy!!

Here is a close-up so you can see how squishy this is!!

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 6 & 7

So things have been off around here for the past two weeks.  The fan on my laptop died on August 3rd,  Computer guy said he could have it ready on the following Monday or Tuesday (August 8th or 9th).  Go to pick it up and he said oh sorry - hopefully by Friday (August 12th).  Got a call on Saturday that it was ready so I ran down quick and rescued it!!  I had been using my husband's laptop for the past almost two weeks and I like my laptop better!!  I didn't want to mess with all his automatic settings so I didn't log into my blog to update it for last week.  I had been making some progress with my projects though!!

My other exciting news - on August 11th (this past Thursday) I had LASIK surgery to correct my bad eyes!!!  I am so happy with them now!!!  No more glasses (except for cheater glasses for reading, but I am OK with that!! - much better than the trifocals I was wearing all the time before!)  I went in for a follow-up appointment Friday morning and their tests find my vision is now 20/20 with no glasses!! I am SO happy!!  I was actually able to "almost" read the line one below the 20/20 line!  So maybe my vision will continue to improve a bit more as I continue healing.

So my crafting updates:

1) Entanglements (Tour-de-Sock 2016 Stage 6 socks) are all finished now!  They were fairly close to completion on my last update and I finished them up on August 2nd.  I am happy with these!!

2) Diamondback Socks (Tour-de-Sock 2016 Stage 3 socks)  I spent some time these past two weeks working on these and came to the conclusion that I just was not enjoying the knit,  There is too much out there to knit to force myself to work on something that is not bringing me joy.  I have frogged these and will use the yarn for something else.  The pattern is lovely but I just was not feeling the joy working on them.

3) Coffee Cantata (Sock Madness 10 Round 6 socks) - I got a fair bit of work done on these last week and am happy with my progress,  They will be on hold for a week or two now while my eyes heal nicely!  Thin yarn and lots of cables might not be my best choice for knitting while I heal!

4) Celtic Myths Shawl - this is coming along nicely,  I have now completed the body of the shawl and am ready to begin the cable edge. Tough to get a decent picture since it is now all bunched up on the cable of the needles.

5) Bubbles Blanket - I have made some excellent progress on this one.  I have increased it from about 13 inches to about 19 inches now.  I am hoping that this will be a finish in the next couple weeks.  Figures I am working on an afghan during a heat wave...

I suspect I will spend some more time on the Bubbles Blanket over the next several days as my eyes continue to heal.  I can do crochet more easily without putting much strain on my eyes since I can mostly do it by feel.  The fingering weight projects will likely be put aside for a week or so until my eyes are more healed up.  I do not want to strain my new eyeballs!!

Until next week!!

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 4

Another week has come and gone.  This week I managed to spend a bit of time on each of my WIPs (the yarn related ones I mean!)  I also started another two WIPs...  I had all my yarn goodies in a box and I forgot it at church on Sunday...  We were able to pick it up on Monday evening but in the meantime I was having some serious withdrawal symptoms!!  So the cure was to start another project!!  LOL

New WIP - Celtic Myths Shawl - I started this and so far am enjoying it!!  Right now it is almost completely mindless - lots of stockinette!!  The more challenging part will come when it is time to add the cable edging.

This should not be sideways... I don't know why it changed...

New WIP - Tour de Sock Stage 6 socks - Entanglements - I cast on these on Friday and am almost ready to start the heels on both now.  They are a fun knit now that I figured out how to use the cable charts!

Bubbles - this one saw several more rows added. It is now about 13 inches along (up from about 9 last week)

Diamondback Socks - I spent a little bit of time on these this week.  The problem was that I had completely lost my place on the second sock (NEVER put aside a tricky design in the middle of a row...)  I ended up frogging the second sock and started it again.  So actually I have less done on this one than I had before...

Sock Madness Round 6 Socks - Coffee Cantata - I also spent a little bit of time on these too!!

Soon I need to haul all my yarn from the attic and inventory all my stash!!  And I need to haul out my sewing machine and see if it needs a bit of a tune up or if it is good to go!  Time to get going on the quilted communion table runner soon!

May 2016 Finished Objects

May 2016 Finished Objects:

13) Sock Madness Round 4 Socks - finished knitting May 4th 2016
14) The Four Seasons - Winter Design - finished knitting May 13th 2016
15) Sock Madness Round 5 Socks - finished knitting May 20th 2016

Finished Object Friday (May 13th 2016)

Finally a couple FOs to report!!

Project: Double Flake Squirrel Socks (TdS 2014 - Stage 6)

Started: July 21st 2014

Finished: April 27th 2016

Needle: 2.25 mm

Yarn: Lion Brand Sock-Ease Solids (in Root Bear and Lollipop) 

More details on my Ravelry Project Page

Project: Sweet Nuttins (Sock Madness 10 Round 4)

Started: April 28th 2016

Finished: May 4th 2016

Needle: 2.25 mm

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Gloss Fingering Sock (Hand dyed by me)

More details on my Ravelry Project Page