Eighth Year of Projects - Week 22

Today is Week 22 of the Eighth Year of Projects, NaBloPoMo Day 25, and Day 11 of my self imposed WIP-it Down Week!  

I have had a very productive week!  I have worked on each and every WIP over the past eleven days of my WIP-it Down Week and I am sad that the week is nearly over (and that I need to go back to work on Monday).  Oh well, the Christmas break is not far off now!

My Sock Scrap-ghan looks the same as it did last week so I won't bother showing an update picture :)

I made progress on my Vanilla Christmas socks - I have finished the gusset decreasing and am moving down the foot now.  Here is where I am:

I made progress on my new sock design too.  I had the cuff done some time ago and now have added two repeats on the leg.  I am considering whether to add one more repeat or not.  I am leaning towards adding it...  Here is where I am now:

I worked on my Rowe Cardigan and have finished the ribbing on both the front pieces.  I am knitting these two at a time to make sure they are both nice and even.  Next up I need to get moving up the cable portion! 

And I worked on my Texture Time Shawl.  I am still a long way from being close to finished this.  I am not even half way done yet, but I am still enjoying the knit!

I also cast on two new projects this week.  I know - I was on a WIP-it Down mission, but...

New cast on number 1 - the Advent 2018 Scarf.  I knit the initial ribbing and the daily clues began to appear yesterday.  I am working on Day 2 right now.  here is a picture of what it looked like at the end of Day 1:  (the markers will show the end of each daily clue)

New cast on number 2 - the Julenatt Mittens (a Mystery Mitten KAL by Skeindeer Knits).  The first clue for these came out on November 21st and the second clue came out yesterday.  I am still working on Clue #1 on mitten #1.  Here is what they look like now:

And finally I posted my newest podcast early this morning.  

Over the next week I plan to try to keep up with my two new KALs.  I also have bought some fabric and I want to try to sew myself a couple of project bags!  Hopefully I will have those to show you next week!

Until then...  

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 32

Another week and I am back with some finished objects and some new cast ons.  I had a productive week!!

I finally blocked my Advent Scarf!!  It is huge!  I measured it when it was blocking and it is almost ten feet long...  Oye.  I did not pull lengthwise while blocking either...  Oh well!  Granted I did use a heavier weight than called for... lesson learned :)

I also finished and blocked my Advent Cowl!  I did not do any pinning of the cowl - it only needed the blocking to settled and even out the color work.  This may take some time to dry!!  It is four layers of color work...  I love it!!  The pictures show the two sides of the cowl - it was knit all the way and then folded in half around the circumference (bound off using a three needle bind off) thus hiding all the floats. 

I also finished up the last three squares for my BAMCAL afghan.  I still had the December squares to crochet and now they are all done.  I still need to stitch the last squares together so that the afghan is ready to use or give away.  I already stitched about half the squares together and made a small afghan already and now I am ready to make the second afghan with the rest of the squares.  Hopefully I get that done in February!  The first three pictures are the December squares and the fourth picture is one of all the squares that need to be stitched together to make a small afghan.

And I cast on two new projects!  First up is my Solid Socks Mystery KAL.  The first clue was released on Thursday and I got that knit up yesterday.  The remaining clues will come out on Thursdays for the rest of the month.  So far I am loving it - lace and beads!  I can't wait to see the next clue!

And secondly I cast on my Rowe Cardigan.  I swatched for it yesterday!  I know I swatched!!!  I am glad I did because my little swatch was too big.  I need to go down a needle size since I am a loose knitter!  I did that up and cast on the back.  So far I have done only a few rows of ribbing, but it is likely my focus knit until the next clue comes out for the mystery socks on Thursday.

Happy crafting everyone!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 28

Hello everyone!!  I hope you have all had a great week and have stayed warm (if you are in the areas that have been seeing extra cold temperatures recently!)

I have had a fairly productive week.

I finished my Temperature Scarf!  It is super long (over 8 feet long!) and is about 7 inches wide.  It wraps around my neck many times!  Here is what it looks like all done up:

I also knit the two December BAMKAL squares and now have everything ready to assemble.  I hope to get onto that soon!

I only found a tiny bit of time to add a few more rounds on my Advent Cowl and I plan to spend some more time on that this upcoming week.  There is not enough progress to show a picture...

And I broke down and cast on something new.  I had planned on resisting new cast ons for a bit but that didn't work!  I cast on for the SKA MOCK (Sock Knitters Anonymous Mystery Sock) and have almost finished the first clue (each clue comes out on a Monday).  I have one complete and have only the Latvian braid to do on the second and I will be ready for the next clue tomorrow.

WIP-it Wednesday

I have been busy trying to keep up with my Advent knitting and have made some decent progress (although I am falling a bit behind...)

I am caught up to the end of Day 5 on my Advent 2017 scarf.  I am enjoying this knit and I have expanded my colours a little bit.  I have added in a gray and some pink (one shade is in and one shade is left to join the party later).  Here is what it looks like up to the end of Day 5 (I'll work on Day 6 this evening):

I have also spent some time on my Advent Scarf too.  I am a bit behind with this one but will catch up over time.  This design began with the cable piece to the top.  Then the second clue involves picking up stitches along both sides of the first piece and working the clues once per side down the length of the scarf.  I am part way through the second clue (of three released so far):

I am still hoping to cast on the Mystery Socks but have not done so yet.  Maybe I will find some time on Thursday to cast on!  The second clue will be released on Friday so I would like to be done for then, but we shall see.

I hope everyone is staying warm and is enjoying this time leading up to the holidays!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 23

Week 23!!  I am amazed I have consistently posted every week for 23 weeks now!  WOW!!

I went a little overboard casting on new things the past few days, but I cannot resist an Advent knit or a mystery sock!

First up is the Advent Scarf 2017.  This is something that has become an annual tradition that I have participated in for four or five years now.  Each day a new clue is released from December 1st through December 24th.  Each day is four or five rounds of knitting.  I have the first two days complete and am part way through Day three.  This year we are creating a colour work cowl - I opted for the smaller one as I knew that my month was going to be busy!  Here are my colours (although I may add some along the way - we shall see as the month progresses!

Second is the Chrismukkah scarf.  I dyed my own yarn for this and am thinking I will likely give it to my Mom for Christmas.  It has a lot of cabley goodness and will have clues released every other day (roughly) throughout Advent.  I have completed Clue #1 and have started Clue #2.  Clue #3 has also been released...  I am falling behind, but hope to catch up soon!

And third is a pair of Mystery Socks.  I have my yarn set aside and have freed up two pair of needles so I can knit these in tandem, but I have not had the time to cast them on yet.  Hopefully on Tuesday!

It has been a busy weekend and I am just now finding time to upload my post for today (at about 10:30pm)  I plan to take and post some progress pictures before next Sunday rolls around!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 13

Another week of progress to report although it was a busy week at school and I did not get time to craft as much as I would have liked (it looks like a lot but the crochet squares go fairy quickly!!)

I kept at it with my Temperature Scarf and am now all caught up!  This past week's progress is from the two orange markers forward.

And I kept working on my BAMCAL squares.  My original plan was to do all the squares in blues, white, and black combinations, but I am running low on most of the blues I had in stash.  So now the plan is to use the squares made in the first six months to make one afghan all in the original color scheme and for the remaining six months of the year I will use all sorts of random colors I have in my stash to make a second afghan.  July is already done in the original colors, but the rest will be mixed now with whatever I have in my stash.

Here is what I finished this past week:

My August Main 12 inch BAMCAL square:

My August Alternate 12 inch BAMCAL square:

My four August 6 inch BAMCAL squares:

My September Main 12 inch BAMCAL square (I think the brown is too dark here...):

My September Alternate 12 inch BAMCAL square:

My September 6 inch BAMCAL square was just not coming out right.  In order to keep it close to 6 inches I needed to go down to a 4mm hook - with worsted weight yarn it was killing my hands and was still coming out too large...  So I gave up on that idea and went up to my usual 5mm hook and I will turn this into another 12 inch square.  I am part way through it now and am much happier with the process and I think it will look great as a larger square!  Here is where I am at now (it will be complete later this morning).

Once I have this last September square complete I can cast on my Selbu mittens (the first design in a Selbu Mitten Club!!  We shall see how much I get done on that by next Sunday!  I'm not sure which color combination I will use for the first pair, but my choices are here:

My page of current projects for this YOP can be found here.

To read other blogs taking part in YOP - Year 7 (or to join up yourself - it is never too late!) check out the Ravelry group over here.

Sixth Year of Projects - Week 31

Oops!! I have been missing here for a while now!  The new semester at work has been keeping me busy and I have not made the time to update my blog.  I have been working on several projects and have several finishes but I do not have pictures of everything yet.  I plan to get those done for next week and am going to try to be more regular on my posting here!

I finished a scarf for my niece for her birthday gift (back in the beginning of January).  I knit her Boom! and used some long gradient yarn that I dyed myself.  The design shows off the gradient nicely but I am not 100% happy with the dying I did.  Oh well, I'll try again and see what I create next!  My niece loved the scarf!

NaBloPoMo 2016 Day 27

I can't believe I completely forgot to post yesterday!!  Sigh.  But posting 28 out of 30 days is not too bad!!

On Sunday I began a mystery Advent Scarf.  It started a few days early so that we would not have as much knitting to do every day.  This way we have 30 rows to knit each day (and the rows are 47 stitches long).  The pattern is a mosaic design and so far I am really enjoying the knit!  The goal of the scarf is to give knitters a little break and some "me" time each day during this busy time of the year!  I usually try to do most of the knitting in the morning over a cup of tea before work, but sometimes (like today) I am knitting in the evening.  Either way - I am making a bit of down time to do something I enjoy!

Here is my progress so far over the three days: