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!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 35

Another week has come and gone very quickly!!  The hubby is out of town (and will be for another week) so that has freed up a bit more knitting time for me (although I do miss him being underfoot!)

The final clue for our Mystery Sock was released yesterday morning and I spent my free time yesterday working on that!  I have completed the chart on one sock (and have to add a bit more plain before the toe decreasing) and I have the gusset decreases done on the second sock.  I am hoping to get a fair bit more done on these today!  They will certainly be a finish for next week!  The green markers in each sock show where I left off last week.

Since the clue was two days late in being released, I had extra time to spend with my Rowe Cardigan and am excited to say I am getting close to completing the back portion!!  I have finished decreasing for the armholes and have about six or seven inches left to knit before I need to do the shoulder shaping.  Then I am on to the front pieces!!  This is shaping up nicely!!  The first green marker shows where I left off last week and the second marker shows where I need to measure the length from the armhole to the shoulder - this part needs to be a little over nine inches for my size so you can see I have a little way to go until the top part of the back is complete.

I do expect that my time on this cardigan will slow down as Sock Madness will be starting up late next week.  Once that begins the majority of my energy is on speed knitting socks!  But Rowe will be waiting for me between rounds of sock knitting!!  I am excited to see what is in store for us this year!  The specs look like there will be a lot of color work - not sure what kind of color work - but many patterns call for multiple colors of yarn.  That might slow me down, but we shall see!

Until next week!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 34

Back for another week.  This past week has been quite busy at work with several additional commitments that cut into my spare time for knitting!  Oh well, we have to do what we have to do to maintain our crafting lifestyles!

I finished up the third clue on the Mystery Socks.  This got us through the heel flap and began the gusset decreases.  The fourth and final clue will be out on Thursday.  I am curious to see what the last clue begins us for the design!

And I added a little bit more onto the back of my Rowe Cardigan.  It is not as much as I had hoped to add but it is still progress.  The stitch marker shows my progress this past week.  I hope to have this done while we have some cold in the air left to enjoy wearing it - but if not I will have an amazing sweater to wear next winter!!

Hopefully I will have a finished object to show you!!  Have a great week!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 33

Back for another weekly update on my Year of Projects!  I can hardly believe that I have posted every week for 33 weeks now!!  WOW!

I have focused on two projects this past week and have made some decent progress on each!

First my Rowe Cardigan is coming along nicely.  I have completed the five inches of ribbing on the back and have also completed the first 34 rows on the cable pattern.  Written this way it does not sound like a lot, but it actually is a decent amount when you look at it!  I suspect I am so used to working with fingering weight and small needles that worsted weight and larger needles have rows going a lot faster!!  So far I am thoroughly enjoying the knit!!

The second clue in the Solid Socks Mystery Design was released on Thursday morning and I have been working on that in the second half of the week.  I have the second clue complete on the first sock and have finished round 30 of 53 on the second sock.  I hope to have the second leg complete by the end of today or sometime tomorrow so I can get back to the cardigan for a few days before the third clue comes out!  This will look much nicer once it is on the sock blockers (or a leg) to show off the pretty lace!  It looks a bit scrunchy and bunchy here...

I was looking at some pictures of people's Find Your Fade Shawl and I am not entirely happy with the yarns I dyed to make mine.  My color fades are not quite subtle enough for my liking (I think).  I am mulling over the idea of frogging it and starting over with newly dyed yarns that are closer in colors.  That is a decision I will leave until later!

I hope everyone has an amazing week!!

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 31

Week 31!  WOW I am still amazed I have been keeping up with this for so long!  I have not really followed my initial list, but I have been posting about my progress on other projects :)

I finished my SKA MOCKs a couple days ago and I love them!  I really didn't use the best yarn for socks, but it was a good yarn for color work.  The contrast is maybe a bit to subtle as well, but I am fine with that as well!  I really do enjoy a mystery knit!

Since I finished up my mystery socks a couple days ago I have had a bit of time to continue working on my Advent Cowl.  I am slowly getting closer to completion on this one too.  Last week I had finished the middle of the three darker pink bands.  In the past week I added the second gray, the third dark pink, and the pale pink.  I did about 18 rounds (each round is over 200 stitches) and I have 15 rounds left to do!!  I am really hoping to have it as a finish for next Sunday!

I have been seeing several people lately talking about their "Make Nine" projects.  Basically this is a personal challenge for people to make nine articles of clothing for themselves over 2018.  I think I am going to join this bandwagon and see what I can manage.  I suspect I will not make it to nine, but I will try.  My make nine will include both knitting and sewing.  I have not sewn a garment in a long time and it is about time to dust off my trusty old sewing machine and show it some love again. 

First up I plan to knit the Rowe Cardigan by Michele Wang.  It is a gorgeous worsted weight heavily cabled cardigan.  I am excited to cast it on!!  There is a KAL for knitting Wang garments over here that I am going to join.  I need to order some yarn for it and I plan to get that done later today.  I plan to order some undyed yarn and will decide if I want to dye the skeins before I knit it, or dye the cardigan once it is done - or leave it as an undyed yarn.  I am actually leaning towards leaving it undyed. 

Second up I plan to sew myself the Grandpa Cardi.  I have an old jersey sweater that I am wearing to death and I have not been able to find a replacement in the shops so I finally decided I may as well sew my own!  I need to go out and look at some fabric soon (maybe on Thursday?) and get started with that one!  I bought the pattern last night and need to figure out just how much fabric I need. I am excited to get back to sewing again!!

Tune in next week to see where I am!!  I hope you all have an amazing week! 

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 30

Back again!  I have had a fairly productive week!

I completed Clue #3 (added the heel flaps, heel turns, and gusset decreases) on my SKA MOCKs and am looking forward to seeing the final clue tomorrow!  Hopefully that last clue knits up quickly!

I spend some quality time with my Advent Cowl.  I am now working on the last round of Day 17 (of 24 days).  This cowl has long rounds (over 200 stitches!) and almost all color work so it is slow going...  I hope to have it done by the end of January, but we shall see!  I just checked and I have 35 rounds left to go and 12 of those rounds are solid colors with no color work!  Lots of color work to go!!

Have an amazing week everyone!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 29

Hello again for another weekly update!  This week has been less productive for me as University has started up again after our winter break and I have been busy with that.

I did manage to get a goodly amount done on my SKA MOCK (Sock Knitters Anonymous Mystery Sock).  The second clue was released on Monday and I have managed to complete one leg and about half of the second leg.  I hope to get the second leg complete today so that I am ready for the third clue on Monday.  We are told to cut the contrast color at the end of Clue #2 so the heel should be quicker going with only one color!

I still have not blocked my Advent Scarf...  I really hope to get that done this week coming up!  And I want to start sewing together my BAMKAL squares and I want to finish my BAMCAL squares so I can assemble that blanket as well!  I especially want to get these three things done in January so I can clear off most of my WIP list I organized at the beginning of the month!  We shall see how I progress!

Until next time - happy crafting!

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!!

NaBloPoMo 2017 Day 29

Today is NaBloPoMo Day 29!!  Only one more day to post and I will have posted every day in November!  I am so impressed with myself!  Last year I missed two days so I have done better this year!  

Yesterday I spent my spare time working on my Mystery Socks and I am getting closer to having them all done!!  I suspect I will be able to finish them tonight or tomorrow!  Here is what they look like now:

After work today I need to get onto dying some yarn for one of the mystery Advent scarves I will be casting on Friday.  This way the yarn should be nice and dry and ready to cast on Friday morning!  I am excited to start some new projects!  I have been quite disciplined this past month or so and have only worked on WIPs without caving in to the temptation to cast on something new!  Well on Friday I am going to blow that out of the water by casting on three new things!