Eighth Year of Projects - Week 13

Welcome to another weekly update!! 

This week I managed to finish my Bicycle Race socks and they are gorgeous (if I must say so myself!).  I enjoyed this knit!

I also got some more work done on my Sockhead Slouch Hat and made some decent progress.  I finished off the brim and got some of the plain stockinette done.  I plan to work on this some more in the upcoming week when I need something mindless to knit.  Here is what it looks like now:

And I have some progress to show on my Rowe cardigan.  I am finally back to working on this.  I started figuring out what more needed doing on the back and discovered that I needed a whole four rows of shoulder shaping to finish it up...  If I had know that I likely would have finished the back ages ago!  Oh well.  The back is now complete and some of the stitches are sitting on a cable until it is time to finish. 

I also got going on the sleeves too.  I cast on the sleeves.  I decided to do them two at a time so that I can make sure my increasing and shaping matches and so that once I am done knitting them they are both complete - no issues with having to cast on the second sleeve and do it all over again!  Right now I have about 2.5 inches of the four needed for the cuffs.  Here is my progress:

And I uploaded Episode 2 of my podcast last night!!  Thanks for your support ♥  Here is the link to episode 2 (don't worry, this episode is only about a half hour - not as long as last week!):

See you next week!!

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 10

Back again for another weekly update!  I have not much to show this week other than my Tour-de-Sock Stage 5 completed socks!  These were a fun knit and I love the final product.  Here they are:

The second picture shows the beads and cables quite nicely.  The second sock has the bead color placement reversed.

Tour-de-Sock Stage 6 - the final stage in the challenge - was released earlier this morning.  It called for four colors - so I set to work dying yarn to use in hopes that it would work well.  I decided on a yellow and purple to dye (the two main colors).  For the smaller contrast colors I am using leftovers of the blue I dyed for Stage 4 and some bare.  I'll be casting these on later this morning!  The socks look amazing, but I am not sure if I will finish in time - these beauties involve stranding with three colors in a row...  I suspect that might slow me down a bit!  Here is a picture of my colors - purple and yellow are my main color and contrast color with blue and bare being my two highlight colors.

Then, once these socks are complete I will knit something NOT socks!  I may switch to crochet and work on catching up on my BAMCAL squares, but time will tell.  I suspect I will have nothing to update next week except my Stage 6 socks, but we shall see!  Until next week!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 9

Nine consecutive weeks I have managed to post my update (and on Sunday too!!)  I am impressed with myself!

The first week of school went well but it did cut into my knitting time!  Such is life in the real world :)

So I managed to finish my Tour-de-Sock Stage 4 socks, but not by the deadline to get a point for completion.  Oh well.  I had challenged myself to complete all six stages during the allotted time, but missed on one (so far).  But, I did finish it within several hours of the deadline.  Here are my Stage 4 socks:

I reversed the colors in the second sock and love the look!  The blue is my own hand-dyed and the white is bare yarn.

On Thursday afternoon the Stage 5 sock pattern was released and I have been working on those since.  I have made some decent progress!  I have until September 3rd to finish them!  I love the cables and beads!!  What fun!!  Here is a progress picture (I am reversing the bead color placement on the second sock):

Front

Back

If I am honest I am getting a bit burnt out on socks!  Once I finish the Stage 6 socks I suspect I will take a sock break for a little while!!