Seventh Year of Projects - Week 12

I have spent the past week playing catch-up and trying my darnedest not to cast on anything new (aside from the monthly squares that I was behind on!).  I think I accomplished a lot!!

This week I managed to finish my September Main BAMKAL square:

and my July Main 12 inch BAMCAL square:

and my July Alternate 12 inch square:

and my four July 6 inch squares:

I also spent some time pinning out and steam blocking (since I used an acrylic yarn I had in my stash for this afghan) ALL of my BAMKAL squares.  I also need to take decent pictures of them all and get that updated on my Ravelry project pages.  I plan to do that later today.  I bought some cream colored yarn that I plan to use as a border on each square - I will crochet these borders on and then I can start sewing them all together.  Now that they are blocked I can see that there are a few that are a bit small - the border will work nicely to even out the sizing!

First dozen pinned out - until I ran out of pins!

And the rest of them!

And last but not least I am getting closer to being caught up with my Temperature Scarf.  I made it to the end of September 3rd.  This past week's progress is from the two plastic orange stitch markers on each side!  The first single metal marker shows when July ended and the second single metal marker shows where August ended.  I should be completely caught up for next week's update!

Before next week I want to be caught up on all my BAMCAL squares and my Temperature scarf so that I can justify casting on a pair of Selbu mittens from the club I signed up for last month (I am behind there too - there is the original pattern plus the September pattern to knit before the October and November patterns are released!)  Hopefully I can cast on a pair of those next week!!  YAY!!

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.

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 11

Another weekly update here!  My Tour-de-Sock Stage 6 socks have kicked my tail and done me in!  These have been the most difficult, challenging socks I have (tried to) knit!  They involved stranded knitting with three colors together (and four once you get to the heel flap - I didn't get that far...)!  And use the Jacquard laddering method to catch the floats.  I enjoyed learning the Jacquard method, but the three colors really slowed me down!  I have resigned myself to the fact that I will not finish these socks!  I got the cuff completed and got part way through the first charts beyond the cuff (but did not take a picture).  I am afraid that these have been frogged.  I may revisit them at a later time - we shall see, but for now they are frogged and gone.  Here is what the cuff looked like:

I had made myself a personal challenge to complete all six stages during the allotted time, and even though I failed at that I can say this year is my personal best in all of the Tours I have participated in.  I finished four pair during the allotted time frame and finished the fifth pair within a few days of the cut off for that stage.  I am happy to have five new pretty pair of socks!!  And I learned several new knitting techniques.  Who knows - maybe next year I will complete all six pair!  If not, at least I plan to try again!!  Here are my five completed Tour-de-Sock socks!

So since I threw in the towel on Thursday afternoon (the pattern was released on Sunday morning - yeah - four and a half days of knitting (not all day each day, but many hours) and all I had to show was a cuff and a little bit more - seriously like eight rounds more) I "had" to work on something else!  So I picked up some other knitting to fill the time!  I worked on my September BAMKAL alternate square and got that one finished.

Then I cast on the September BAMKAL Main square and made some progress.

I also spent some time working on my Temperature Scarf (which has been neglected for some time).  I last did my two rows on June 29th...  Now I am up to ...  I plan to work on this for a bit more and hope to get completely caught up again!  This is why I did not choose to make a temperature blanket!!  Two rounds in a scarf a day is a doable catch up but I would never have kept up with a blanket!!  My recent progress is from the two orange markers:

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!!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 8

Another week has flown by and I made some progress on my projects!  Things are picking up at university so my crafting time is reduced now.  The semester (classes) begins tomorrow but the past week involved a bunch of meetings and organizational things that needed to be attended.  I may not be making as much progress as I had been for the past couple months, but I will be keeping at it!

First I finished my August alternate square and my August Main square.  I am happy to be all caught up on my BAMKAL squares!!  All of these squares need a good blocking!!

The Tour-de-Sock Stage 4 design was released late on Monday night and I have focused mostly on that since!  It is a mosaic design and I am enjoying the knit!  I have not made as much progress as I would have liked but since school is getting back into swing this might be my new normal...  I dyed the blue yarn myself and am using the bare yarn as the contrast.  The second sock will have the colors reversed with a blue cuff, heel and toe.  Here is my progress so far!  I hope to complete them by the deadline on the 24th so check back next week to see if I made it on time!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 7

Another week has flown by!!  This week I finished another pair of socks, made a little sweater, and worked on some BAMKAL squares.

First I completed my Tour-de-Sock Stage 3 socks.  These were a fun knit - lace and cables!  What is not to love?  I used my own hand dyed yarn for these and the speckles work fairly well with the cables.

The Stage 4 pattern will be released on Monday night so I will have pictures of another sock in progress next week (I doubt I will finish a pair before Sunday morning as I am busy Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with work stuff!)

Next I finished my July alternate BAMKAL square and am nearly half complete with the August alternate BAMKAL square.  I plan to spend some time working on my August squares today so I hope to be able to show you two more completed squares next week.

And finally a friend pointed me in the direction of a miniature sweater challenge.  I signed up (and I think sign ups might be closed now) and got the first pattern on Friday.  Once my Stage 3 socks were complete yesterday I cast on and completed this little sweater!  It was a fun knit!  The four patterns are each examples of typical sweater designs to give us an idea of what is involved in knitting a sweater (on a small scale).  I used my leftover yarn from my Stage 3 socks and now only have a tiny little ball left over - maybe enough for one Scrap-ghan square - we shall see later!

And on another note - I got my hair chopped off on Thursday and the hair will be donated to make wigs for cancer patients ♥  They cut off well over a foot of hair!  It was not very thick but certainly long!  Now I need to remember to use a lot less shampoo and conditioner!!

So for next week I plan to work on my BAMKAL squares (finish my August alternate square and make the August Main square), my Stage 4 socks (pattern is available on Monday night), and (time permitting) the second mini sweater (pattern will be emailed to us on Friday).  Tune in next week and see what I accomplished!

Seventh Year of Projects - Week 6

Another week with some nice progress made!!

First up - I finished my Tour-de-Sock Stage 2 socks in time!  The heel is loose on my foot, but I am very happy with the colourwork.  It is nice and even!!  This was not my first colourwork project and apparently practice helps (who would have thought?).  Here is the finished pair:

Then I got back to working on my Block a Month Knit project.  Each month a main and alternate square pattern are posted and by the end of the year you have an afghan.  I did not get around to making my July squares while it was still July, but at least I made some progress in early August!  I also hope to finish the August squares while it is still August.  Keep posted to see if I actually did manage that!

I finished the main July square and made some progress on the alternate July square as well.  Here is what I got done:

And then the Stage 3 sock pattern was released late Friday afternoon - so I had to cast on!!  I love the design!!  It is cables and lace.  I am using some of my own hand dyed yarn (again) and am enjoying the knit so far!  Here is my progress:

Until next week!!  I hope to have another finished pair of socks plus three knit squares - tune in next week to see if that is what I managed to accomplish!