Summertiiiiiiime!

I have the center of the blanket finished. 1215 stitches picked up around the edges. Luckily my interchangeable needle set, with the three longest cords connected, can fit all the stitches. Now I'm adding a simple stockinette border, probably 9 rows, and then it will be done. Or at least, the knitting will be done.

The sweater is going, though I had to steal the cord from that to make the border of the blanket. As long as the blanket is all knitted and the sweater has the sleeves attached, I will have no problem sending both home with my mom, who arrives in just a few days. I also have about ten hours of train/bus travel time before she gets here with my Loopy Ewe yarn, so I should be able to make it!

Camp Loopy Project Two

So. Camp Loopy, Project Two, "Hiking in the Mountains". Socks or gloves. I love socks, and gloves take me awhile, so I chose socks. They have to have cables - okay, can do. I love cables. I checked my Ravelry queue because it has a handful of cabled sock patterns. A few of them I already have yarn for, so they don't count, at least not if I want the final "prize", and many of the rest are full of twisted stitches and intricate cables, which look awesome but tend to take some time. I also didn't want anything too easy, or something that technically used cables but not traditional cables like Denature, and I was staying away from kilt hose or really any longer sock. After combing the queue (but not searching all of Ravelry, that would be a rabbit hole I do not want to jump down), I decided on Treetop Socks. These are knee-highs. What was I thinking? I will get the yarn on the 19th, since I'm sending it to my mom to save on shipping, and have until the 15th of August to knit up a full pair of knee-highs, while entertaining my mom and then camping in Hokkaido. A bit of travel time, but a pair of knee-high socks...? Difficult, but do-able. With my luck I'll finish the socks at the last minute but have no way to post my finished pictures!

Like this one, flowers:

What I should have done, rather than deciding to work on knee-high cabled socks, was to have checked through the pattern books I own, since I own both of Cookie A.'s books. I did not queue the patterns I want to knit from those books since I own them, but forgot about it. There are some awesome socks with cables, like Stricken or Kristi. Stricken would have been perfect, gorgeous socks, some awesome intricate details, but not too much, and lots of stockinette in between. Yes, that would have been a great sock to knit for this.

Flowers closeup:

Unfortunately, I already ordered two skeins of Cascade Heritage Silk, in Purple Hyacinth. Can't wait, will love the finished socks to death I'm sure, but I'm not positive that I'll finish them on time, at least not without really trying. I do have quite a few hours on some trains and planes coming up...and will hopefully have everything else done that should be done before getting the yarn...maybe I'll make it?

Thursday...Just Thursday

Nothing exciting. I'm ready for the week to be over. Sadly, it's not there yet. Nails:

I'm nearing the end of the second third of the Penguin Scarf, just about finished with the second ball of each color:

I do believe I can get 4.5 projects finished this month. Both of the big ones, the blanket and the sweater, this scarf, another cute Braided Necklace, this time in two colors, and then one of my two Camp Loopy socks. Only this week of work left until the end of August, woohoo!

Bigger Illusions

I covered the orange with a nice translucent darker color:

Lancome's Vernis Absolu in Mica. Gives it more of a burnt orange cast, and I like it a lot better than the plain orange.

I finished a few projects on my business trip, and this one was finished almost entirely on the plane ride there:

Pattern: Moonrise Illusion (Ravelry)

Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Coal and Lake Ice Heather

Needles: US6/4.0mm

Timeframe: June 19 - 30, 2011

Mods: None really, 2-color cast on/bind off and slipped the side stitches rather than giving it a garter edging.

Problems: None, unless you count buying double the required yarn, and I kind of do.

 

It doesn't look as good close-up as it does from a bit further out. It also looks better if you tilt your head to the right in these pictures. It's the moon rising over some trees; the broken black line on the left is the trees. I'm still trying to decide how to package it for gifting. Probably a dowel on the top and a dowel on the bottom for hanging and weighting it, along with a copy of the original picture. Note to self - do that and photograph it before sending it.

And the back, because I like looking at the backs of interesting projects:

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Polish:

A nice, cheery Mocha Rose #24 from Revlon to brighten up the rainy month. I don't think this name fits, it's very orange, not reminiscent of either mocha or roses to me. It's the rainy season here:

Everything is wet. I don't like it. I almost always get splashed by a car on my way to work, and it cuts down on my knitting time since I'm generally holding an umbrella rather than my knitting during my daily commute. I have considered a hands-free umbrella contraption of some sort, but with the winds we tend to get with the rains, I'd probably be chasing my umbrella more often than not. Oh well. This is my last week of work, so I won't be able to get the penguin scarf done, but I do have a train ride to Tokyo coming up that I may finish it off during. The train ride back will be full of Camp Loopy Project Two - Treetop Socks in Cascade Heritage Silk, Purple Hyacinth colorway!

Old FOs

I've had quite a few projects finished for quite a while without actually blogging about them. I do that too often.  Today, I'll show off the items I made for my sister and sent along to her way back in March. No real good pictures, I finished it and sent it off while traveling:

First up, three crocheted cakes. They were cute, I wanted to make them, so I did. For my sister who is getting married:

Pattern: Crochet Mini Wedding Cakes (Rav)

Yarn: Louet Gems in White, leftover from the kneehighs at the bottom of this post.

Hook: USB/2.25mm

Timeframe: February 28 - March 7, 2011
Mods: None really, used the same yarn for the "icing", made, decorated, and stuffed each top tier before the bottom tiers. Didn't have to weave in any ends that way, just left them inside, stuffed, and finished! Put a circle of cardboard in the bottom of each cake to help it keep its shape, might be a good idea to do that for all tiers rather than just one.
Problems: The pattern gives no gauge or widely available yarn options. Fairly well-written otherwise.

Next up, a square shawl intended for both Christening and wedding celebrations, as kind of an heirloom piece. Whether it gets used for both or neither, who knows, but I made it using stash yarn and a free pattern, so it worked out quite well for me. I'm really happy with how it came out:

Pattern: Spanish Armada (Ravelry)

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Laceweight

Needles: US6/4.0mm

Timeframe: February 9 - March 12, 2011

Mods: Not really. Didn't have quite enough yarn as written, so modified Chart 7 and didn't run out of yarn. Was a bit of a nerd with the modifications, used Excel to figure out how much to modify based on the estimated amounts of yarn used and left. File available on Ravelry. Also wish I'd've modified the bind-off to a knitted-on edging, but would not have had enough yarn for one.

Problems: No real problems, but a couple of typos here and there (check Ravelry for corrections) and I also wish the pattern were a bit more consistent and polished. Easy to follow if you're familiar with lace and reading your knitting.

I do wish I'd had a better photo shoot with this one, but maybe it'll get a good one if/when it gets used. I love the center and the different lace patterns flow well together. I like the shorter waves pattern I made rather than the longer one in the original. I think if I were to make it again, I'd use more yarn but keep the modifications and do some kind of wave knitted-on border to finish it off.

June Numbers

 I did in fact finish all five of the projects I started this month. Except that in double checking I actually started the penguin scarf on June 1, so I didn't really finish all the projects I started. I still finished five! And would be under 40 miles if I hadn't, you know, bought more.

It actually did go down! By 230 yards! Not that you can really tell from this graph, but that's not so bad, considering the fact that I bought a whole bunch of yarn this month too.

Next month, I shall finish the huge blanket and my mother's sweater, and even if I finish nothing else, though I believe I can also finish the penguin scarf, I will be very, very happy with that progress and there should be a definite dip in the graph then!