July

June was an excellent month for yarn usage, finishing up just over 2 miles of projects with a net 1.7 miles of yarn loss. Sweet!



As for the rest of my June goals, I finished the shawl and have the yarn for the next project. I also kept up with the Steotch-Along and the only reason it isn't done is because we couldn't decide how to finish it until it was too late to go out to get the frame last night.

I have two goals this month. The first is to participate in Tour de Fleece, improving my spinning by spinning a worsted-style yarn, intended to be roughly fingering - sport weight and 2-ply, and going through a pound of alpaca fleece, intended to be roughly a DK-to-worsted 3-ply. I've got all the books my library had on spinning and am getting my spin on:

The second is to finish the Camp Loopy project for this month (and buy the yarn for the third and final Camp Loopy project. So really, 3 goals). Project 2 needs to be over 500 yards and must have over 1000 projects or be in over 1000 queues, and while there's only 364 projects, Metro is in over 2200 queues. It's a big one, over 800 yards and I'm planning to lengthen the sleeves and probably the body a bit. The cardigan is mostly stockinette, which helps, but I won't have all of that lecture time and I will have a lot of work deadlines coming up quickly. Knitting time will be at a minimum. While I'd love to say I'm going to knit at least a mile this month, I'm not sure that's going to happen! I'm also trying to take part in the Tour de Fleece, with a goal of spinning daily using tips and tricks from library books and YouTube during the Tour to improve my skills. With the spinning, yarn purchase for Camp Loopy project 3, and minimal knitting anticipated, I'll be happy if the curve doesn't go up this month!


Project 2: Begin!

Always Put Your WIPs Away!

I came home to this yesterday:

Apparently, one of my cats was interested in the nearly-finished blanket I had near the couch and got her collar caught on it. She dragged the blanket across the dining room and must have gone around and around the chair leg quite a few times in order to get it wrapped around like that.

Surveying the scene

On the one hand, I feel really bad about her getting stuck. On the other hand, it's been there for days, why did she now find the blanket so appealing she was able to get her collar stuck on the yarn? Luckily, as you can kind of see in the above picture, all of the yarn tangled around the dining room is from the skein; the hook remained caught in the working loop:

I suppose this is a sign to just finish the blanket already - that or to actually put the project back into the project bag when I'm not working on it. One or the other.

Penultimate Steotch-Along Clue

Not too much to this clue, just adding the backstitching to the face. I love backstitching, it always gives a lot of impact and now his face really pops!

On to the final clue, where we will finally learn what phrase has been chosen.

Steotch-Along Clue #6

I am still keeping up! Clue #7 was released on Friday, but I wanted to show off my shawl so I held off on posting this until today. Looking a bit less demon-y and a bit more Samuel L. Jackson-y:

Two more clues to go! If I can find a suitable framing method (probably a 5x7 frame from Goodwill), I will be finished by the end of the month. The stitching definitely will be, the only question is, how to frame things? I've started a collection of seasonal cross stitches with a bit of a geeky slant (Christmas, Valentine's Day) and am planning to have a spot where I will keep something on the wall (maybe the current WIP?) for most of the year and switch it out with the holiday ones as appropriate. The Christmas one is mounted on Styrofoam because it's an odd shape and I didn't want to deal with figuring out the perfect frame and matting and all that. The Valentine's Day one is currently still taped into the card, so I still have to figure out if I should frame it or what. I can put them all on Styrofoam, frame them all, or just do what seems right for each individual piece. I still don't know what I'll end up doing. Decisions, decisions.

Camp Loopy Project 1: Finished!

All of the Camp Loopy projects need to be started and finished in the same month and must follow the prompts. Project One needed to be a 1-skein project of at least 375 yards using a yarn you haven't used before. I chose Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering for the yarn and the Brandywine Shawl for the project. At first, I thought the shawl was coming out a little too camo-y for my tastes. It's not quite what I had envisioned from seeing the yarn in the skein, but I think it turned out well in the end:

I finished it in less than a week, much faster than anticipated, mostly due to having about 10 hours of straight lecture in my 12 hour class that week. With the majority of this shawl worked in garter stitch, it was a quick knit anyway, and very easy to work on while taking notes and listening to the professor.

Pattern: Brandywine Shawl (mine)

Yarn: Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering in Element

Needles: US6/4.0mm

Timeframe: June 10 - 17, 2013

Mods: Added another 4 repeats of Chart B to use as much yarn as possible.

Problems: None!

I added four repeats and considered a fifth, but in the end I'm glad I didn't because I would have run out of yarn that way. The reverse I-cord bindoff is absolutely perfect for this shawl and I love it so much! I also think I finally got the hang of I-cord edging - mine always came out too tight, mostly because I thought you had to pull it fairly tight to get it to close up. With this project, I found that you really don't, and if you just keep a normal tension rather than trying to pull it taut, you do get a fairly stretchy, nice bindoff. Who'd've thought? 

June WIPs

Over one mile down, 2118.9 yards to be exact, and 880 yards of yarn for Camp Loopy Project 2 just arrived. 521.1 yards more to go this month for 1 mile net yarn loss. All but one of the WIPs on the top of the pile are easily over 600 yards, more than enough to bring my yarn total for June where I want it:

I have four things I'm working on for the rest of the month. You've seen (probably more than you wanted) the Steotch-Along cross stitch. I also mentioned the tall sock that needed to be ripped out back to the heel and re-knit; that one will be my travel project. For Camp Loopy, I was going to show off my in-progress shawl, but it flew off the needles and will be the star of my next post, if I can get some good pictures! As a backup travel project, I have a scarf I can't show off yet to travel around with. It's currently at a really easy garter stitch for X" stage, great for lectures and reading, but it is the one WIP that won't let me reach my goal, requiring only about 400 yards.

Finally, I'm trying to finish a blanket that I've had in progress since 2007. It's a 3-panel Broomstick Lace crocheted blanket, and I already have two complete panels. It's my at-home project for when I am waiting for the next Steotch clue. I was hoping to get it done this month, but given the (very) limited time I've had for crafting at home this month, it may or may not happen. I do have a nice long car trip this weekend, but part of it will be from bourbon distillery to bourbon distillery. I historically have tension issues when crocheting, and I seriously doubt bourbon will help!

Steotch-Along #5

Now with 100% more flowers!

This is one of four WIPs I plan to work on this month. My summer class has had quite a few more hours of lecture than anticipated so my Camp Loopy project was done much quicker than anticipated. More time for older WIPs!