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!

Simple Socks

With some simple self-striping yarn, I made two pairs of almost-instant-gratification stockinette socks. Or at least, they would have been almost-instant-gratification had I gone directly from sock #1 to sock #2 for each pair.

Pattern: Self-Striping Knit Socks (Ravelry, mine1, mine2)

Yarn: Green - ONline Supersocke 100

Purple - Universal Yarn Ditto in Purple Cascade

Needles: US1.5/2.5mm

Timeframe: Green - January 14 - June 8, 2013

Purple - February 21 - May 19, 2013

Mods: Shortened the leg on both socks, on the first sock to be sure I would have enough yarn (didn't need to), and on the second because I realized that I much prefer a shorter sock leg or additional calf shaping. It's easier to shorten the leg than to figure out the shaping, especially when you barely have enough brainpower left at the end of the day to figure out dinner. Yay grad school!

Problems: None with the patterns, had to rip back and re-knit the purple sock toes due to haste.

Both pairs were part of February Frenzy. I'm not sure if I like the yarn yet. It seems a bit scratchy and I don't know if that will be a problem. I usually don't mind scratchy yarns, so it shouldn't be. I'm just happy to have two more pairs of socks in the sock drawer - just in time for summer, when I typically don't wear socks at all!