Tour de Sock 2015

Monday is June 1st, which is the beginning of Tour de Sock. Each year I get really excited and then I never finish the socks. Sometimes I even end up frogging the ones that I do. Maybe after the tour I'll go back and knit the ones I like most from the previous year. I've been meaning to do that but haven't yet. This year will mark my fourth one. Each year, possibly each pattern, I learn something new. Stage one of last year taught me a new heel that I haven't yet gone back to. I need to. I'm not sure if there is a beading stage each year but I know there is one this year and there was one last year. I've bought plenty of beads, enough colors for any yarn I might decide to use. The only thing I'm a little worried about though is if the beaded sock is stage three. We've been given what days each stage is released. Stage three is the one that will travel with me when I go visit Jackie in MA. I can knit a lot of things on the go but I think beads are one of the things that makes it really hard to do. Every time I've done a beaded project (not a lot) I've stayed at home when knitting it because I didn't want to run the risk of losing all my beads. I always drop some.

Other than hoping that the beaded stage isn't stage three and having other socks to knit if it is, I'm excited. Stage one is the sport weight sock. There was no way I wasn't going to need to buy yarn for the tour. I don't buy sport weight often. I went a little overboard I think. It just means I'll have other sport weight socks I'll be able to make. At first I was only buying one skeins but they're listed as 100g. The details for the sock of stage one say 150g so I went back and bought more. Part of my trip this summer is redoing my stash. Although with the projects I want to buy yarn for I might not get to buy yarn just for buying yarn but we'll see. Even if I can't, as I work through some of the yarn I don't know what to do with I want to start buying some of the weights I don't work with much like Sport and DK. I'll only buy yarn for Bulky and Super Bulky when I have a project that needs it. I'm giving away most of my acrylic stash because I honestly don't use it and would be much happier with a mostly wool stash.

Happy knitting!

Catching Up

I've noticed a trend in when I don't have a lot of time to knit, I stop blogging. For awhile there wasn't much to talk about in the way of knitting and not a lot has been going on in my life outside of that. It took me awhile but I finally finished Stacie's baby blanket and was able to give it to her before she had her daughter. Who is super adorable. Aside from the blanket, I've been working on WIPs to try and get some done before I go on my trip to see Jackie and go to WEBs. Because I will be bringing home yarn.

There was a period of time after I finished the blanket where I kept starting things. The first thing I started was a Torchic amigurumi for my Etsy store. And then not long after that, Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro. Neither are done yet and I'm pretty sure I haven't even finished the first piece on both. Totoro looks like it is going to be bigger than I want it to be but we'll see, since the pattern claims it will be 9" tall. Amigurumi are always hard to take pictures of when they're in progress because they don't really look like much of anything until you start putting them together. And the ones I'm working on currently have a ways to go before that point.

In April I decided, possibly against my better judgement, to test knit a sock pattern for someone. The sock was actually pretty easy but I just kept not working on it or being too tired that it took me longer than I wanted it to. What it also did was inspire me to start designing socks again. I have the first one charted but I don't know that I'll get to knitting it this month. I did finally finish the pair of socks for the test knit. The test only required the first sock. I was going to start my design sample after that but Tour de Sock is coming up and I want as few socks on my needles as possible before it started. I still have two socks on my needles, one of which has no chance of getting finished before June.

But I did start something. It, however, is more a bunch of small things instead of one finished things. As I have now listed my small amigurumi of Loki and Thor on etsy I wanted to restart my Avengers set and finish them this time. Two things got me inspired to do it. The first thing that got me inspired was Saint Seiya. I won't go into it too much because it is my current obsession. But, they're releasing a new series for it, 13 episodes long, called Soul of Gold and it brings back some of my favorite characters. When I saw the character designs for all of the Gold Saints, I immediately wanted amigurumi of them. Sadly, I don't have enough of the colors to really finish any of them. I thought about doing the Avengers again but wasn't sure I wanted to. And then I saw Rae's ami of Bucky and fell in love with him. I am very much a fan of Bucky so I knew who I would start the Avengers set with, as I was reinspired to do them, with Saint Seiya on the list to do when I can afford to buy more of the yarn I like to use for the amis.

Okay so, Tour de Sock. If you don't know what that is, each summer during the time frame of Tour de France, there are two competitions that happen on Ravelry - Tour de Sock and Tour de Fleece. Tour de Sock is sock knitting and Tour de Fleece is spinning. I don't know as much about Tour de Fleece even though I'm going to try and participate this year, just that it starts after I get back from my trip. Tour de Sock starts June 1st. There are 6 stages and it depends on how complex the socks are for how the stage is. I think 2 weeks was the longest I've seen it. I've done TdS for several years now, although I have very few of the socks actually knitted. You don't have to do the strict competition. You can either do a relaxed knitting or just cheer on the teams. At first I was just going to cheer others on and knit as I could, but decided I did want a team.

There are several yarn shops, like Alina Shea Creations, that puts up yarn for TdS and has a coupon code that puts the yarn on sale. I didn't go crazy buying yarn like I could have - I have to save that for WEBs. But I did get a few skeins. I'm super excited for the Tour this year. The supply list requires beads for one sock so I found a bead shop online (www.fusionbeads.com) and ordered enough to get free shipping. Until now I've not really had a bead supply for knitting so I'm happy that I was able to. One day, when it isn't time for TdS I will go back and knit the socks from previous years. I am sad though, I didn't think that I had lost the patterns for last year's TdS so didn't download them before they were taken off the website. Now I can't find them and I think they were lost when the harddrive on my desktop died. I still have a couple of them, I think.

In the time between now and when TdS starts, I'm focusing on trying to finish WIPs and get a few of the Avengers amigurumi done. Iron Man is half done now. I picked up my Tardis socks again, which will be listed on etsy when I am done with them. I may be able to get the first sock done tonight. This weekend is going to be a busy one for me because my friend is graduating college on Saturday so I need to drive out to Mom's so I can go see her graduate.

I hope everyone has a lovely rest of their week and happy knitting!

Shawl Club, Part I

For a long time I would hear about knitters being part of yarn clubs and until this year, I didn't feel like I could really afford it. There is a designer who has a sock club that I want to do one day. Not all that long ago, I finally realized that yes, I do have enough spare money that I could support my friend Shayla who dyes yarn. So I joined her yarn club. Two actually. One was her normal yarn club and the second is yarn dyed using Marvel characters as inspiration. As I am planning on visiting my best friend for my birthday in June, I've let the 3 months at a time run out for the Marvel club and will be buying them each month. For the normal club, when it runs out again, I'll wait until after my trip before restarting it. Or that's what I thought until I heard about the shawl club.

One of my absolute favorite designers that lives in Scotland has started her very first club. I would have been excited for it had it just been a yarn club. But it is more than that. It is a shawl club. For a year I will get a shawl pattern and the yarn to make it every other month. There was a way to pay for it in installments so I selected that option. February is the first month that a shawl comes out. The pattern came out last week and I have been very good. I kept myself from looking at both the yarn spoiler thread and the pattern until I got my yarn tonight. It's a very pretty brown yarn and the shawl pattern is perfect for it.

When I first started knitting shawls, the first shawl I did was a Damson shawl by Ysolda. This is her shawl club. I have knit far less Ysolda than I have wanted to and I am going to work on changing that. In addition to her shawl club, she has a KAL going on for the second year in a row. This year's shawl KAL is Follow Your Arrow 2, the first Follow Your Arrow shawl being from last year's KAL. I didn't knit last years but I am knitting this year's. And once I'm done with the Arrow shawl, I will cast on the shawl from the club.

I'm so excited. I can't wait to start the new shawl.

WIP Wednesday: 9 to 5 Socks

At the beginning of the year I had planned to make the set of musketeer socks. I was making good progress on the first until I was mostly done and tried on the sock. The cast on for the cuff was too tight. I would be able to wear it but not comfortably. I have always had trouble off and on with the cuff cast on or the cuff bind off, depending on how the sock is started. I tried to just restart Athos. It turned out that I had lost all desire to work on any of the set. So instead I spent some time looking at sock patterns.

I wanted something toe up but nothing I saw caught my eye. I even looked through my books on toe up socks. The hardest part was picking something that wasn't too easy but also that wasn't overly complicated. I eventually found a couple pairs. Ironically despite wanting toe up, the socks I picked are cuff down. I am making them in the first purple I've seen knit picks release since their royalty tonal.

On Tumblr there is a tag called #operationsockdrawer and the idea behind it is to have a sock drawer full of hand knit socks. It's a fun idea so I'm going to tag my socks with that. I've been making socks for a couple years but I don't have that many yet. 

WIP Wednesday: Follow Your Arrow 2

Last year one of my favorite designers did a mystery knit-along called Follow Your Arrow. This year she is doing another one. I am sad I didn't make the first one when everyone else did but I am making the second one while the KAL is running. The first part of the pattern came out on Monday. The best part about the Arrow shawls is that they aren't just one or two shawls. You can pick a path and go with it to the end or pick and choose from the clues. Which means there are tons of options for how the shawl will come out.

I am using two different yarns for mine. One is Knit Picks Chroma in Galapagos and the other is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Canopy. The Chroma yarn is a gradient and I could use it for the full shawl. However I want to use it for knitting the original Follow Your Arrow as well. If I use a second yarn I will have enough. Since the gradient is blue and green, I picked a blue yarn to use as the second color for FYA and a green for the second color of FYA2.

If you are knitting the KAL I would love to see what options and colors you are using. Happy knitting! 

The Year Ahead

Every year right before the year ends I begin thinking about my crafting goals for the new year. There is a group on Ravelry where you set of goal of items you want to complete that year. It can be anything from crafts to housework. It started at 111 items but you don't have to do that many. This year the goal is 115. I've always tried for the large number. I think the closest I got was 90 last year. I think, for how much I had going on last year that I did pretty well. To try and help myself with the large goal I set smaller goals:

• 12 socks 
• 12 fingerless mitts/gloves 
• 12 hats 
• 24 amigurumi 
• 12 books
• 12 scarves 
• 12 designs 
• 6 shawls 
• 3 sweaters
• 1 vest

Just reaching the smaller goals gives me 106 items completed if I don't count a new design as the design and the item it is. Which I am not planning on doing. All of the goals should be fairly easy to reach. It doesn't have to be 12 new scarves for example. If I finish one of the scarves from last year that is still a WIP it still counts towards my numbers. I am planning on doing Tour de Sock again this year. That means at least four socks will get made for that. I would like to finally do all 6 pairs this year. I usually manage to get about 3 done on any given year with one pair or more left as a WIP. Sometimes I finish them but other times I frog the project.

I have already started on my weaving and sock knitting for the year. The scarf I've started weaving is one I've wanted as soon as I saw the yarn. The yarn was dyed by my friend Shayla for one of her yarn clubs. I missed out on most of the yarn club and this yarn was the last of the Celestial yarn club, Milky Way.

I'm working on stashing down yarn this year in addition to stocking my etsy with more things. Weaving is wonderful for that. I can use up about 400 yards in less than a week and sometimes I'll list the scarf on etsy. An example of this is the Gryffindor scarf I made last year. I don't have it listed yet because my store is on hiatus until I can rebuild stock a little bit more.

The socks I've started are part of the Three Musketeers set. I'm going to do all of them. They were designed with men in mind but I should be able to modify them enough for my smaller feet. The pair I started with is Athos. The picture doesn't show the yarn as well as I would like. It is a bit darker than shown.

As far as my etsy goes, my main focus is going to be getting the Harry Potter items made. This means I need to get the hats back in stock and make all of the scarves (once my current scarf is done) before I can come back from hiatus. Harry Potter is what brings the most traffic to my store and I know that no matter what time of year it is, it will sell. Spring and Summer are always my hardest times of year because a lot of what I sell is made to wear during the cooler months. But I'm also going to be making plushies so hopefully some of those will sell too.

I hope everyone had a wonderful new year and I can't wait to see what everyone is making this year!

WIP Wednesday: Magrathea Shawl

The hardest thing I have noticed about doing posts on Wednesdays is that I'm at work most of the day. If I don't take the picture before I leave, chances are a post won't happen that day. But I did remember today! I have several projects that are a focus right now so I'm hoping that posting about one a week will keep me focused.

I've been working on this shawl for awhile now but it is getting close to being done. I'm excited. It is also the first thing I have made with Alina Shea yarn and I want to wear it.

Weaving Experiment: Part II

It's been awhile but I have finished my Gryffindor scarf. Once I finished it and got it off the loom, it looked a lot better than it did on the loom because the warp threads were all stretched out. Something I realized as I was weaving this scarf was the yarn I was using was Cascade 220 Superwash and I didn't think about what that would mean. It won't full like a non-superwash wool will. I still don't have the blue or silver superwash 220. I asked Jackie about it and she said WEBs isn't sure when it will come back in stock. Instead of canceling the order, I'm going to let it come when it does get back in stock. But I'm not sure I'm going to use superwash for the scarves again (the 220 Fingering isn't so I still wouldn't want to wash it in the machine.)

In the mean time I got some of the colors I need for the scarves in regular Cascade 220 (Ravenclaw blue, silver, Slytherin green, Hufflepuff yellow and Gryffindor red.) The only color missing is the black and the bronze for the second color set of Ravenclaw. I got more of the red fingering so I can make another Gryffindor when I want to. The next one I make will be Ravenclaw. My plan is to make one of each of the two styles (large stripes or the uneven stripes you see on Gryffindor) of each of the houses. And then list them on Etsy. If you have a request for me to make you one, please let me know. 

I feel like the scarf came out really well. It measures 74" long before the fringe and used about 430 yards. 

Weaving Experiment: Part I

Friday I finished my purple houndstooth scarf which meant it was time to start my experiment. I haven't actually measured an area out for a specific length of scarf in the new house yet. Instead I've been warping the scarves the length of my room. Now that the purple is done, I need to see just what that length comes out to be. I picked Gryffindor to start with. I'm still waiting on the yarn for Ravenclaw (including the silver for Slytherin). The first thing I learned was that a 50g ball of Cascade 220 Fingering will get me an 8" warp the length of my room. 

I'm really glad that it gave me what it did. When the skein started getting low, I was worried about just how wide it would come out. My goal had been 9" but I'm perfectly happy with 8". Typically House Scarves are wider, closer to 10-12" but unless someone specifically wants that width, I think I'm going to stick to the 8". This was the first time I did a fingering weight warp. It took awhile but I'm glad it came out as well as it did.

The beginning of the weft. Its interesting to weave the weft through a fingering weight warp. The colors are a little off. The warp is more of a burgundy and the weft is more of that classic Gryffindor red. I only see the warp when I'm looking close enough and should see even less after I block the scarf at the end.

As of yesterday, I have completed 2 full sections and gotten to the gold stripe section for a third. Each repeat is 40 rows of weft and then 4 each of gold, red, gold. The trick to all of this is how well the gold shows with the red weft. So far so good.

WIP Wednesday: Castle of Dreams III

I've made this blanket twice before now. The more I make it, the farther in the design process I get. I got almost all of the design written up last time but forgot to take measurements as I worked or to check what gauge I got. This time I'm measuring as I go.

I don't have anyone in mind to receive the blanket. I have so much acrylic at this point that I can make blankets to sit around. They'll take up less space than a bin of acrylic will. I might even sell them on etsy, I'm not sure yet.

I hope everyone is having a good Wednesday!

Fall Knitting!

It's finally feeling like autumn and I love it!! This is my favorite time of the year, when I get to bring out all the hand knits. I wear some of them all year, even when it is really too hot for them. But its this time of year where I've always got a shawl and hat on. Most of my gloves are fingerless to allow for typing and knitting. I've been known to, when its too cold for fingerless, put on a small pair of cheap gloves and put the hand knit mitts over them. I still get warmth for my fingers but get to wear the comfy hand knit.

We've been moved into the house about a month now. We're still settling in. My bed has been set up for a few weeks now. This past weekend with help from a friend we were able to move my dresser and desk up to my room. Solid wood furniture is heavy and we've already decided that we're hiring movers when we move out of this house, whenever that may be. The living room is pretty close to being set up too. The one thing left that I need in my room is a bookcase. The boxes left in my closet are boxes of books and yarn. I know where the important books are so I can get to them easily enough: the knitting books and what I have of Brandon Sanderson's work. I've been listening to the Hobbit on audiobook lately. Once I finish, I'm going to pick up listening to Way of Kings again.

My crafting lately seems to be focused on purple and orange. It suits, considering that Halloween is this month. I've finished my shawl from my last post. It's about the only thing I finished in September. I absolutely love it and have worn it a bunch lately. But it is a smaller shawl (perfect for wearing in the office) and I'm used to larger shawls like my Seraphim.

After the shawl was finished, I picked up knitting on a pair of socks I started last month but haven't finished yet. I'm using an orange variegated yarn for them. I have enough of it so that when the socks are done, I can cast on a Hitchhiker and use the rest of the yarn up for that shawl. I've decided that my hand knits need to come in sets: shawl/scarf, hat, mitts/gloves and socks. I need that item bonus for wearing the full set, you know. :P

For the purple set I now have the shawl and a pair of fingerless mitts that I made last year. I have the hat in mind already. It's the socks that make me pause. The yarn I used for the shawl is Knit Pick's Stroll Tonal in their discontinued colorway called Royalty. When I use it all up, I can't get more. I have 3 skeins left. There is a shawl I plan to use a skein to make for a friend. That leaves me with two. The question then becomes do I want to use it for just shawls or use a skein for a pair of socks too? If yes on socks, I have a pair of knee high socks in mind. For my orange set, I'm still working on the shawl and socks. I know the pattern for the fingerless mitts I'm going to use. I actually have a very limited amount of orange fingering in my stash and it makes me sad. I love orange. I'm not sure about the hat yet. The one in the purple set is a beret but it doesn't have to be. I'll have to do some thinking on other hat patterns I want.

I'm still weaving, of course. I'm always weaving. My focus right now has been to get scarves done so I can get them listed on etsy. Especially with winter coming and everyone thinking about new things to wear to stay warm. I have four done already. 2 houndstooth, 1 checkerboard and 1 plaid. I've warped my loom for a second checkerboard. this time in a light and dark purple. I really love how they look together. Speaking of weaving, I have an experiment I'm going to try when the yarn and the reed for my loom get here. The experiment is to see how well I can weave horizontal stripes. The trick is to use a fingering weight yarn for the warp and a worsted weight yarn for the weft. I've ordered the yarns for all of the houses. Once they get here, I'll get started. I'm really excited about trying it. Because if it works, then I can weave Doctor Who scarves as well.

I hope you have a wonderful crafty week!

Knitting, Weaving and Moving! Oh My!

I don't remember being this busy in quite some time. We will be getting the keys to our new house this weekend. On Tuesday I will need to go over there and get as much painting as I can done. I want to help my brother paint our new house for more than just one day by my work week of 10+ hours a day doesn't allow for it. On the days I work, I barely manage to knit for an hour or two after I get home from work. But I'll help him the best I can. In the meantime, we need to keep packing. My room is still only about half packed. Thankfully the yarn is mostly pre-packed because it lives in bins and such. There is some yarn that is sitting our but that can be put into a box as long as I don't need it. Then on next Friday, we will drive to mom's, pack the uhaul we're renting there, drive back the next day and put the rest of our stuff in the uhaul and unload it. I'm really glad I took a few days off from work with my PTO because I'm going to need it.

As far as crafting goes, I've been weaving a lot lately. The next scarf that is going on the loom today will be my first plaid scarf. I want to expand past scarves but I know right now they are good practice. I already know that I'm going to want a new loom when I look to expand past scarves. I'm dying to make myself a plaid shawl in fall colors but I don't think it will end up happening this year. There is just so much else to do and I don't have the money right now to afford the yarn I want to use.

September is the start of a new HPKCHC term. It took a couple days but my OWL has been approved and I've started working on that. It is a multi-project OWL and two of them have been started. For classes I have started a shawl that I'm absolutely in love with and was nearly sitting on my hands to keep from casting on. I don't think it is quite half done but I'm into the repeats of chart 3 of 4. I have also cast on a pair of simple socks. They have a little more pattern than plain vanilla socks so it will keep me interested but not keep me from knitting while I watch Netflix. 

Most of the time I start a term off with casting on my OWL and at least 2-3 classes. I always end up focusing on the classes and failing my OWL. I'm determined to do a healthy mix of both this time. The shawl is my main focus for September but I have other projects that are easier to grab on the go. Several hours of my weekly knitting time is spent knitting during my break at work. It takes away from my knitting to be looking at a chart. So the projects I can memorize are the ones I take with me. Right now I have my Ravenclaw scarf from my OWL in my bag I take to work. I will switch the projects around as I can so I don't get too bored. My days off are nice. I try to spend them knitting as much as I can because I know I don't get a lot done during the rest of the week.

I have put my etsy on vacation until I am done moving. This will help my knitting some too. I used to be smart about it and have a stock of the Harry Potter hats that sell the most. And then I kept selling them without making the stock inbetween orders. So now when I get an order for a hat, I have to stop what I'm doing and make it. And it is just hard on me to do that, especially when I am working on a project I really like. So the vacation is not only for the move but to also catch up on some stock again. I'll have new listings to post when I bring it back and that will be exciting.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Birthday Post

The last time I posted anything, it was my birthday. (June 24th) I wanted to wait until after my birthday party that was the weekend after before I posted anything. Leading up to my birthday I had been very meh about it because I felt like the only things I would get for my birthday that I hadn't already gotten were what I was going to buy myself. It turned out to be mostly true, unfortunately. Its not that I think everyone has to give me something. But the friends I have I met through my brother. And most of them do give him something for his birthday and/or Christmas but almost never me. Maybe I shouldn't think that way but living in this house has me depressed more then I'd realized.

None of my best friends live here. They're all friends I made through Ravelry. And one of them made my birthday so much better by sending me this:

The only thing I knew of was West Book 3. And I didn't know she had gotten it signed. The yarn is all Valley Yarn that I haven't tried yet. It's a Valley Yarn Sampler that she built herself. :)

And then there's the box of yarn and tools that I ordered myself from WEBs. Most important of them is the brand new loom. I got it because Jackie is an enabler and has given me a new craft to play with. I waited until we went to visit Mom for her birthday and July 4th this past weekend to open it. I didn't know where to even start with weaving and my stepdad would be able to show me.

This scarf is the end result of just one day's amount of work. Its still crazy to think that I can have a scarf that is 7 feet long in under a day. It would have taken me days to knit the scarf, a week minimum.

Current WIPs: 17

It makes me sad how many WIPs I really have. I keep telling myself one day I'll only have 5 or so but it still hasn't happened. I think because I have an "oooh shiny" problem. Like when I get super excited about a project, I just can't not cast it on.

Current:

Tardis Socks (over 70%)

Dalek Mitts 

Ravenclaw Shawl

Ashfield Cardigan (over 50%)

Vivid Blanket

Year-long Blanket KAL - a new square is released every two weeks for what will be a total of 25 squares. I plan on using up all my cheap acrylic in this blanket and am so behind in making squares.

Loki amis (over 75%) - very very late Christmas presents and one for me. 4 Lokis total.

Kam Chu Socks - stage 2 of Tour de Sock

Roll the Bones - stage 3 of Tour de Sock

Diagonal Lace Socks

Hibernating:

Glaceon Plushie

Foxxy Shawl

Celestarium Shawl

Percy Shawl

Company of Dwarves amis

Fellowship of the Ring amis

Cabled Scarf

August STUFFF - Part 2

And the second half of my STUFFF accomplishments. Blogger wouldn't let me upload all of the images into the same one so I split it 3 and 3. :)

When I completed my Porifera socks (better known as Axel Socks), I noticed something. Where the heel joined the leg, it had left small holes, despite me picking up a stitch or two and knitting them together with an already established stitch. This normally gets rid of said holes. So... I took scrap yarn of the same color and closed the holes.

Finish. This is going to be the one tile I get a lot of (I hope!) because of my stack of WIPs. Rachel is going off to London soon and although she herself is a knitter, I know she's been having trouble making a hat that fits her just right. I'd been wanting to do something for her and knew she needed a hat. So, I made her one!

And frog. I'm pretty much done with this tile but I've already acheived two of them. The pile of WIPs into yarn was my first frog tile, the socks into yarn was the second. None of the WIPs (this time) were complete failures. It was mostly I was either waiting to do the project later or the yarn didn't want to be that specific project.

And with all of that work, I am down to 5 WIPs, 3 for me and 2 presents for family. Both of which are already half done. Once all 5 WIPs are completed, I will probably jump into working on presents. I have 6 more before all are done. And next year I'll only make presents at birthday time so it's a little more spread out.

August STUFFF - Part 1

In HPKCHC-land, it is the time of cleaning and WIPs! On every break month, we have an activity that helps everyone get ready for the coming 3 month term. Last time (April) was Wizard's Chess. This time it's Scrabble, also known as STUFFF.

Swatch

Tidy

Update

Fix

Finish

Frog

Today I was awarded my golden tile set, the set of letter tiles awarded to those who have completed all six! This was what I was waiting for before I blogged about it. And now, pictures of what I've completed.

STUFFF also has swatch-along weeks. First was dyeing but I had an epic fail with the yarn so nothing got dyed. The next week, this week, was crochet. I haven't done anything beyond basics in months so I decided that I would do a swatch of fpdc and bpdc on the idea that instead of knitting my niece's presents, I would crochet them.

Tidying. My desk is my work space for everything. Knitting, school, writing... You name it. At first it was covered with yarn and other things. After I found homes for all the yarn there was much more room for when I needed space to do things. Although, when both laptops are open most of my space disappears.

And the drawer. My desk has a drawer that is just right for keeping my needles/hooks and active WIPs. It was piled high, in part because I hadn't put needles away after I'd completed or frogged a project. So it just needed a little bit of tidying.

Lastly, update. I have no pictures for this but I reorganized and cleared out my queue. Now there is less "I will make this someday" patterns queued and more of "I have plans to make this before the end of the year" patterns queued. But I did keep all my video game character KALs or I'd forget what Rachel and I'd planned.

FO: Haruni

It done, oh god it's done. After months of not working on it, I spent the last week working hard on Haruni. I was a bit unsure I'd get it done before the end of July, but I did. This is good too, because my cousin's bridal shower is on the 6th of August, I think. Before now, the biggest project I've made for someone else was a scarf or a hat. Nothing as big as a shawl. But I'm glad that I could make something that Ashley would like.

Pattern: Haruni

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Royalty

Needles: 3.75mm

Notes: I love this shawl, so much. The next one I make will be for me, in green.

Now I'm down to... 10 WIPs. It's slowly going down.

WIP Wednesday: Iris & Haruni

It's WIP Wednesday again! Haruni still isn't done but it's closer. I've also decided to use 30-minute intervals to work on a present for someone else and then something for me. Today's projects are both shawls; Haruni for my cousin and Iris for me. Haruni still looks like a purple blob and will until its blocked so I'm not taking a new picture.

The picture I have of Iris is a bit dark. The yarn is a mixture of green, purple and some blue. It reminds me a bit of Red Heart's Gemstone colorway they discontinued. The shawl is a mystery shawl I had to put down in light of July getting busy/other things to work on. This picture of clue 1.

WIP Wednesday: Haruni

Today is WIP Wednesday! After I got home from spending a wonderful week at my brother's, I realized something. My ideal goal for WIP count is between 3-5. I have twelve. It was worse, actually. I was up to 16 before I finished two things and frogged a few others. This also made me look at all of my WIPs and I was reminded, yet again, that Ashley's shawl isn't done. August will be here before I know it and it won't be done if I don't work on it now.

This yarn is one of my all time favorite yarns from KP. I love tonals and purple is one of my favorite colors. I'm still sad they discontinued this colorway. I haven't yet decided if I'll make myself a shawl exactly like Ashley's but I know one day I'll make myself this same shawl in a green tonal.

Yes, I know the shawl looks like a purple blob. Shawls are nearly impossible to picture as anything but blobs while they are still on the needles.

FO: Moogle!

A long time ago, I found a pattern for a crocheted moogle from Final Fantasy. I didn't know how to crochet at the time so it went into my favorites on Rav and I forgot about it. Sometime during last winter moogles were mentioned and the pattern was brought up. I decided to make a moogle. When I told one my good friend QS about it, she wanted one. I knew I had to make her one since she, in her awesomeness, reintroduced me to KH after years of having it but not playing it.

Pattern: Moogle Doll

Yarn: Red Heart Super Savior in white, dark red, and lavender

Hook: 4mm

Notes: I used the game case for Final Fantasy IX for scale. Also because it's the one QS and I are both playing right now. The moogle's eyes I'm not happy with and I think the nose is a bit fat...