60-ish%

Well, I'm about 60% done, row 233 of 376. I'm on the last side cross and widening of the section in the center. It's looking really good, but man, I'm ready to be done with this...

Hopefully this will help keep me more motivated...

Row 214 and counting...

Progress

Here is a recent-ish picture of the blanket. I've gotten farther since then, but with everything else I haven't gotten any new pictures since this. Currently I'm on row 207 out of 376. So over half way done, but still a ways to go. I'm still on my second ball of yarn, so I might just end up using three of the five I got. I might start the fourth skein, but we'll see. I will certainly have plenty left at the end, so if you have suggestions on what to do with my extra yarn, let me know. There are 23,000+ projects linked with this yarn, so I guess I have a few options.

There are other things in the works, but it's been a long day and there will certainly be cause to write entire posts about them later (spoiler- I'm doing Tour de Fleece again- I just have to get this blanket done).

I better get knitting!

Harry Potter House Cup

Once again, I have found another thing to take up my crafting time. Someday I will learn to be happy with one main project at a time...someday. Until then, I have joined the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup group on Ravelry. It's a group that posts Harry Potter themed "classes" for each term (three months), sorts crafters into houses, and calculates points based on completed projects according to "class" theme to name a House Cup winner. Good fun for HP nerds and those who need project ideas and motivation to finish them.

So this term I am NQFY, or Not Quite First Year. It's a classification for those new to the group or who are starting after sorting so they can learn how everything works and not have quite as much pressure since they don't earn points for their house. They can still do everything, just no points, we'll see how it goes, but I may just stay here for a few terms.

Anyway, this term I am "taking" transfiguration. This month the theme, briefly, was unusual colors. Either a color you wouldn't normally use or a project that might not usually lend itself to THAT color. I tried to do both. Clearly I know what colors I do and don't normally use, but I also tried to pick a project that didn't inherently match the colors. So here's a shot of the mostly finished project drying/blocking after being washed.

It's the Oslo Cairo hat in a peachy pink and a graphite grey/silver color. These are yarns that other people picked out for me, and while I have always liked the silver, I just couldn't find the right project for it. Tiny picked out the pink when she was 3...yeah. But together I think they look pretty good.

The pattern itself is inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphics using a Norwegian style hat pattern. Very fun to knit -though it's originally in Spanish and the English version is basically a chart with notes on how many stitches to cast on, not too hard to figure out and totally do-able, but its good to go into the project knowing that- , and I didn't think silver and pink exactly matched the concept so that fit the "class".

Otherwise, the blanket is going well. I finally go caught up from being sick and having family visit in March. I'm even a few days ahead of schedule which is what gave me time to work on this. Though the new plan, as long as I stay ahead of the game, is to knit the blanket during the week and work on other projects over the weekend. Hopefully that will let me finish spinning that amazing red mohair and I won't get too bogged down by the blanket. I am about half way through it, and it is looking quite nice if I do say so. Some k/p transitions are still a bit loose, and it's coming out a bit smaller than I had hoped, but hopefully blocking it will help (?).

I guess that's about it for now. I should probably try to get a few more rows done on the blanket, especially when you consider that the hat was only 23 fewer stitches per row, and I finished that in 3 days, so here's hoping I can get 50+ rows done on the blanket this week at least...yeah right.

April Fiber Club

New shipment from the Fiber Club! Warm tones and interesting fibers almost all around.

 For some reason, bags were not labeled this month, but with some help from the other spinners on Ravelry, I think the above fiber is some rose that I was sent. Yep, rose. Apparently you can make yarn out of flower. Who knew?
Below, I think is the cotton, if not then reverse the order, but same fibers. I'm even taking the cotton and joining a cotton spinning challenge put on by Jennifer of Expertly Dyed. This will certainly help me get the wedding blanket done on time! But it should be fun to try a new kind of fiber.

 Here we have some amazing red mohair and gold wool. These are going to go together in a thin (we'll see how thin I can get it- there are rumors about mohair) worsted yarn with each fiber spun on its own and plied together. As you can see, I already started the gold, and I can't wait for this to be a fiery shawl just perfect for fall! 

It's been a while

After I posted all my catch-up pictures last week, I realized that I haven't put up the wedding blanket in a while. Here are the current stats...
Rows complete-124 or 376

Turns out that's the really the only stat, unless I were to get out my tape measure, but its down stairs after a  night finishing costume alterations for my dance studio, and I'm not going back down there to get it right now. Plus the size will change after it gets blocked. So here's the real scoop...

 As you can see the pattern is coming out really well. I am very excited about the way it's shaping up. It's one of those patterns that shows a lot better at a distance, so looking at the pictures is really fun because I get to see what it looks like too!

I have a fairly light week ahead of me, so hopefully next week I can have a new picture that will show quite a bit of progress!

I broke down and just bought a new one...

A new card reader, so here is the back log of pictures that were promised, what in January. Though I have to admit, once I lost the card reader, I didn't really keep up with the pictures, so I still won't be caught up after this...sorry.

Here is an old(er) picture of the wedding blanket. I'm much farther now. This was about 40 or so rows in, now I'm at about 115 rows. It's starting to look really good, though some of my knit/purl transitions are a bit loose. I'm also a few days behind, but hopefully I can catch up by next week.

 Here is some merino and...um... firestar (?) that I got a few months ago in the fiber club.

I decided to use my hand combs to blend them.

And then I spun them. I did get it all spun and knit a little hat for my daughter. It's pretty cute, but .5 ounce of firestar is too much to blend into 3 ounces of merino and it no longer has the hand it should...lesson learned, but the blending itself wasn't too hard.

 

Yes, that says cashmere. It also says .5 ounces. Not sure what is going to happen with it, but it is amazingly soft! Possibly soft enough for me to break down and buy some myself.

 This is some dyed...merino I think. I got about 6 ounces. Luckily for me Tiny loves it; now I just need to get it spun. It would be a good wool to continue to work on the woolen yarn.

 Speaking of woolen, I decided to try some very bulky woolen with my stashed and additional fawn Shetland, totaling 8 ounces. It's been working pretty well, but it is no where near my worsted standards. More practice needed.

I tried some more dyeing. I like how this came out, and it should work out pretty well for a certain colored knitting technique. Now I just need to finish the blanket so I have time to knit it.

So those are all the old photos I have. Now I just need to take pictures of all the new stuff I've done since then, get posts up about those, and oh yeah, find my charger for the camera battery...Can I just blame the dog?