ELEVENTH Self-Imposed Year of Projects - FINALLY! (Update #35)

OMGOMGOMG! I FINALLY FINISHED SOMETHING! Behold, the gloriousness! Oh, and happy Monday.

FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Baby Blanket: started 22 April 2022; finished 4 June 2022
2. Herbivore: started 15 November 2018; finished June 2022
3. Baby Blanket: started 4 June 2022; finished 25 August 2022

I finally finished the second baby blanket. I also wove in the ends on both, washed them in the washing machine, and dried them in the dryer 🤯 They turned out just fine. See, I even have proof!

 

Because I didn't swatch, they wound up very wide.....like 6' wide, which is about 1.83m. And about 4' tall (1.22m). They almost fit perfectly on twin-sized beds. I suppose that means they'll get quite a bit of good use, which is the point. 

I partially used four balls of yarn for each one, but based on the finished weight, I only used about 293 yds of each color, which is about 1.3 balls' worth of yarn. They weigh about 800g each, which is about 1.75 lbs. And they're soft and fuzzy. 

I'll have to do a separate post about them. Maybe on Friday. We'll see. They're heading off to their recipients, twin girls of a coworker of Husband's, hopefully today or tomorrow.

 

 

WIPs (Works-in-Progress) *These are carried over year after year, as needed*
1. Wink: started 5 January 2015
2. Shetland Neck Wool (support spindle): started 8 September 2017
3. Returning: started 14 January 2018
4. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt (EEW Mini): started 13 April 2018
5. Granny Square Blanket: started 28 April 2018
6. UW Ski Hat: started 11 July 2018
7. Purl & Loop Weaving Project: started 28 August 2018
8. Linen Stitch Scarf: started 2 June 2020
9. Vanilla Socks: started 9 August 2020
10. Sand Drift Blanket: started 17 January 2021
11. Vanilla Socks: started 12 December 2021
12. Dishcloth: started 25 February 2022
13. Mixed BFL (Annie): started 18 March 2022
14. Lakeline Tank: started 18 March 2022

Now that I've finished the second baby blanket, I'm down to a respectable 14 WIPs. And really, that's not very respectable. It's kind of a hot mess, to be honest. But I'll get there. I should think of it as a bunch of UFOs instead of WIPs because some of them I haven't touched in....*ahem*......quite awhile. It's fine. Keeping the list like this helps me keep track of things.

I pulled out my Lakeline Tank this week, after finishing the baby blanket. I finished the second skein of yarn on Friday and started the next skein. I've got maybe 10" from the cast-on. The yarn is quite slippery and splitty, which is very different from the yarn I used for the baby blankets. I'd like to get back to that one, since summer is quickly coming to an end. I had hoped to have something to wear this summer but here we are. Oh well. 

I also worked on my Vanilla Socks (#11) here and there. I've finished up the gusset decreases so now I'm just working down the foot. 

Buuuuuut......I have another baby blanket to make. I'm going to use the leftover bits from the other two because I can. It's also for a baby girl so I'm going to combine the three colors. This one is for one of Husband's coworkers in Romania. I'm not exactly sure how the postage and such is going to work but we'll make it work. I'm also not going to make it quite as large. Maybe half the width (so about 3' instead of 6'). I'm also undecided whether I'm going to use the same pattern or not. I suppose I could. I know what to expect. Or I may just make it all garter stitch and stripes (and use the Random Stripe Generator). Or something. I'll have to get it figured out. I hope to start that this week. 

 

OMGLSGWTFBBQ

Design WIPs:
1. Messed Up Moss: started March 2009 - write pattern as PDF (iterations: first, second)
2. Susan's Hat: started 31 August 2010 - need new prototypes & write the pattern (iterations: first, second, third, mini, fifth, sixth)
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket: started July 2010 - need new prototype & write pattern (iteration: here)
4. Chunky Scarf: started 6 October 2012 - need new prototype & write pattern (iteration: here)
5. Pacific Waves Hat: started 9 March 2016 - need new prototype & write the pattern (iterations: first, second, third)
6. Fall in San Francisco: started 18 September 2016 - need new prototype & write pattern (iterations: first, second)
7. Stomping Grounds Collection: started 26 February 2017 - need prototypes & write patterns
8. Unnamed Hat Design: started 14 August 2017 - need various weight yarn prototypes & write pattern (iterations: first, second)
9. Paradiddle Socks: started 19 October 2017 - write pattern (iteration: here)

 

Design Ideas:
1. Christmas Stocking for Husband
2. Christmas Stocking for Little Man
3. Christmas Stocking for Stormageddon
4. Baby Blanket
5. Stomping Grounds Collection

 

Items for ME (Selfish Knitting FTW!):
1. Park Slope (fingering weight - Mountain Fibers Crazyfoot in Shamrock)
2. Flax (worsted weight - Misty Alpaca in the Harry Potter colors)
3. Musselburgh (any weight - likely DK or worsted)*
4. 3 Color Cashmere Cowl (fingering weight, 3 colors)
5. Gradient Band Cowl (fingering weight - Safronie Fairy Tales gradient and a solid)*
6. Fine Tune (fingering weight - uses minis so maybe a rainbow type one with the Canon Hand Dyes?)
7. Stashbusting Helix Hats (worsted weight - bits and bobs of worsted)
8. Hüj Tüb (laceweight - maybe that 100% lace cashmere I've had forever?)
9. Undone (bulky - maybe the reclaimed Freeport Vest yarn?)

 

Children's Items/Knitting for others
1. Flax for Little Man (worsted weight - likely Baah Yarns Shasta in London Blue)
2. Honey Badger: (worsted weight - black & white acrylic I have banging around the stash)*
3. The Mandolorian (sport weight - need grey, white, and green...which I might have)*
4. Zelda Beanie (worsted weight - black or grey and yellow, which I'm sure I have)
5. Wasabi for Mr. K (worsted weight - Cascade 220 in Moss Agate if possible)
6. Bugle for Miss E (worsted weight - multicolor; htNEVELE in Reverie if possible)
7. Bonbon for Miss C (worsted weight - Cascade 220 in Vinci if possible)
8. Baby Bear for Mr. T (fingering weight - anything will work)
9. Pig for Earle & Duane (worsted weight - need pink, of course...maybe a good use for the one skein of Molly Ringwald I have?)

 

Utilitarian/Household Items
1. On-Trend Chair Socks (worsted weight bits and bobs) - I have a lot of chairs that could use these
2. Garter Chevron Blanket (KP Mighty Stitch - may need to get some more black or white)
3. Diagonal Knit Dishcloths (cotton of some sort, possibly a cotton/bamboo blend, depending on use)
4. Reusable Produce Bag (cotton or acrylic of some sort - worsted)
5. Harry Potter Blanket (worsted weight - based on several dishcloth patterns to make blocks)
6. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth (cotton or a cotton/bamboo blend, again based on use)
7. Pop Blanket (worsted weight - a little of this and that?)
8. Holiday Countdown Stockings (worsted weight - various colors)

 

Spinning:
1. Wonderland Dyeworks BFL in Stream Bed
2. Wonderland Dyeworks BFL in Winter Night
3. Timber Ridge Farm Alpaca Roving
4. Ashland Bay Fiber 100% Merino Top in English Garden
5. Anne's Fiber Expressions Elynenium

 

Dyeing:
1. Sock Blanks (I think I have 5 left)
2. Random worsted/sport skeins (I have maybe 2-3 left)
3. Anything else I find along the way (I don't think there's anything else, but maybe?)

 

Other Fibery Endeavors:
1. Stash Fit
2. Create a project bag inventory
3. Update library inventory (on Ravelry)
4. Update stash inventory (on Ravelry) and reorganize yarn
5. Stitch markers: make kits and individual for Etsy shop
6. Destash as necessary/needed

 

 

This past week has kind of flown by and I'm not entirely sure why. We didn't have anything really scheduled, other than taking Husband to the airport on Saturday. And my yarn dyeing class. Yes, I took a yarn dyeing class on Saturday. It was quick and dirty and we covered several different types of dying including vat dyeing (throw it all into a pot with dye and the idea is that you wind up with tonal to solid yarn colors), kettle dyeing (which is basically flat pan dyeing that you do on a stove - pour the color over the yarn and let it exhaust the dye), hand painting (lay your yarn out on plastic wrap and squirt it with color, soaking up the excess, before doing a heat-set in a microwave, oven, or veggie steamer), sock blanks (which can lead to gradients, among other things), and glazing (sometimes called overdyeing - the yarn is dry when you start). I wound up doing a kettle dyed yarn and a hand painted yarn. I don't have photos because they're not dry yet. I also did a glaze over a swatch from a sock blank that had been dyed a bright green, orange, and purple (Hallowe'en colors). The glaze color was a black/grey and it muted the colors perfectly. We also heard about how to do stamping and solid stops in yarn by useing dye thickener, which may be a project for down the road. I'd love it if my yarn didn't dye/run into the next color. I may look into it if I decide I want to dye blanks longter term.

The boys have been spending their time playing as many video games as they can (and as often as they can). I took Little Man with me to Target on Friday so we could get a few things for Stormageddon's birthday, as well as a few other seemingly random things. 

Oh, yeah...Stormageddon's birthday is on Friday, which is also the second day of school. I fully expect both of them to be in meltdown mode but we'll see how things go. Husband gets home Thursday in the early evening. 

Other than that, it's been pretty quiet around here. We did breakfast after dropping Husband off at the airport and today, we went to a local petting zoo/market and the boys loved it. The goats and sheepies were all so sweet. They would eat right out of our hands, which is always a fun time.

Anyway, I hope you had a lovely week and weekend. We have a busy week ahead of us. Little Man has a doctor appointment in Madison tomorrow and I have a telehealth one that I can do from home. We also have drop-in at both boys' schools. School starts on Thursday and Stormageddon's birthday is on Friday. WOOO! Hopefully I'll sneak in with an FO Friday but we'll see how things go.