Another WIP whipped

Not the greatest photo, but I had to grab this quick while visiting my daughter-in-law since my phone (and only camera) died. I do have a web cam and tried that, only the shot was much worse. It's a pretty cute top. Not sure I needed as much 'flare' as there is at the hips, but I wanted some of the shaping... again, the pattern really calls for VERY slow color changes and long ranges before the next color and this yarn changed a bit faster, but I think it's still a cute way to use self-striping yarn in something not-quite striped. I'm sure I'll wear it in the spring and fall quite a bit as it does fit quite well.

Next WIP

Picked up the Mermaid Tee project... this was set aside in October when it was taking longer than I liked to finish it... and then I ended up having a baby shower invitation pop-up, so I ended up throwing together a quick baby blanket for the Quidditch this was intended for.

I should have totally taken a photo of the knit spaghetti before I started to pin it out... it looked like... well, it looked like rolled up, stockinette scraps.

I've pinned the items out as they were finished in October in the rough-shape of the schematic for seaming the parts together.

If I hadn't told you it was a shirt, I bet it would be virtually impossible to have figured it out.

The bottom half is the back (just needing one strip for under the left arm). The center is over the shoulders (just missing the sleeves). The top half is the front (just needing the strip for under the right arm and the two strips for the center front).

I've just finished under arm sections and have cast on and started knitting the front panels. Hoping to have them done by tomorrow night. A couple more days (give or take with the holidays) and I should be able to knit up the short sleeves. That leaves a TON of seaming - but it's an exposed seam, so the plan is to use single crochet to seam it up.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it again now. I just wish that the color changes were a little longer... but I think it's going to be a fun way to use self-shading color yarn and think I should have a finished garment by boxing day.

Knitworthy little boy - and Mario

It's DONE! <>

Yes, it's done, DONE, DONE!

To be honest, the worst/hardest part was coming up with charts for the words and I'm not entirely thrilled with either panel. But all-in-all, I think it's going to be a great blanket for his bed. It's ALMOST, but not quite big enough to cover my queen sized bed.

I've got a few ends to tackle (intentionally left for maximizing points)... but it's been through the washer and the dryer and is currently stashed for putting under the tree. (please ignore the messy bedroom)

Unlike the star wars blanket from a couple of years back, this is much lighter weight and will work throughout summer months... whereas the star wars blanket mostly has to be put away to prevent him from sweating to death once it gets even slightly warm out. Good for this time of year though... :-)

The Long Haul

Some projects are a bit LONGER than others.

Sometimes it's a complete slog, but you really, really want the finished item.  Because in all honesty? If it's no fun AND you don't REALLY want the finished items, let's face it - those items don't get finished! In point of fact... the double-knit blanket? got frogged this last weekend. The yarn has been reclaimed and is destined to become something else. Don't know what yet, I have a couple of ideas and only time will tell.

Sometimes it's a lot of fun, but just immense amount of work. That's the current Mario Mushrooms blanket. Each section was fun... but each section took a lot of time. I did a 9-block section for an Order Mission (my first and only complete Order Mission in the history of Order Missions). I did a 15-block and 6-block section for half of my NEWT (my first and only complete NEWT). I did a strip, that was the equivalent of a 5-block section for the top a week ago.  I finished the last strip (another equivalent of a 5-block section) this week.

All the ends have been woven in - so after a bit of seaming and a few more ends woven in... we should have a finished blanket. Plenty early for Christmas! And being it's my last Christmas present to make, I'm feeling pretty good about that.

I have only four remaining WIPs on the needles:

1. Fingerless gloves from October - these really need to be frogged and restarted - so I'll wait until January to maximize points.

2. My Braided I-cord scraps rug... this is a long-term WIP. Fun to work on... lots of work. Funny enough, while it's simple enough knitting - it's always fun to see how the unexpected scraps of color turn out as I am adding them quite randomly - and by the tme you have three different random sections that then get braided - it's quite enjoyable. I do bits and pieces of it as I come up with yarn scraps. I originally was thinking this was going to be a five to ten year project. But honestly? At the rate it's growing - it'll be ready for use within a few years.

3. My Mermaid Tee. Over 50% done. Cast-on originally for Quidditch for a seeker position - but set aside and never turned in for anything as it was taking so long to make. And I needed a quick baby shower baby blanket - which I used instead to earn points. Probably about 20 hours left of knitting and another five to six hours of seaming. Simple, straightforward knitting. Boring. It's using a self-shading color change yarn which should make it more interesting... but it's really not. But put on a good tv show and I should be able to pound away at it. I was originally thinking I should focus on my fourth WIP through the end of the month... but it's kind of intimidating... so maybe I'll take  the easier project of the two to focus on for a bit.

4. My Chocolate Passion Cardigan. This thing was a bear. I kid you not. There was a chart with a repeat. Then there was cabling (which couldn't really totally be in the chart due to short rows) plus garter stitch. THEN there were short rows (not in chart) AND there were also increases (not in chart) simultaneously. I have two sides - left and right. And had finished one incorrectly and didn't catch it until I was at that point in the pattern on the other side and realized I had missed the increases. I wrote stuff down and set it aside in frustration. And now can't find my notes. I reprinted the pattern and have no idea where I am as far as the pattern goes on the side that is live right now.... so I'll probably frog back to the last 'recognizable' point. Yes that's in quotes and I probably overdo using quotes... but I'm seriously  doubting there is going to be a recognizable point (insert  quiet little stifled sob here). Hopefully I can figure that out and finish one side correctly. And hopefully based on that - I can figure out how much of the other previously finished side needs to get frogged and restarted. Add some sleeves to knit and some seaming and buttons... and maybe, at some point this might become a sweater. Originally, I had planned on tackling this first. And I really do think I'll like the finished sweater a lot. But, it's the kind of thing that needs peace and quiet. I don't usually get a lot of that. However, I'm taking several days off towards the end of the year... and it looks like my son is spending most of those days with his dad.

So... my plan of attack is to watch a bunch of Christmas movies with the boys after school this week... and see if I can't pound out the rest of the knitting needed for the Mermaid Tee. I could seam it this weekend and get it turned into Flexible Scheduling for Nerdwars. Enjoy the holidays - if my fingers itch - I can always cast on a couple of charity hats to work on. Then by boxing day...  after my son goes to dad's house... I can drag out the Chocolate Beast and spend a little time in quiet focus.

August Planning

August is a month off of HPKCHC... but I've broken down and proposed a silly old NEWT. We'll see if it gets approved... if not, I'll have to update some of my plans.

NEWT proposal is to do a 3 x 5 afghan with the Know Your Mushrooms pattern - I did a 3x3 afghan as an Order Mission last term... Plus a 2 x 3 'table cover' in the same pattern. I'm hoping that seamed together they'll make a nice blanket for Alex at the end of the year.

AS WELL as to make 3 large stuffies - an Azumarill, a Pikachu, and a Sudowoodo (which is really a Mandrake plant root). The first one should come out to 18" tall per pattern design. Pikachu's pattern is only 9" - but I plan on modifying the pattern dramatically to make it 18" tall... and the Sudowoodo should come out to around 14" when he's 'free' and about 12" in his pot.

My August plans are to get 9 blocks of the afghan finished, and Azumarill finished. Then in September I'd like to get 9 more blocks done along with Pikachu to the half-way point. October leaves 3 remaining blocks for the afghan along with finishing Pikachu. And November gives us time to seam the two sets of squares into their respective shapes and finish the Sudowoodo. In December I can seam the three 'objects' into a single afghan and adding a border to the blanket.

For NerdWars - I'm hoping to turn Azumarill in for the challenge Nerdology - Villians and Heroes - I can give the pokemon to the hero Ash.

The rest of the Nerdwars prompts will hopefully be fulfilled with making charity hats, I figure a couple of hats should be able to get knocked out along with the beginning of my NEWT.

July EOM Post (ha! Not so late, this time)

Hats - I ended up making one hat for my son, and SEVEN charity hats!

Here are the five that I turned into Charms and CoMC that haven't been posted here yet.

After finding that I had miscounted some of the earlier hats... my new total is 28 charity hats out of 50... 56% of my annual goal.

Finished the Mario baby blanket.

Aran Square - number 1. Number 2 was just too much to tackle... mostly because it took me three times to get guage on this square.

Instead, I did another yarn-eating baby blanket. I held four strands together of various yarns... to get about 4000 yards used up and represent # 7 of the finished blankets completed out of the 13 in my goal.

And last, but not least... the finished top that I 'just had to make'.

June planning post

I got a dozen squares in a swap project over a year ago.... and they weren't 'quite' what I had in mind... but were lovely squares. I've been meaning to seam them up for AGES into pet blankets for the ARL.

HPKCHC -- When I don't have a WIP the First project ready to go, (and my wrists aren't in splints) the plan is to grab four of them and whip one out for Detention.


I picked up some CoSaBi yarn a couple of months ago - bamboo/rayon blend for socks!  The thought is that it just might be a way to get some socks for me that I can wear year-round and not be slipper-socks. Acrylic hasn't worked in the past (well, except for great house slipper-socks). So - a pair of socks!

HPKCHC -- Charms has a 'make a person look good' option - so I'm thinking some pretty lilac hand-knit socks are just the ticket.

NerdWars -- Nerdology Challenge is to look into alternative transportation. Walking! Feet - need coverage for long walks. Still uncertain of my team tie-in I want to use for June. Might be Team Tardis, might be something with Mythology - must decide.

Charity Hats - at least one, maybe two

HPKCHC -- Divination has us staring into the Fire for finding answers to questions. Global Warming and severe storms has me worried about weather. I see cold people in the fire seaking warmth.... so warm hats for charity will help me for the vision.

NerdWars - Giving Geeks Challenge is to prepare for foul weather during fair weather. I plan to donates the hats finished this month, plus some of the earlier hats done this year to a clothing donation site. (Normally I wait until Fall - but they need to be 'delivered' now).

I picked up some lovely cotton/linen blended tonal yarn at the LYS last Saturday... LOVELY yarn. I want to support my LYS, plus I love that they take the time to think about me with their non-wool-content yarn. Since they keep me in mind, I want to recipricate by buying up the lovelies!  They didn't quite have enough of the dark green for a top, but they had a really nice tan-nuetral color to go with it. I'm thinking a stripey tank.

HPKCHC -- Care Of Magical Creatures - Protect yourself from heat. Cotton/Linen yarn? Yeah - this is an easy fit.

NerdWars - Encyclopedia Challenge - has us using Birthdates as inspiration. I found out that the birth stone for June USED TO BE Agate. I found some nice agate photos - one that had a ripple stripe look (but not green, sadly) and another with a nice shade of green. I'm pretty sure I can sell the top as inspired by agate.

13in2013 is suffering - between blankets not wanting to be the size planned and seven weeks in splints... I'm planning a SUPER fast baby blanket (colors to be determined). Double Crochet - with stripes. Simple and fast. 

HPKCHC -- History of Magic has us making baby items

NerdWars - Discovery Challenge - inspired by new life - need I say more?

Aran Blanket Square - at least 1 - pattern to be determined - in a shade of blue

HPKCHC -- Herbology - Craft a cushioning object to hold your pottery to protect it - strategic pic with some pottery on top should work.

Adipose! My inner Doctor Who Geek has been wanting to make one for ages. I wasn't going to do it this month, but then I saw a prompt and decided I could write up a cute little story line with the Adipose.... and how often can you tie Dr Who to Hogwarts? Not often, let me just say. But it should be fun.

HPKCHC -- Defense Against the Dark Arts - make your presentation of what you think a Boggart will look like if it doesn't have anyone looking at it (which would make it turn into the object you fear the most). Adipose are cute, little giggly things... sweet, and harmless. Well, harmless when they are removed from your body slowly... deadly in other circumstances. Kind of like how a boggart is harmless all by itself, but when you confront one - well, not so much!

NerdWars -- Flexibility Challenge - Tied to a drink - I'm thinking Adipose makes me think of my nutrition shake. Mostly white and cold (why do I think they're cold? eh) and formless.... and affects your body weight.

Totebag - I'm a sucker for bags of all sorts... and when I found out there was going to be a speed challenge for making a totebag ON THE DAY I have to get up at 5:00 AM AND SPEND THE DAY TRAVELING (but not driving) - with MUNGO knitting time! Well. Try to keep me from signing up!

HPKCHC -- Quidditch speed trials - Training Film #3 - Start June 6th - competing against other crafters and most points for the early finishers.

NerdWars -- Flexibility Challenge - Not sure I can tie it easily to a drink - but thankfully, they made the challenge optional this term (NICE!).

I'd also like to make at least 2 charity hats and 2 blanket squares - but I don't know if they will fit into Quidditch event number two or get turned into classes with another object. I'll wait to turn the others in until I know what the Scrimmage #1 event requirements are.

March mid-month Progress (albeit a little late)

OWL - still down and out
MISSION - rough going. The pattern is REALLY HARD TO FOLLOW. I've frogged several sections more than a couple of times because I didn't understand the directions and have just figured out I made another mistake on a piece that I'll have to rip back and rework.  We's running into trouble here... pretty sure this will be a partial turn in for HPKCHC, but am hoping to still finish it by the end of April for NerdWars.

Potions - was supposed to be a baby blanket. Turned in for NerdWars as based on properties of water.

I used a little over Four balls of Bernat Baby Blanket - which is a chenille like super bulky acrylic. The dark blue was leftover from the bunny baby blanket buddy from last month. And the other three balls were on sale at JoAnn's last month. I cast-on toooooo many stitches considering I was shooting for a baby blanket. I added an extra set of five stripes, but it's still a lot wider than long. So, we're turning it on it's side and pretending it was vertically striped.   This will go over well at the homeless shelter, I'm sure. It's incredibly warm and squishy and lovely.

I really enjoyed the mindless knitting and would often pick it up when I got frustrated with my Order Mission. This is blanket #3 finished of 13 for 2013.

DADA / Nerdology (inspired by a Dr Who shirt with a rainbow) - Rainbow child's hat.

My typical 2-color brioche hat knit in the round... I used up almost all of the rainbow variegated Red Heart yarn and some Navy scraps donated by a good friend of mine. I shipped her the leftover Wool Ease Thick and Quick and Easy and she shipped me a TON of acrylic. Since these hats whip up so fast and can use bits and pieces of lots of different yarns (and I have fun pairing different yarns together, so that works) if I can't think of anything else, but want another hat... this is what I usually grab. Especially when I want to work with something other than bulky.

 Quidditch Challenge 3 / Flexible Scheduling (flashback inspired) - I made two Blue Butterfly squares, seamed them... and added a crown to make a hat.

Quidditch Game 3 - A purple Bulky brioche hat for a child

I used the new Hometown USA from Lion Brand yarn that I bought at Walmart. Absolutely perfect (well, except for the Walmart part). It's affordable at almost half the price of the Wool Ease Thick and Quick. It's a good spun super-bulky yarn tht shows off the stitch well and works great for these hats. I'll be making more. I also found that Michael's is starting to carry this yarn... so I'll probably pick it up there instead.

This hat gets me to 10 Charity hats out of 50 for 2013.

Divination / Flexible Scheduling - Afghan Square - about 1/3 done
Charms / Encyclopedia (architecture inspired) - 2 Stained Glass Window squares for the failed OWL blanket - not started yet -- If I can finish these two, I'll seam them with the other 10 and turn them into detention (no points)... but then I can count the yardage towards my goal. And it'll become a baby blanket instead of a full sized afghan (but that would be blanket #4 of 13 for 2013.
Herbology / Giving Geeks - Alien - not started yet

Previously unplanned - but too cute not to do them (hope they are fast)...  Dust bunnies. I'll make them for Care of Magical Creatures (to earn a badge in the Great Hall as well as the last badge I'm missing from Diagon Alley trip.  They might land themselves in some Easter Baskets if they turn out half as cute as I hope they do. Plus, I'm hoping to use some stash - which will earn a third badge... yep. But, of course, time will tell.  I'm trying to focus on the NerdWars projects I need to finish first so I can get those turned in before (or on) the 28th. The bunnies can be finished after the 28th.

For more undone than done. But, I'm working through my list as best as I can. I keep setting aside the mission and/or NOT actually knitting because it's just so frustrating. I'm going to focus on getting my other projects done instead and see what I can't whip out before the end of the month.

March Planning

I know. I know. It's already the sixth of March.  I'm not very on top of things right now.  And I REALLY, REALLY struggled to figure out what I wanted to make and how to fit it into the various prompts.

OWL - bombed. Dropped out. sigh. sad.

MISSION/Dissertation - in progress. Will keep tackling it. But, it's currently in time out as I'm frustrated with it. I mis-crossed a cable. Dropped just the cable stitches down about six rows. But then I ended up with a little bit of a mess. Dropped down about ten more rows. Ended up with a bigger mess. Ended up setting it aside. Pretty sure I just need to take the  needles out and completely frog back to a good row and start over at this point. But it was bugging me and I was mad. So, it's in time out. I'm hoping to make a big dent in it this weekend.

DETENTION:

Turned in my finished Brown pullover -but the pic is AWEFUL. Am planning on getting a better picture this weekend! Will post it then.

CLASSES:

Potions - (craft something soothing) Baby Blanket #3 - using pattern Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Baby Blanket -- I really, really like the colors of the pattern picture and wanted to do those colors. BUT. I also wanted to use Bernat Baby Blanket yarn which didn't have enough of the color options I wanted. It's also a bit super-bulky. I was going to cast on fewer stitches. Then I ended up casting on just as many as called for. Had about 8 hours into the project before I realized just HOW SUPER BIG it was becoming. But it's super fast. It's garter stitch. And it's coming out lovely. I'm using a solid blue, a solid tan, a tan & white variegated, and a tan, white, blue variegated yarns. I'll add extra rows to get it semi-roughly-square-ish shaped as opposed to being 2 1/2 times as long as it is wide.

NW: I'm also turning this blanket into Discovery - physical property of water (well, I hope). I just have to figure out a way to tie it to beach foam; which it does remind me a little of. Then I can also tie it to Bad Wolf Bay (being all beachy looking) for Dr Who tie-in.

Divination - (craft something that blocks cold from your skin) another 12 1/2" Aran Square - Woollen Collectibles March Square - again in Blue, probably in newer Red Heart, With Love yarn.

NW: I'm using this for Flexible Scheduling - there were flashbacks in Harry Potter movies where Snape would remember his time growing up with Lily Evans. Lily has blue eyes. For team tie-in - I'm back to Dr. Who... tying to how he would talk about time being all timey-wimey in the episode Don't Blink.... and I think this square is all timey-wimey wonky.

DADA (craft something with at least two colors of the rainbow) - I'm creating a charity hat with half blue yarn and the other half all rainbow-ish.

NW: I found an awesome Dr Who shirt to use for Nerdology. It features a rainbow, a tardis, on a Navy background. I'll tie it to an episode in Dr Who where one of the gents is singing "Over the Rainbow".

Charms (practice a charm - practicing Gemini) - I'm going to try to fit in two more of the Stained Glass Afghan squares in here.

NW: Encyclopedia - represent Architecture... stained glass windows should work fine. Tie-in to the Dr Who episode where they find a Tardis in a Stained Glass window.

Herbology (craft something to overcome shyness) - Creating an Alien stuffie that I can send to 600 Monsters.

NW: Giving Geeks - is for Victim Aid groups, so this is a great opportunity to give another stuffie to 600 Monsters.  For team tie-in I'll use Dr. Who's non-Aliens the Silurian's. They look very alien-like, but were the first hominids on earth. Some of them have three eyes... as does my little alien.

QUIDDITCH
 - Convert stitch pattern into something else... I'd like to find a lace stitch pattern I can use to base a hat off of.

NW: Flexible Scheduling - I'll use Tardis blue and I'll tie it to the flashback on the television series Castle - The Blue Butterfly based on color. The right color choice, and I get a team tie-in and tie to the flashback and it'll fly well.

QUIDDITCH TWO
 - Hat - a hat, any kind of hat. Will have to see what prompts are left for the Hat Study Hall and fit this in there.

February - End of Month post

OWL

Ummm... yeah. Still stuck at the 10 completed from mid-month. Once I realized that I wouldn't be able to finish 25 of these (15 more in six weeks). I kind of crashed on it. I am hoping to still do two more and make a smaller blanket, but it probably won't be til the end of March.

MISSION

I still owe you pictures of the cardigan-in-progress. I proposed my BROOM as the Chocolate Passion Cardigan. The back was super-fast and pretty easy. The panels that go from the bottom center to the front, up the front and then curve around the neck? Not so easy. I've restarted a couple of times. Funny enough, it wasn't the short rows nor the cables that tripped me up the most (although there have been plenty of mis-crossed cables to have to fix). It's mostly been that the directions were really not very clear and have caused me a lot of heartache.

CLASSES
Flying - DONE

Baby blanket 2 done of my goal of 13 blankets in 2013.

Charms & Muggle Studies - DONE

These were hats #4 and #5 from 50 planned for 2013.

DADA - DONE

Herbology - DONE

Divination - DONE

Quidditch x 2 - Two more hats - DONE

I didn't quite get as far as I hoped on the MISSION nor the OWL (in fact, have caved and admitted OWL-failure already). But, I still got a lot done.

PLUS, I participated as a Ninja in Nerd Wars!!!!  I was able to submit the OWL hat and five of my squares for the OWL to Flexible Scheduling. The Twisty screw-like cables on my Aran square for Discovery, the Bulky bright-colored scarf and hat to Encyclopedia (reminicent of a picture of a winter carnival), the blue bunny blankie for Nerdology (inviting Elmer Fudd to eat some wabbit with me). Plus I gave a charity donation to a worthy cause for Giving Geeks. Gotta love being a nerd.