Stash Busting and Building

I finished these Foxglove mitts from the Brave New Knits book, which I bought awhile ago but hadn’t knit from yet.  The yarn was City Tweed DK, leftover from my “wretched” cardigan from a few years ago. (I am not linking because the photos were so unflattering, hence the “wretched” nickname.)  That leftover yarn — about a ball and a half — had been bugging me, gnawing at me for years now.  I was glad to finally use it.  The tweed wasn’t the best match for the lace pattern, which gets a little lost, but they were quick to knit up and will be a great gift.  Using size 3 needles, I cast on only 40 stitches to account for the weight of the substituted yarn.

Meanwhile, I took advantage of the awesome anniversary sale at Webs and stocked up on some workhorse yarns — Cascade 220 and Valley Yarns Superwash — in basic colors.

I’m almost done with some Converse-like baby booties and I’m getting a hankering to do another granny square afghan.  I’m quite inspired by this.

 

 

Daybreak, Cookie Sock Yarn & The Baby Blanket

I finished the Daybreak shawl.  I used Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in off white and the orchard colorway.

It’s a brilliant yet simple pattern with a lovely result.  Overall, I’m happy with it, but I wish the purple was less bright in the orchard colorway.  (I was going for a more muted, rusty maroon look.)  For this project, I treated myself to a pair of Hiya Hiya needles in size 3.  I made the medium size.

Although I put a bunch of shawls in my queue after Stitches, this project was a good reminder of why I don’t knit a lot of shawls — they take forever and, honestly, I’m not sure I’m actually going to wear it.  (Can someone — Aim?  Sarah? — point me to some instructions for how to wear a shawl more like a scarf?)  At least I can say I’ve finally knit a Stephen West pattern.  One of these days, I’m going to knit Diana’s amazing Kaleidoscope shawl.

In other news, the second shipment from the Cookie A sock club arrived!  I love the yarn and I love the patterns and recipes.  I’ll be attempting the Nanaimo socks and the cookies/bars by the same name.

That’s Socktopus, a yarn that I hadn’t heard of before but, as I’ve since learned, gets great reviews by Ravelers.  The colorway is a gorgeous blue-ish grey, a nice neutral change from the first shipment, which was bright red.  I plan to start those socks as soon as I finish my Honey Cowl, which should be in the next couple of days.  Finally, I never got an FO shot of the granny square baby blanket I made for my friend’s third child.  However, the other day she texted me this image of her newborn:

I definitely see more of these little blankets in the future.  It was a fantastic use of scraps and a great take-along project for those times I get a hankering to do a little crochet.

 

I so love this project.

Here’s the status of my granny square afghan:

Once I got the border color sorted out, I decided to border all the existing squares before making new ones.  As you can see, I’m almost done with that.  I love the color blue (you can see in the background that it perfectly matches the couch that this afghan will live on), but the cotton content of the yarn makes it not so fun to crochet with.  But it’ll be worth it.  After bordering these existing squares, I have 20 more squares to create and border, which will result in a 63-square afghan.  Cotton crocheting aside, I have loved every part of this project.  The colors are so much fun and the squares are satisfyingly quick.  A shout-out to my friend Sarah for gifting me with her leftovers of the very same blue yarn, which is probably the exact amount I’ll need to seam the squares together.

 

This & That

Knitting:

* almost done with the Copycat Cardigan.  I’m doing the button bands now and then all that’s left is the seaming and blocking.  Fingers crossed.  I think I’ll be up for some small projects before doing another garment.  But once I’m ready for another garment, Collins remains at the top of my list.

Crochet (yup,  you read that right: crochet!):

* I went through a big crochet phase a few summers ago and did a real number on my wrist.  Yet I forgot all that when I stumbled on this granny square throw.  Love it.  Even though I’ve already made two big afghans/throws (here and here), I want more.  They just evoke home and coziness to me and that’s especially appealing because I’ve just been feeling far too busy and spread thin lately.  I found the book for sale on Ravelry for 5 bucks (cheaper than most single patterns on Ravelry!) and I’m awaiting its arrival.  In the meantime, I ordered some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran on sale in similar colors to the throw in the photo, though my main color will be blue rather than green (but I still will have that green).  I am going to supplement the cashmerino aran colors with some standard colors (white and chocolate brown) from my stash.  I figure that even if I start the granny squares and don’t like doing them or they hurt my wrist, I’ll still get use out of that yarn.  Best case scenario is the squares are fun, easy, take-along projects to do while sitting at the kids’ sports practices and games or waiting at school pick-up.

Quilting:

* I’m sewing together the rows of my quilt.  They’re pretty good — not great, but pretty good.  Most — but definitely not all– of my corners are matching pretty closely.  I am sewing a couple of rows every few days.

Photography:

* Still plugging away at the 365 Project.  I’m trying to figure out if my daily goal is a great shot or just documenting my life.  I think it’s the latter, with an occasional great shot that simply happens.  This one definitely remains my favorite from this first month.