Inner Light Scarf...

I have a finish!

During the hottest week (so far) of the year I finished my Inner Light Scarf made with 100% merino wool:

The yarn was purchased last summer at a local yarn festival from Knitting Notions (a hand dyer from Nashville, TN).  I bought two skeins of the Azalea color off her clearance table and only after I got home did I realize I had bought two different dye lots.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to alternate the skeins every two rows and they ended up working together really well.  This pattern makes an asymmetrical scarf  (or shawl) that I imagined I would wear  once it cools down again - something like this:

It's so warm, though, I'm pretty sure it will be reserved for wearing under a coat or jacket when it's really cold, so I'm not sure how much of that pretty lattice design will ever be seen. But I'm super happy with it.  I am so warm-blooded anymore I can't seem to tolerate much of a scarf, but this one made in fingering weight yarn, I'm thinking will be pretty perfect.

This was a pleasant and pretty easy pattern to crochet.  I have at least one more scarf/shawl pattern from this designer and I look forward to giving it a go soon.  The size of this can be made larger or smaller depending on the intended wearer, and how they might want to wear it (e.g. someone small could wear it as a shawl, or it could be made larger to fit any size):

Having finished this asymmetrical scarf, I went looking for ways to wear it.  I found this; and it was kind of fun watching this gal play with hers.

And that's a wrap!

Celtic Weave Infinity Scarf...

Last week saw the finish of my Celtic Weave Infinity Scarf:

Because I used worsted weight yarn, I made the middle of my scarf narrower than the original scarf  - which was done in fingering weight yarn.  The stitch pattern for the center panel of this scarf requires a starting chain of a count divisible by 4 +3.  While the stitch pattern took some concentration at the beginning and ending of rows, it did finally become intuitive for me, and at that point it didn't take too long to finish.  But I will admit, there was a fair amount of ripping back and redoing until that happened.

Fingering weight yarn appears to make a lovely drapey scarf while worsted weight yarn made a chunky, toasty one.  😊

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Since it's the first day of autumn when posting this, and I'm realizing I haven't taken a picture of dishcloths knitted since late June, I snapped a quick shot of all the cloths I knitted this summer:

Not very many, but they are certainly colorful!  😃

And that, dear reader, is all she wrote!   

To see what other YOPpers are up to, 

visit the blog links in my side bar!  👉

Mystery revealed...

I look forward to getting back to my Sacred Space blanket soon, but this week I found myself making (and finishing) some smaller projects.  It felt good to have some finishes.

Firstly, after rescuing some colorful Yarn Bee Sugarwheel cotton yarn from the clearance shelf at the new local Hobby Lobby, I couldn't resist making something with it right away.  This Granny Square Bottom Bag fit the bill perfectly:

While I love the bright colors, I'm not all that crazy about this yarn.  

The color changes are abrupt, and there were many knots.  😕

Then I whipped up this quick and easy eyeball washcloth:

pattern is searchable online as Mad Eye Washcloth

What Harry Potter fan wouldn't think this a fun little cloth to wash dishes with? But you don't have to be a HP fan to think an eyeball washcloth is kind of cool.  😉   A few more of these will be fun stocking stuffers for my adult sons (who enjoy HP, but also anything this odd/cool/fun).

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And lastly...  While I haven't figured out just what frame will suit this best, my little mystery silhouette cross stitch picture got finished yesterday:

My original thought was this would be nice to save for gifting to a young girl someday, but I like it so much I think I will frame it and display it on a shelf here.  It's very small - right at about 4 x 6 inches.  Which makes it even sweeter.  😊

I will say... this sweet little picture wasn't as simple as I thought it would be, but it was worth sticking with it, which included some ripping out and restitching in a few places.  I wish I could tell you who the designer is, and what my source was, but that would be a challenge since I made a working photo copy and then filed (i.e. stacked) the magazine with dozens of others without noting which one it was published in.  I'm pretty sure it's from a vintage Just Cross Stitching magazine (possibly from the 1980's), but that's the best I can do at the moment.  

Thank you all who played along with my mystery cross stitch guessing game.  I enjoyed the guesses.  While some could see the flowers a few weeks ago, the only ones who guessed right on my last update were Liz of Highland Heffalump Sharon (of Zanna's Homemade).  Good eyes, ladies!  

With these finishes, I think it may feel really satisfying now to work on my larger projects again.  😄

I hope everyone has a good week!

Check out other Year of Project participants 

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Small things...

This week I've been working on several projects, but everything is still in WIP status.

The thing that got the most attention is still my cross stitch.  The partridge is basically done, though some back-stitching is needed to define the wings a bit. I just need to decide on or buy the right color floss for that.  I also need to not forget to give that bird an eye!

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Besides time spent on cross stitch, I also worked on some small crochet projects (that were Crochet-A-Longs in Our Happy CAL Place).

First, were a couple of bookmarks crocheted with thread:

These take me back - to the 1970's to be precise.  

Gotta love granny stitches and fringe.  Though I felt compelled to braid my fringe...

Because I was feeling all retro, I tried use colors that reflected the 1970's (and that I had in my stash).  I love these and think they would look fun made in more modern colors, too.  I'm sure I'll be making more before I've gotten these out of my system.  They'd make great little gifts to have on hand to maybe tuck inside a card  - or a book, of course.  But these two are for me.  😊

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Mid-week I realized I was going to need to host a CAL on OHCP, so I picked a quick-ish project that I've been wanting to try.  Scalloped Edge Hanger Covers:

Now, I'm not one who previously thought I'd crochet hanger covers, but ever since I saw these on Ravelry, I've been curious about them.   Who doesn't have at least a few garments that are prone to slipping off the hanger?  I thought I'd find out if this is a way to resolve that issue.

I'm happy to say, Yes!  These crocheted hanger covers are a total success.  The cuteness factor of the scallops is honestly what convinced me to give these a try, even though the scallops add not one bit of purpose to the non-slip factor.  

To be completely honest, the whole thing is a bit fiddly to make, but I think I'll make at least a few more.  If you're at all interested, I seriously recommend watching this video (of Mikey from Crochet Crowd) to walk you through it. It explains how to start the crocheting - something I was struggling with before watching the video.

I'll go ahead and explain that in following the video, one will end up with a piece of yarn across the front of the hanger - like this: 

 At first that was off-putting to me, but then it occurred to me (or maybe Mikey mentioned?) that that piece of yarn is a great place to  thread a ribbon:

So that's what I did, and then tied it into a bow.  While I'd use a bit thinner ribbon if I had it handy, I have to say I think my wide brown ribbon is kind of cute on my new pink hanger in the first hanger picture above.  😉

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I also did some crocheting on my Bertie Baby Blanket, and I'm sooo close to being finished.   I'll hold off with a picture because until I add the border, there's really nothing different about it (from the first picture I showed weeks ago) except that it's larger.  Hopefully, next week I'll be able to check that off my WIP list.

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And finally, I am going to join the chorus of voices that are amazed that another YOP year is nearly over.  While some YOPers begin their YOP year in January, July 1st is the traditional start date of each new YOP year.   I mention this in case anyone reading has been considering joining the fun.  July 1st is a great time to jump in.  All that is needed is a blog, a free Ravelry membership, and the desire to join the Year Of Projects group and share progress on projects throughout the year.   Check us out here!

Random yarny makes...

It seems I accomplished very little (yarn-wise) early in the week, and then suddenly had a burst of yarny enthusiasm the last few days.

This past week in Our Happy CAL Place on Ravelry, some of us made these cute Heart Pocket Note Holders.  When I first saw the project I knew I wanted to make one to hang above my kitchen calendar to hold pens that I use to write stuff down with:

   

I feel kind of silly loving something so kitschy.  But I do!

And see how well it coordinates with my calendar, 

and it fills the purpose I envisioned for it perfectly:

By the way, the flower pattern was found here.  It is not part of the note holder pattern - in case anyone is interested.

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And then yesterday a new CAL was offered up for these Bowl Cozies:   

Now, let me be clear...  my bowl cozy did not turn out at all like it was supposed to.  Mine did not take on a bowl shape, though to be honest I only made mine single layered, so that is possibly why.  While single-layered is satisfactory for "insulation", mine was pretty floppy and ultimately useless.

Not wanting to give up, I looked at others' projects and noticed that someone else had pinched in the corners so I gave that a try.  That did make it cozier and I look forward to giving it a try in the microwave soon.   The pattern worked out correctly for more people than not, so don't let my flub dissuade you from giving the pattern a go if you like the idea of one of these things.

And being the last Sunday of February, I counted up my knitted (and one crocheted) dishcloth made this month.  Ten new cloths added to the gift/use some day box:

  

To see what other YOPers are up to, 

visit our group on Ravelry.

2019 Yarn Stash-Down progress:  22.53/100 skeins

More small stuff...

Except for knitting some simple dishcloths, I didn't do much with yarn this week.  But mindless knitting was perfect for following along to what degree I did with the Senate confirmation hearings on Judge Gorsuch.  What a great learning experience I have found the hearings to be.   I have a basic understanding of the function of the Supreme Court, and what a judge does  (as do most of us, I would imagine), but watching these hearings was like having a front row seat in a civics class with lessons on the division of the three branches of government, and the role of judges in general.  If you didn't watch any of it live, I suggest finding some videos on Youtube and not depend on the news outlets (conservative or liberal) to disseminate it into sound bites.  Boring as all get out, but at the same time, fascinating to listen to.  They have been to me anyway.  😉  BTW, fellow Blogger bloggers... have we always had these emojis here on Blogger?   I just noticed them as I'm writing this post.  I find it hard to believe they were there all the time, but I guess I don't really know for sure.   

As the weekend approached I was reminded that I was to host this next week's CAL for Our Happy CAL Group on Ravelry.  It had totally slipped off my radar so I had to come up with something quick.  I found a perfect project in the Botanical Bookmark:

The pattern writer suggests DK weight yarn, but I used sport weight cotton (Omega Sinfonia) and I felt like the end result was a tad too thick for a bookmark.   I'd recommend using something thinner than sport weight - like size 3 thread or even embroidery floss for making this particular bookmark.

It is cute, though.  And speedy to whip up.  I may have taken nearly 2 hours total to make the one above, but I was going back and forth between the video tutorial and the Senate hearings, and I'm sure other things interrupted, too, so I got slowed down a bit as I made mine.  If I'd made it from start to finish it might have only taken me an hour. Really, it's that easy.  

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And then on Saturday, I got a lovely surprise in the mail:

Neetsey, a fellow moderator of Our Happy CAL group on Ravelry made me this beautiful doily. Just because!  I was bowled over by her generosity - and her mad doily crocheting skills.  I didn't get a close up of the beads, but every tip has a pretty bead and every tip of the pineapples has two beads crocheted on.  

It's a beautiful item for decorating with this spring and summer.  At the moment I have a glass bowl of colorful eggs sitting on it, but I need to get something else bright for sitting on it after Easter.  The light, kind of bright green seems to beg for something like fuschia, or orchid, or turquoise, or I don't know for sure...  but something bright and colorful to go with it, don't you think?

If you're reading this, Neetsey, thank you, again.  You're too sweet!

~~~~~

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravely!

Friendly Flying Tams...

My crocheting was inspired by "friendship" this week.  :)  

We knew we would be visiting with friends on Friday night and enjoying pizza and a movie with them.  While I don't want to be presumptuous (especially if they're reading this ;^), but pizza and a movie seems to have become something of an irregular, every once in a while, whenever someone is inspired, sort of thing for us and this family.  And we love it!   

The kids are young and remind us of when our boys were little, but that's not why we enjoy them so much.  We enjoy them because, well...  they just emanate love and acceptance of us.  Such a simple thing, but yet it feels absolutely huge in this busy, often disconnected world we live in.  We consider their friendship a real gift and we are so very thankful for friends like these that span the years and the many seasons of life.  

With permission from their mother, I share the children's four sweet faces.  

In case you're wondering what they're all wearing on their heads, well...  I'm getting to it.

Looking forward to the visit, I got the idea that it would be fun to crochet something for each of the kids.  As I was looking online for ideas, I remembered this flying disc I had made last summer (during the Ravellenics):

And thought that it fit the bill perfectly.  

So I got to hooking, and by Thursday night I had three more:

This pattern is a good first color-work project (for someone who's adept at pattern reading) and the end result is a fun flying disc that anyone of any age would enjoy playing with.   Or those with smaller heads, wearing like a tam hat.  :)

I've made these in the past out of cotton (the first time I made them they went into some Samaritan's Purse Christmas Child boxes), but I've decided I actually prefer them made out of acrylic yarn.  Made of acrylic, they're very lightweight (which makes them safer to fly indoors), but they hold their shape well because the single crochet makes a dense fabric.  They're also machine washable so I have little concern about the colors bleeding, or little worry about a change in shape or size with a wash.  I found them kind of fun to make and have a feeling I'll be seeing more of these in my crochet future.  :)

And hopefully, we'll be seeing more of these in our future, too:

 

To see what other Yoppers are up to, visit our group on Ravelry.

Trendy Fringe...

Getting started a bit late, I'm happy to say I finished the first of the three scarves I decided to make for Christmas gifts.

Unfortunately, though... I have a problem.  See...  when I asked my husband if he thought it would make a good gift for a guy he said, "Oooh, yeah!  That would look really good with my dark gray coat."

Uuuuuhhhh...   Hmmmm...  Well...   Shoot.  As nice as it was to hear that he liked the scarf enough that he'd like to wear it, I really wasn't making it for him (he already has a scarf I made, so don't feel badly for him).

But he did really seem to like this one, and he especially liked the red in it.  So how I could I say no?  I did some quick calculating in my head and decided that I could probably make 4 scarves before Christmas.  So I told him he could have it if he wanted it.

Then he told me "But you don't have to put all that "trim" on it for me".  I saw a window of opportunity (i.e. a chance to possibly talk him out of this scarf in particular) and I told him that was fringe and it's one of the wonderful things about using this yarn. It makes a great self-fringe and I don't have to weave all those ends in.   I told him the fringe stays. And then I told him that fringe is trendy right now (thinking the word "trendy" might just turn him ever so slightly away from wanting to wear this scarf).

 

And then he said, "Cool!  You mean I'll be trendy?"

I replied with a straight face and only the slightest hint of sarcasm, "Yes...  You'll be one trendy, hip guy wearing this scarf."

Then, as if he didn't believe me (and as if it was some consolation for me, or maybe a consolation for him having to wear a trendy, fringed scarf) he said, "Ah well... I'd be proud to wear a scarf you made."

Now, I'm pretty sure this last bit wasn't meant to sound patronizing, but somehow it did.  I told him I didn't want him wearing a scarf I've made for my benefit. I know reading these words, much of the nuance of this conversation is lost, but it was one of those awkward moments where you feel like someone is trying to make you feel good about something you've done and all you can think of is that now your work is added to.

And yet, what person doesn't feel the pleasure when someone wants to wear the thing they've just made.

Sigh.

So, I don't know...   Of course I'd love for him to have the scarf if he'd really enjoy wearing it.  But I don't need any favors here.  Then there's the bigger problem.  The person I was making this for loves red.  And yes, I told the mister that (though, I think he was maybe only half listening).  At least I think the other fella still loves red.  But I don't think he'll be all that excited to get a scarf with red in it and see another scarf I've made using red.  He and the mister are sometimes together and well, if they're both wearing matchy-matchy scarves that could be embarrassing.

Maybe I should go ask this other person what his favorite color is. Nonchalant-like.  Like...  "I'm just suddenly interested in your favorite color, not that I'm considering making anything for you in that color.  So don't go getting any ideas.  That's right - I just suddenly want to know what your favorite color is."

Maybe I'll find out his current favorite color is blue.  Or green.  Or just gray!  Gee...  wouldn't that make things easy!  Okay...  I've got an update before this was published:  I did ask, and while he mentioned red first, he also said he liked olive green and blue.  :)   Hmmm...   I see possibilities here...

So off I go now to feverishly knit (correction - crochet) three more scarves (the second one is about half finished so I do feel good about that).  I think fellow Yopper, Sanda, (AKA Sam) and I are having our own personal CAL for the next couple of weeks with these linen-stitch scarves.   Anyone else can feel free to join us if they like.  :)

I may or may not show my finished scarves between now and Christmas, but we'll see.  My scarf saga may have a new twist by next week.

Until then, I'll probably just be knitting dishcloths when I need a break from crocheting scarves.

I'm loving this variegated yarn (Lily's Sugar n' Cream in the color Mistletoe, and this stitch pattern.  Though, to get the look above, I put a 4-knit-stitch border on each side and a half-inch or so border on the top and bottom.

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I hope you're enjoying this blessed Christmas season.  To see what other YOPPERS are up to, visit our group on Ravelry!

With just a little bit of yarn...

It's the weather.  I'm excusing my lack of direction and inclination to work much with yarn on this beautiful weather we're having.  It's been in the 70's for the last half of this week with overnights in the 60's and 50's.  It has me happily gadding about in my free time, not doing anything particularly worth mentioning, except that well, you know... errands need running, groceries need buying, friends sometimes need lunching with...   And I've been enjoying doing all these things in the context of glorious days after several weeks of trying to avoid spending unnecessary time out in the spiteful heat and humidity and rain.

To be clear, though,  I'm not complainin'.   I'm just explainin'.   My heart goes out to those who've experienced hurricanes, tornadoes and floods in recent weeks.  How is it in your corner of the world?

What I did manage to start and finish this week are these cute little Apple Coasters:

And this simple autumn-ish doily kind-of-a-thing:

Both of these projects were short CAL's on Ravelry.  And both were made with just a bit of yarn. One of the apple coasters will sit on my computer desk this autumn.  And the doily kind-of-a-thing will hopefully find something to rest under.  A plant maybe.  Or maybe I'll just put it out with this little kitty creamer.  :)  The kitty creamer is an antique that I believe at one time was my grandmother's.  It's from the 1940's I'm guessing from what I can find online.   And the yellow formica counter top is only a couple decades younger than the kitty creamer.  Yep, that's my kitchen counter.  My sad old   stylishly vintage yellow kitchen counter.  ;^)

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On the knitting front...  I have decided not to post pictures of every single dishcloth I make, but I will report that I knitted two more simple ones this week.  One had some mistakes I tried to turn into design elements - I accidentally knitted a row on the purling side and for some reason thought purling on the knitted side later in the cloth would give me two nice" ridges", but all I really got was one nice ridge and one loosey-goosey sloppy row of purling.

Oooh, okay...  Here's a picture:

Of course, I figured out several rows after I did that loose purl row that I should have just knitted on the purl side again - and I'd have a nice tight ridge like the first one.  It was a head slapping moment, and I consider that a good thing.  That means I'm learning!

The second cloth, I'm happy to report is a work of art.  In a kindergarten knitting class, that is.  I'm getting the tension tighter on my purling.  I still don't know how anyone manages to have such perfect enough tension that they nonchalantly make lovely large items like shawls and blankets, but I'm contenting myself with seeing some slight (and somewhat consistent) improvement in this area in my humble washcloths.

On that note I want to thank you, reader, for indulging me and encouraging me in these weekly posts about my knitting progress.  I truly hope to look back on this time as a quaint and innocent period of my knitting life.  Innocent of what magnificent creations I eventually may be capable of.  :)   Wow. Where did that come from?  A week ago I was a happy humble dishcloth knitter.  This week I'm aspiring to magnificence.  =^/

~~~~~

This week (hopefully) I will get back to my second Spice of Life blanket.  Making two at a time seemed like such a good idea when I started these in July, but having laid one aside in order to finish the other during the Ravellenics I find that I've become a bit apathetic about finishing the laid-aside one.  But finish it I will.  I trust that just picking it back up again will overcome the inertia I'm experiencing at the moment.  This is such an enjoyable pattern to crochet and I actually like these colors better than the colors in the one I finished already, so really... I imagine it will fly off my hook once I get going on it again.

Here is the last progress picture I took of it (back in July):

I've crocheted a good number of rows beyond this point and I'm sure I'm about halfway finished, so really... I should be able to knock this out in a couple of weeks.  And that's so good, as I have ideas brewing.  I may have to start them before my Spice is finished if the yarn I'm waiting on arrives, but that isn't likely to happen for a few days at least.   My main goal is to accomplish something on this Spice this next week.  And probably knit another dishcloth.  ;^)

To see what other Yoppers are yopping about, visit our thread this week on Ravelry!