2019 review

Well look at that, another whole year gone by. Once again I’m so glad I have my blog to remind me of all I’ve achieved over the last 365 days.

For a start, there were a lot more FOs than I thought.

Baby poncho x2

Kalinda shawl

Caron cupcake hat x2

Caron cake folded bag (I’ve still got this lying around. I really must give it away)

The teeny tiny llama, and a somewhat creepy amigurumi tooth

There were a few bits and pieces for myself

Flax Light for me

A scrappy neck warmer

Changing Staircases

But I think I’m most pleased with my blanket output this year.

Not one, but two full-sized Lego blankets!

Changing Tides, my first ever CAL

A baby Lego blanket with spare bricks

The super chunky green and purple baby blanket

A more traditionally coloured baby blanket

There was also a Mothers day card with crochet elements, which I know I can do better this year.

Outside of knitting and crochet, I tried my hand at both needle felting and beading.

Then for christmas I whipped up my Dad’s hat and a final headband.

That’s 24 total FOs, which I’m pretty darn pleased with.

With all these projects I also learned a thing or two:

Continental knitting

Foundation crochet stitches

Magic loop for knitting

Stretchy bind off

Needle felting

Crochet loop stitch

So I’ve had a great year and I’m hoping to make 2020 just as good, if not better!

I’m determined that this will be the year I finally jump in to sock knitting. I’m also planning to make a big dent in my stash and make a bit of a difference in the world by focussing on some charity yarnery.

I hope everyone had a lovely new years eve, and that 2020 is so much better to you than 2019 was (whatever kind of year you had).

Hannah

xXx

September Review

My plan for September was to finally get some WIPs off my list so I could knock it down from eight WIPs to four.

I managed one of those things.

After what felt like forever with nothing, I managed four fairly big finishes:

There was my boyfriend’s Lego blanket.

A baby blanket made with the leftover bricks.

My Changing Tides blanket (nope, I still haven’t sewn the ends in).

And FINALLY my beautiful Flax Light

The baby blanket was a new addition so that got my WIP list down to five, but…then I got a bit of start-itis after being inspired by BonnyKnits, and cast on something new.

This is Changing Staircases by Dragon Hoard Designs, it’s free on Ravelry, and the yarn is Leaf Green Rainbow by Mothy and the Squid. I regret nothing.

So now my WIP list is sitting at six, which is an improvement so I’ll take it.

I think for October I’ll aim for getting it down to four again. A few of the projects are close to finished and should be easy to cross off, but I’m also going to start making for Christmas so I know there will be more added on.  I just have to resist all the Halloween crafts that are popping up everywhere!

Hannah

xXx

I’m on a roll

I finished the final rounds of Changing Tides last night. That’s two WIPs off my list in one week, and it feels goooood!

Yes, I’m ignoring all the ends. Since this is a blanket just for myself there’s a high possibility the ends will never get sewn in. I’m okay with that.

Look at all that texture

In the beginning I wasn’t sure about the mish mash of colours, but they actually seem to work okay, plus I’ve used up a good chunk of the acrylic in my stash so I’m doubly happy.  I’m looking forward to snuggling up under this now we’re in pre-Winter (those outside of Scotland may know it as Autumn), as it’s really toasty and has a nice weight to it. I’ve always wanted a weighted blanket!

Now on to Flax Light and hopefully I can get that finished as well before too long.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 11.09.19

Current WIP count: 7

I think I might be able to cross another WIP off the list this week, as there’s now only a week and a half left to add to my Changing Tides blanket.So much lovely texture on these rounds.

Flax light is now my portable project again. It’s nice to get back to knitting, especially when that knitting is just stockinette for the next 7 inches. I only need to engage my brain to count the stitches for the garter panel every other round, so it’s been a perfect TV/choir/subway project.I’ve also got as far as taking the needle felt unicorn back out of the box, although I haven’t actually done anything with it yet. My thinking is that if it’s right in front of me and ready to go then I’m more likely to pick it up and make some progress when I have a spare 5 minutes. We’ll see how that works out!

Hannah

xXx

August Review

White rabbits!

This should be a pretty quick one, as I only worked on 3 projects last month. That’s about as close to a monogamous crafter as I want to get!

The main one was the Lego blanket. I have a week left and it now looks like this:

In between working on that my Changing Tides blanket got a look in now and then.

With Flax Light falling way behind at just a few row’s progress.

My goal for September is to finally cross some projects off my WIP list.

1. Lego blanket – as the only one with a deadline, this one is priority.

2. Changing Tides – this will be my next focus, simply because I’m now almost a month “late” for finishing it if you go by the end of the CAL.

3. Flax Light – Did you know I started this in February? I know I’m a fairly new knitter, but that’s still far too long so I want it done and wearable this month.

4. Needle felted unicorn – It’s small and cute, and will give my hands a rest from knitting/crochet so I’d like to focus on this one as well.

That would exactly halve my WIP list, which feels much more manageable. If I manage to work on any of the other 4 projects then I’ll just count that as a bonus.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Thursday 15.08.19

Current WIP count: 8

I now have over a quarter of the bricks made for my Lego blanket. I don’t know if it’s true, but it definitely feels like I’m producing bricks much faster this time.

There’s quite a bit of travelling going on this weekend and my goal is to reach the halfway point, then I can start joining them together for a bit of variety!

With a proper rest day last Sunday (well, after a morning gym session) I managed to make some progress with Changing Tides and now I’ve only got 3 weeks left to catch up on. They look like pretty simple stitches for these weeks, and there are no more pebbles, so I don’t think it will take me too long to finish up. My only issue at the moment is finding enough stash in each colour because the rounds are looooong!

It’s going to be so cosy snuggling up under this when I’m finally finished.

What’s everyone else working on this week? Is anyone getting ready to cross something off their WIP list? I’m starting to feel like that’s not a real thing any more, it’s so long since I crossed anything off!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 07.08.19

Current WIP count: 8

Making this Lego blanket is so much easier using just one brand of yarn. All the bricks are coming out the same size every time (ignoring my initial mistake), and I know I can get 15.5 bricks out of every ball so it’s easy to calculate how far I’ve got to go.

I’ve tweaked the brick pattern slightly from last time, but now that’s memorised as well and I can make bricks while doing pretty much anything that doesn’t require the use of my hands. It’s got to the point that I sat down at choir on Monday and the person next to me went “Where’s your crochet?”. They know me well!

The second sleeve of my Flax Light is underway, and I’m still debating whether to try matching the missed purl rows on the first. That might be a wee bit too much like hard work. But also it might bug me too much to have non-matching sleeves. I’ll see how I feel when I get a bit further.

No progress on Changing Tides since last time, as it’s too big to transport and I haven’t once had time to sit on my sofa for a crochet session. Will I ever stop being so busy?? It is looking pretty though.

One day soon I really hope I can cross something off my WIP list. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 24.07.19

Current WIP count: 8

Not much time this week, summer camp is approaching rapidly and I’m not quite ready yet!

Of course I’m a dingbat and forgot to switch to smaller needles for my Flax Light cuff, so that had to be tinked and started again. These sleeves are going to be the death of me…

I finished up the bobble section of Changing Tides and now I’m onto simpler stitches so it’s whizzing along again. Still a few weeks behind, but now I remember that I’ll be away for the final week so I was never going to finish exactly on time anyway. Pressure off!

The Lego blanket has gone almost nowhere so I’ve decided that’s going to be my travel project. At least 7 hours of uninterrupted crochet should give me a good jumpstart!

So that’s my week. What’s everyone else working on?

Hannah

xXx

Can’t sleep

I’m breaking one of my own rules here: Don’t crochet tired.

But honestly what else am I supposed to do at silly o’clock in the morning, after lying in bed staring at the ceiling for hours?

This way at least the blanket is keeping me warm and I can do some catching up. Maybe crochet will even do it’s magic thing and quiet my brain, so I can try sleeping again and it might actually work.

Cross your fingers for me?

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 17.07.19

Current WIP count: 8

Look, look I nearly have a whole sleeve!

I’m onto the cuff ribbing so I reckon I can get this sleeve done and dusted before next week. I even remembered to make a note of the number of stitches, so I know what I’m aiming for with the other sleeve and hopefully I’ll get them both the same size.

It’s fun having lots of WIPs to choose from, but at the moment I’m struggling to decide which to work on. I’m still really excited about Flax Light because it’s my first knitted jumper so it’s getting a lot of attention, but I do want to catch up with Changing Tides, and the Lego blanket has a fixed deadline so I should work on that as well. If only I could turn into an octopus and work on them all at once!

Maybe I should set up some sort of rota to make sure they all keep moving along. What do you think?

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 10.07.19

Current WIP count: 8

Yes, I have added another WIP to the list. I just can’t help myself.

One of my friends was particularly impressed with the Lego blanket I made for my Dad, so I decided to make another one for them. This time I’m buying yarn specifically for it rather than using up stash so it will all be the same brand, size, and weight, which should make the whole thing go a bit smoother.

I’ve also slightly tweaked the bricks so hopefully they’ll sit together better when I sew everything up.

I loved this one, but it didn’t quite have that straight Lego look

Flax Light is bimbling along, but I’ll spare everyone yet another photo of an unfinished sleeve. Even I’m getting bored of it.

And I’m on to the bobbles for Changing Tides so it feels like everything has ground to a halt. These things take forever!

But this is the last lot of bobbles and we’re approaching the end of the CAL so my motivation is still pretty high. Yes I’m a week behind, but this is the closest I’ve ever come to keeping up with a live CAL and I’m determined to keep going to the end.

So that’s my week, what’s everyone else working on? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 03.07.19

Current WIP count: 7

Welcome to July, everyone!

After leaving my Flax Light in the naughty corner for a few days, I managed to tink back to my mistake without too many issues. Now I’m chugging along with it again, this time counting the purl stitches every time I hit the panel because I am NOT making the same mistake twice.

I’m also trying very hard not to think about the fact that I have to do this all over again for the other sleeve, otherwise it might turn into one of those UFOs you shove in a drawer and forget about for five years. Could I start a trend for one-armed jumpers, do you think?

Changing Tides has fallen behind again, thanks to a super busy couple of weekends. And also me dragging my feet a wee bit because I know another week of pebbles is coming up and they take aaaaaaages.

But I did particularly enjoy the last section I worked on. The shell stitches are pretty and I’m definitely using this blue/yellow colourway for another make at some point in the future.

Ooh what about a baby blanket using the same pattern? I think that would look cute.

Anyway I’d better not add another WIP to my list just yet – I really need to get some of the current ones to FOs first!

Hannah

xXx