Hello there!
I did not post sc~dc last week because it would be empty. I had to prioritise different things other than crafts. Most of the week, I was at work till the evening and was not even home during the weekend.
Nothing happened; I did not lose my craft-jo; the week just flew by.
Crochet & Knitting
I’ve decided to remove the headers for FOs and WIPs. You can sure tell if something is finished without the header :)
Foxy the Squirrel
He is done, and I am very proud of him.
And for some odd reason, I did not mind sewing the parts together. I looked at a few tutorials online, and it was a breeze.
Well, I have to admit that I spent about two hours trying to position and sew on the ears. But I was watching a show, so it was not two hours of sheer focus. Either way, I did not mind spending the time. I think the finishing touches make it or break it. So I also took my time embroidering his nose. The muzzle and the nose took me about one hour. I had to sit at a leadership meeting and was bored out of my existence, so this was a welcome distraction.
The Ugly blanket
I added a few rows, and since the blanket is just one solid colour, I don’t think it needs a progress picture. But it’s slowly growing, and that makes me happy.
Traveling Afghan
I started a new square, and I am 16 rows in. It’s a square #10. I find the texture beautiful. It has bumps, so this would be a cool dishcloth if knitted in cotton.
The pattern requires total focus from me because stitches are switching, and one row in the repeat contains yarnovers. So, if I screw up, I need to frog it. I have zero ideas on laddering down in this pattern and surviving laddering up.
But that’s fine; I can always put a lifeline in - which is something I did at my current row. I figured that 16 rows are a substantial amount that I don’t want to redo. I can’t imagine doing something huge out of this pattern; that would take me years.
The startitis I had last time passed. At least in the knitting area. Currently, I am inclined to start another amigurumi since Foxy is finished.
Cable hat
Um. What can I say here? I still haven’t started this one. But I spent three days removing the metallic thread from the yarn. It’s 360 metres of entertainment. Untangling it 20 cm at a time, snip, repeat.
I won’t lie; I am glad I did that. For one, the yarn looks prettier (to me), and the process was so brainless I managed to do that while my brain was on vacation from so much work.
Sis Shawl
I was asked to make this shawl, and after a few months of dreading it, I thought it would be good to get this monkey off my back.
I procrastinated on this one, not because it’s ugly or something, but because it’s going to take me weeks to finish it. And I already have a few big projects going on.
Anyway. After I got into the first repeat, I decided I was going to like this one very much. Yep, yep, it looks good, but that’s not the point. It’s lined up, and there are small numbers for counting - that removes the need to count the 350+ stitches at later phases to be sure there is no error. I did not do this when I worked on the rainbow neon shawl and conjured quite a bit of extra stitches.
The hook I use is the same as the pattern calls for: 3.5 mm. And the yarn is Retwisst Soft Cake. I have two cakes, but I assume only one will be needed. I could always ask the recipient if she wants it bigger or not.
Yarny chit-chat: Sleeping WIPs
Today, I wanted to talk WIPs. I mean, my WIPs and my thoughts about them. If your arrangements are different, cool beans, I am not pushing anything on anyone. I am also not pushing this on my future self, because I evolve and change habits and I am not afraid to admit it.
I’ve noticed that over time, I have accumulated a few sleeping WIPs and multiple ongoing WIPs. And some parts are not okay. Let’s tackle sleeping WIPs first. We might talk about active WIPs the next time.
Sleeping WIPs are something I lost interest in. I consider a WIP sleeping if I last touched it about a month ago, give or take. I spent some time on them, there is yarn held up in the project, and it occupies a project bag. It’s not like I don’t have enough yarn or bags. I don’t like that I gave up. I don’t like that I shoved them aside and started something else. In my ideal world, there would be no sleeping WIPs.
A couple of months ago, I had an unfinished dragon swinging on the handle of my desk (yes, my desk has a handle to lower it or go up). I ignored it for a while, and when I went back to it, I realised there was no way for me to fix the dragon to look the way I wanted. So I frogged the project, put the yarn back into my stash, and despite the effort that went into the dragon, I was glad that it was frogged and off my mind.
I have another amigurumi that is unfixable. I started in November or early December, so that’s definitely a sleeping WIP now. I think I will also frog this one. But I will start over because I want to make the amigurumi. My skillset is too low for it to look decent - and I will push through that. I don’t want it to go back to sleep again.
Of course, I have other sleeping WIPs, and I want to deal with all of them. I’ve noticed people are doing Finish it or Frog it Fridays, so I am not alone in this boat.
I don’t want to rush it and resolve it only for the sake of not having sleeping WIPs. I want to consider each and every project. And if that project makes it back to my active WIPs, I will let you know.
Postcards
I will add a bit of detail to each card from now on so that it’s clear the cards are travelling to and from specific people.
I got a card from Gulfport, Mississippi, US. It’s the Washington Monument that the sender recently visited with her family. This poor card was in transit since October - it looks like it got stuck between some sorting machines.
The first card was sent to Finland to a guy who speaks 8+ languages, travelled through 70+ countries and now owns a publishing house. Yap, I consider that cool as heck.
This one is going to Japan, Nara. To a lady that likes multiview cards and city vehicles (I added some stamps with vehicles for her to enjoy).
The art of Alphonse Mucha goes to an artist in New York that worked in the fashion industry for decades.
And the last one is going just around the corner, to a physiotherapist in Germany.
See you in the next post ~