Hello there!
I skipped one week because I went on my annual mountain trip and did not touch anything yarny during that time. However, I took the rainbow sweater with me and wore it proudly in public. Got one compliment from a German tourist. That counts! :D
Crochet
Ripple blanket
I worked on this quite a bit. During work, I had some tasks that required longer testing, so I kept the blanket on my lap and worked on it when I had to wait. It grew significantly, and I still enjoy the process.
Look at the colours~
Mug rug
I found a cool-looking pattern on YouTube. So, I spent some time putting together the colour palette. I used Excel (Google Sheets) and conditional formatting, and I chose these colours:
which should make this blanket:
After that, I went upstairs, checked my rainbow selection of cotton yarn and was able to pick the colours.
I started working on it, and it felt like a nightmare pretty quickly. I had too many ends and used each colour for one or two blocks at most.
I couldn’t imagine doing that for a bigger piece. Maaaaaybe if it looked gorgeous, I would have continued, but there were “floats” when the colour was needed the next row up. Those floats were visible and not nice; they stuck out, and I did not like it.
This is from the designer herself:
So I cursed the time spent on that, frogged what I had done, and returned to my Excel sheet.
I played with the square shape and came up with this design:
Prepared a C2C-friendly diagram
So I made it:
But there were FIFTY ends to weave in. So I tried to make C2C in the round, which logically does not make sense but is possible. I figured it out and made a few rounds, and it was great. I tried to google it - has someone even done it before? Because I wanted to make more than one square and have one set of instructions. And, of course, the answer was yes! Heart Hook Home made a very clear tutorial
So, I made these two squares, and they didn’t take forever, and the process was quite enjoyable.
I will probably make a laptop slip from them; I will just make them longer on one side and maybe add some surface slip stitching. That’s still undecided, but there is no rush.
The diagonal version made a beautiful mug rug ~ so in the end, it was a successful project. I also learned that I need to read/watch through the patterns to see whether they are suitable for me.
Lion blanket
Finished! It survived the washing machine and the dryer, so now it’s packed and ready to be donated. I kinda like how the super thick variegated border looks on it.
It’s big and squishy, and I hope someone will love it.
Knitting
Garter blanket
I worked on this a bit, too
I cannot stretch it because my cable isn’t that long.
Here is the progress:
I like working on the ripple blanket more because it’s not so monotonous. But I will finish it.
Fortaleza sock
I made a few rows, and it’s not worth a picture just yet :)
Baking
Creepy pink cupcakes
I wanted to bake cupcakes for a while, so I found a recipe and tried it. I wanted to make them cute, so I added a bit of red food colouring to make them pink. The batter was fine and looked as I wanted.
However, when they were finished, the outside was kinda skin-coloured.
…
I am not showing that creepy stuff :D
…
The inside was pretty pink but still
We are not going to talk about it again :D
Acquisitions
Beads
I got some glass beads. We went to a museum of glass
and there was a shop nearby, so I got these gorgeous shiny things
And I want to use them for the string in the drawstring bags. Have I made a drawstring bag? Ever? No. Do I have supplies to make about fifty of them? Yes. Will I start one soon? I don’t know. Yep, that’s how I operate.
I also got this beyond beautiful candle holder
Later did I learn it was made in China. When you are in the area where glass goods are made, you expect the stuff shops sell to be from the local production. Heeeell, nah. And, of course, they try to hide it. Accidentally, I found the candle holder online today for less than a half and checked the sticker on the box I got mine in. The “MADE IN CHINA” was there but crossed with an ink pen—hecking crooks.
Books
Let’s change to a positive note. My employer pays for most books I pick. I get a hefty yearly amount of points to spend, and I do spend them.
So, I bought this Scandinavian book of knitting patterns
And I also got a book for a certain someone I taught to knit. It’s a book on knitting and crocheting for beginners, and there is some helpful info and terminology in my language as that person doesn’t speak English.
I got other pattern books, but these are “just” ebooks.
Not so yarny chitchat
The mountain trip was great even though there was no snow. We hiked to the waterfalls, and I enjoyed the not snowy view, too.
We also went bobsleighing
(I couldn’t really take pictures of anything else than going up because… I was flying downhill as the staff said it was possible to use the track without breaks. Hehehehehe!)
And, of course, I took a bunch of photos of everything. Like this
Or a random path in the forest (see? No crowds! Ha!)
One day, it was raining, so we just took the car and went shopping. That’s the first time I came from a mountain trip with so many books :D And these aren’t the books mentioned above. Yep. Gotta go read, see ya in two weeks!