Hello there, long time no see. Let’s dive into the projects section, and I will talk about the past struggles at the end.
Crochet
Rainbow Blanket
This blanket got some love while I was recovering and had people over. It’s mostly mindless and easy, so here is the current progress (it is folded in half):
The problem with this blanket is the yarn - it’s sorta itchy. I don’t mind that at all, and I will wash or freeze the itchiness out of it, but I need to be careful of who will receive it.
Gamer bunny
I don’t understand WHY the heck it is taking forever for me to finish one amigurumi. It’s still not done, but I made some progress. All the parts are crocheted, and I sewed the body, head, ears and hoodie together.
I need to add the felted details to some of the parts and then sew together the rest. It will get done, eventually. There is no rush, is there?
Dog mats
I was asked to make two 70x50 mats/rugs. The main purpose of one is to absorb all the outdoor dirt. The other will be placed under the dog’s water bucket area.
You might be wondering - why would someone ask for a handmade rug for that purpose? Well, because the doggie is an asshole and runs with those rugs outside and tears them apart. Yeah, the asshole dog was mine, but now he lives with my parents because I moved out, and they refused to give him to me fully. Which is fine - he is old, and I have moved twice since.
Anyway, the point is - it had to be made from sturdy cotton. I dug up all the 100% cotton from my stash I was willing to sacrifice for this purpose and found a variety of colours. Most of them were one-offs that I did not know what to do with anyway. So I started playing with designs and ended up doing tunisian crochet.
Mainly because I did not do any tunisian for a while, but also because it’s dense, double-layered and sturdy. At first, I made a paw design:
But that took some time, and I am on a schedule right now. So I opted out to do just a tunisian simple stitch and go to town. It produced this scrappy-looking mat that is currently drying:
I forgot how much tunisian curls, so I put a half-double crochet border around it and stretched it aggressively while blocking.
I was limited by the length of my tunisian hook, so I had to do two stripes. And I accidentally decreased on one side and noticed that during blocking. Ugh. It was driving me up the wall, and I considered ripping it out, but… no. This is a prototype to see whether the dog can tear it apart.
If it proves itself, then I could make more.
Ambidextrous Mozaic
I wanted to try mozaic for ages, but I’m not too fond of the fringe it creates. So I started using both hands - doing one pass (two rows, two strands) using right-handed crocheting and the reverse pass using left-handed crocheting. I am a lefty, but I crochet right-handed. So, using my left hand is not that difficult, but it takes some brain power and focus. I made this so far:
And I am 90% sure that I will frog it and make something else because this was one of the original dog mat designs. I don’t have any other use for this width.
That’s all from crochet, so let’s insert a tiny amount of other crafts:
Cross-stitch
Here is the progress on my sunflower:
It’s almost done, yet I have not touched it for weeks. I noticed that cross-stitching and diamond painting screwed up my neck, so I took a break from those.
However, recently, I got lazy glasses from Amazon, and they are fantastic. I have yet to try them on CS or DP, but they worked great for tunisian.
Diamond Painting
I don’t recall ever talking about this, but I ordered two HUGE kits from Diamond Art Club, and I started working on one of the kits during the summer of 2022. The size is 105x70cm, and let me tell you: it’s humongous confetti with 57 colours, and it takes forever. Here is the tiny portion I did:
I don’t know how often I will work on it because I have it rolled and stashed away, and taking it out is no fun.
Knitting
Shortie socks
They are done. I don’t have a better picture than this:
I managed to make the first toe rotated 90 degrees. It was just me not paying attention to where my stitch markers were. So I had to rip it out (it was all done, finished, ends weaved in), pick up all the stitches and redo it. No issue; it went smoothly. However, the socks are too small for me, so I washed and gifted them.
Abby socks
These were my hospital knitting, and the first one got a lot of compliments from the staff and my nice cohabitants. The yarn is Abby socks (discontinued). The pattern is still the same: vanilla socks on 2.25 mm needles.
Garter blanket
I was asked to knit a garter blanket, for which I even got the yarn. A certain someone saw my IKEA garter blanket and wanted a similar one. I agreed to do it. I plan to gift it to the person for XMas. But gosh, that’s a slow process. Despite working on it for hours, this is all I have so far:
The yarn is Vlnika Rasty, and I am using 5.5 mm needles. The pattern tutorial link is here.
Rainbow sweater
Uuuugh, how do I start this one? I started knitting the XL size and, at some point, moved to the L size. Who knows when that happened? But this is the current progress:
I also misread the instruction for the sleeves: I was supposed to knit 3” and then start decreasing. Well, I did 3 rounds and decreased. Oh well, who cares? The sleeves now fit me better, anyway. One more point: I did not like the way I was supposed to pick up stitches. Now, I have holes at both ends that need to be sewn. I will attempt a different method that I need to come up with. Speaking of coming up with my own methods - I haven’t learned a proper bind-off yet. Here is my ridiculous but fully functional slip-stitch BO:
It’s taking a long time, but I enjoy the process immensely. I tried it on a few times, and despite knitting the L size, it’s still too big on me.
Dog Mat #2
I do not have enough cotton yarn to make a second tunisian mat, so I will do the garter blanket in 50x70 size as knitting takes way less yarn than crochet. I started a tiny piece today, but I forgot my yarn comes in two thicknesses. I need to hold two strands of thinner yarns to match the thicker one. But that’s fine, it took ten minutes to make.
Acquisition
Apart from the lazy glasses, I got these beautiful progress keepers:
They are already attached to my sweater, both blankets and the abby sock. I also bought two Chiaogoo cables because the garter blanket is not gonna fit on the cables I already have. I got the longest cables for M and L sizes.
Not so yarny chit-chat:
Alright, now I can explain where I was the whole time. It comes in three parts:
#1 Workaholism all the way
I worked so hard to finish a big task at work, and my days were like: get up, do the morning routine, work till evening, do the evening routine and sleep. Rinse and repeat. The worst part is: I enjoyed it. I love my job and my teammates. And it was a joy to work on the task where I was given a good chunk of freedom, and I could show off my capabilities.
#2 Hand injections
I got injections into both of my hands, and that put a full stop to my crafting for several days.
To put it into perspective, the clinic specializes in hand issues, and I asked for the most aggressive treatment. Even the nurse commented that it was “brutal”. Well, I want my hands healed, and I don’t care for a bit of pain or discomfort.
Now, I can say it helped only one issue on one finger. So, getting back to piano playing is still unreachable.
#3 Accident and a sudden knee surgery
I had an accident on a staircase, got to the ER and was told that my knee needed surgery. I happily agreed because that damn knee was giving me problems since I hurt it in April.
I got admitted, and they operated the next morning. Which was very quick because I shared a room with a lady, and she told me she had been waiting for a similar surgery since March. I guess mine was a lot more urgent? I don’t want to know.
Afterwards, the doc told me it was massacred inside, and they fixed it using some anchors. Yeah, yeah, whatever; I am just happy it’s all done, and I can heal and finally use my leg like before.
Little did I know about the struggle that comes with a metallic brace they put my leg in: from the ankle up my bum, all straight, no bending, crutches for walking and good luck sleeping with it.
All that happened in the middle of September. They took off the brace two weeks ago, so now I do physical therapy because re-learning how to bend the knee and stretching all the muscles and tendons inside is not as fast as I thought. I did not feel like crafting because my hands were dead from the crutches. And I couldn’t stay in bed and rest because… well, because I just can’t. I even ended the medical leave prematurely, and I had to argue with the doc a bit.
I don’t plan on going back to workaholism. But I got some awesome feedback on my task. It’s not released yet, but word spread out, and multiple projects are suddenly interested in it.
Now, my boss thinks I am more capable than I am in reality, and he gave me a task that breaks my brain every time I tackle a new piece of it. I am trying very hard to stick to my work hours, but I suck at it.
Now you have it. The work issue is not yet resolved, but I think it’s a beautiful problem to have. When I was growing up, every single person in my family hated their job. So, I think of it as a privilege to enjoy working too much sometimes. The hand issue is not an issue for crafting, and I stopped using crutches this week. So, craft-wise, it should return to normal.
Hopefully, see ya in two weeks~