New month, new progress

I actually have some FOs to show off again.

First and most exciting (for me anyway) - the sample pair of mittens for my pattern!

I had wanted a picture of them in the snow, but then it rained all through the night after I finished them. I think I might almost like this picture better than what I had planned though. The leaves peeking through kind of set off the cream and brown.

Now I just need to finish knitting the grey and red pair, so I can add my photos to the pattern. I still have to wait until my testers are done before I call it complete, but I'm one step closer!

 

Also finished - the cowl I knit for the Ravellenic games. I got imaginary awards for cross cowling, lace luge, single skein speed skate, and stash skeleton. First 'real' project I've done using yarn I spun, and I love it.

Here it is all laid out for blocking-

 

My other project photo was an awful awkward angled selfie, since I didn't have anyone handy to take it for me. Instead of sharing that I'll hold out and hope for better future pics!

 

I also attempted a rainbow of hexis for my Beekeeper's blanket, but finished just after the cutoff time (darn it)

 

 

Still, this was enough to push me to nearly 60 hexis (let's not talk about how many I have left to go, alright?)

 

So that's me for this month. Looking forward to finishing a couple things before next post...and hopefully casting on one new project. I've been good, I think I deserve it :)

 

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Working on getting stuff done - including my pattern!

Just last month, I posted about talking myself into some bravery and submitting my mitten pattern to Knit picks for the independent designer program (IDP). Well I did it, and heard back incredibly quickly with an acceptance. So exciting!

I am still finishing up on knitting the sample for pattern photography, but once I got my yarn support from KP I almost immediately cast on for the sample pair. The yarn was so gorgeous, I couldn't help it.

 

So now I have one and a half mittens in the original yarn, and a thumb shy of a full mitten in the new yarn. Since I can't resist showing off a little bit, here is a quick peek at the back of the mitten -

(Just pretend the lighting caught the colors as nicely as the pic above, please - it was the best I could do with the weather today!)

 

 

Right now the pattern itself is going through testing with some helpful knitter friends, and I'm pretty excited to see how it looks with the different yarn choices.

As scary as it is to 'put myself out there' the process is pretty fun too. I'm glad that, after holding on to this idea for over year, I'm finally doing it.

 

Other things I'm finally getting to? That big list of WIPs of course!

The washcloth is done -

Nice and big, I think this will be a repeated pattern.

 

The cotton double knit trivet didn't fair as well though. After a year if letting it sit in the basket, I decided to frog it. It was going to be too small anyway and I wasn't liking the design much either.

 

My Sherlock blanket is coming along nicely, and has three new squares.

Two of them are inspired by the latest season's first episode

An underground square, using a chart from Jennie Claver

 

And a bonfire square, which was a pattern I wrote up (and added to the other ones I had already posted here)

 

The other is more book-related (although there's been a bee reference thrown in the bbc series too) it's the bee square from Rav user ambrrr modified from the Apis Dorsata pattern

 

With all the squares I still want to knit (plus the ones I'm sure will be designed by others in the future) I'm thinking this blanket may be king sized before I'm ready to call it done!

 

For a while though, I'm going to be pretty busy with the mitten knitting. Between them and the cowl I'm starting for the Rav games tomorrow, there probably be much progress in the other WIPs until next month.

 

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Any post is better than no post, right?

And the winner for most inconsistent and unreliable posting schedule goes to ... Drumroll please ... Me!

Probably.

If procrastination earned you a trophy, I'm pretty sure I'd have a cabinet full of them. Then again, maybe not. I'd have to get my act together and pick them up from procrastination headquarters, and when would I ever find the time with all my bouts of ... not really doing anything?

 

 

Instead of giving a project by project accounting of all I've been doing in the past four months - Has it been that long? Really self?? Really??? - I decided to go with a quick stat rundown of projects since my last post

Existing WIPs finished - ummmmm ... none. And I had been doing so well!

BUT

Existing WIPs worked on (which is half the battle!) - 4 - most happy that my Sherlock blanket has one new square and I'm halfway through a pattern I worked up for another.

WIPs frogged - 1 - one of the secret bag projects. It was a sock with a really cool looking beaded pattern, but when I finished knitting the first one I realized it was just Not Comfortable. I may adapt the pattern for a hat band or something though.

New projects started AND finished - 5 - it really helped that Christmas fell during my blog silence. Even with only knitting for a handful of special people, it did give me a firm deadline for those projects.

New projects started and then wandered off from - 1 - and I don't reeeeally count it. It's just a washcloth, and I needed something to grab and work on while sitting around waiting. It'll be there next time I need to sit around and wait to. Washcloths are good that way, they don't judge.

New hobbies picked up - 1 - got a pin loom for Christmas (to me, from me, with all the love in the world - me) I wanted to play at weaving and make some placemats/coasters whatever, but not get as serious as Actual Weaving with the giant loom and all. It's pretty fun, and like those washcloths is easy to pick up and put down so that's always nice to have waiting for you.

 

 

And that's basically it. I'm afraid I haven't been all that exciting lately, which made updating here easier and easier to push off. In keeping with the whole procrastination deal, I have made a couple craft related resolutions. A couple weeks late, of course.

First - to update here at least once a month. Even if no one is reading, it helps keep me on track. Plus, how hard can it be to find a little time once a month, right?

Second - to actually finish the giant playmat that I had hoped to this year. It is soooo far from done. This might be a strain, but I really would like to have it done for my nieces before they are grown and have kids of their own

Third - and this is more me being brave and putting myself out there, than actually being difficult - remember the mittens I made for a swap over a year ago? This year I am going to actually finish writing up that pattern with the tweaks I still want to make, and submit it to the Knit picks IDP program. Washington's screwy sales tax laws make it confusing to try and sell a pattern on my own, but if I go through KP they deal with that bit. I don't know if they'll take it, but it can't hurt to try.

Forth and final - end the year with under a dozen WIPs. You'd think this would be easy for me. You'd be wrong. Yes a dozen is a lot, but I am almost always above that. Even now - with the fourteen I have going right now - there are still a handful of patterns I am having to work really hard to resist casting on immediately.

So there are my, hopefully attainable, resolutions for the year. Wish me luck!

 

 

And it feels weird to have a post with no pictures, so I'll share one of the Christmas presents. The one I. Was most happy with - the dinosaur picked out by BFs nephew (pattern from Huge and Hugable Mochimochi)

 

As you can see, I had a little fun playing around with and posing with this guy before gifting. Even made him that pretend library book to go along with his look of terror -

 

 

Don't worry, he doesn't always look that scared! When his tongue sticks out he looks positively silly, and he can even smile a little -

 

And look at his funny fat tail, cute as can be

 

The first picture has been uploaded to the designers flickr group, so with any luck I'll be back here linking and asking for votes in next year's photo contest. Hopefully - I think he's cute enough to have a chance!

 

 

 

 

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