What's On My Hook...September
Don't you just hate it when people harp on about how they haven't blogged for ages?...me too, so, moving right along...
I feel like we are hitting prime crochet/knit season which can only mean one thing...I want to start all the projects! This is not working out well for me as I have a couple of long standing WIPs that really need to get finished. Possibly my longest running WIP (lets just ignore all those crochet blankets shall we) is my Caravan of Love Shawl (pattern: Potter and Bloom). This was making great progress at one stage but now that my rows are pretty long it feels like I'm getting nowhere fast.
So a deadline has been set, Yarndale! The plan is for this shawl to keep me snuggly and warm as I wander round a rather chilly cattle market squishing (and trying not to buy) all the yarn.
Seeing as it is almost shawl season I have another one on the go (and another two planned!). I've just finished the main body on my Rapture Shawl (pattern:Zeens and Roger) and am about to start the rather daunting looking border. I have used two of my own colourways for this (San Francisco Bay and California Dreaming) and am super pleased with how they've both worked up. The third colour is a Speckled Singles Uru Yarn that I got with my Knit Crate subscription last month. I feel like it gives just the right level of colour pop in between my two colourways, what do you think?
Socks, socks, socks...why can't I finish a pair?! I have an embarrassing amount of both finished and half finished crochet and knitted socks but not a matching pair among them. I would love to say that this photo shows the only sock WIPs I have on the go, I just couldn't fit the rest in the photo!
The reason for this sock mania is that I have finally cracked knitting a sock and so have simply not stopped for fear of forgetting how to do it! I've now made two (unmatching) socks using Winwick Mum's Basic Sock pattern, what a life saver this pattern and her amazingly helpful tutorials are! If you are a newbie knitter like me, with aspirations of a sock drawer full of knitted socks, you need to check out her Sockalong tutorials. The sock below was created in my Beach Huts colourway and I am in absolute love with it, I mean, check out that toe (I did a little dance when I finished the kitchener stitch on this!).
Are you taking part in the SockalongCAL2018 hosted by Fay of the Crochet Circle Podcast? I'm hoping it will spur me on to actually get some of these socks finished! Both crochet and knit socks are allowed and the CAL runs from 29th September till the 31st October, plenty of time to finish a pair...right?! Check out her podcast to find out more, or head over to the Ravelry as there is a wealth of sock info to be found there if you ever get stuck (as I frequently do).
Another project that has been getting a lot of my time recently is this scrap blanket (pattern: Battenburg Blanket by Cherry Heart). As soon as I saw Sandra feature her blanket on her podcast I knew I had to start one as I'm a bit of a sucker for blankets and always looking for an excuse to add another to the pile. I've never seen a blanket using sock yarn before and the thought of just how many squares I will have to make to create a half decent size blanket is somewhat overwhelming but just look at how gorgeously this is working up already.
It's such a great way to use up leftover sock yarn and display beautiful hand dyed yarns. I've already got a fair few of my own colourways in there but am mixing in squares from all my favourite indie dyers. I'm using undyed yarn to complete the chequerboard effect to allow the hand dyed colours to shine and stand out.
Last up (what a lie!) is a crochet hat I am working on and, again, trying to finish before Yarndale. I'm hoping this won't be too much trouble as it is working up super fast. The Skipton Hat is a pattern by Vicki Brown which she created on a train trip to...yep, you guessed it, Skipton! The pattern calls for DK weight yarn but I am using two strands of sock weight yarn, both my own colours, to get a really interesting effect.
The hat is meant to be a slouchy, relaxed fit but I have to admit my first go at making this hat (without doing a gauge swatch) resulted in a hat that was so slouchy it was falling off my head. Serves me right for ignoring the guage! Now on my second go I have modified the stitch count to give a tighter fit on the head band whilst still keeping the slouchy-ness! Hopefully this will be keeping my head nice and warm at Yarndale. Are you going to Yarndale this year? I'm hoping to feel a little less overwhelmed by it all after my first trip last year.
Did I mention I've also just bought one of Iron Lamb's crochet patterns to make a cardigan? So much yarn, so little time.