And For My Next Trick...

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An Updated Current Projects List

Things have been moving slowly here in craft-land. I'm all caught up in the end-of-the-semester rush and have been enjoying a few too many novels to have lots of knitting time. I did, however, find time to finish and start a few projects:

The Ripple Afghan is finished. Actually, it's more of a lap-ghan due to the fact that I ran out of yarn. It is still quite useful and I really enjoyed falling into the rhythm of crochet. I have some pregnant friends who might be getting rippled baby blankets this summer.

The Greensleeves Wrap from Wrap Style has been frogged. I really liked the design on this, but I don't know if I will wear it as much as a regular sweater made out of the same yarn. Plus, reading a number of EZ books has me inspired to try an EPS sweater.

I did have time to start a new project, some Snicket-inspired Socks. I am using the main cable motif from the pattern, and working them toe-up instead of cuff-down. For yarn, I am using hand-spun Merino, in the Mardi Gras colorway from Lisa Souza. My thickness is still a little uneven, but the socks are knitting up nicely.


Eventually, I hope to finish up my T-Shirt quilt, though that is bound to take a lot of time this summer. And my mind is already racing will all sorts of great summer knitting projects!

A Little Progress

First, I must show off the wool mentioned in the last post. It is still sitting in the corner waiting to be picked through, then I should be able to whisk it off to a local mill for spinning and carding.

Raw wool, in all of its glory
















The wool is not the only thing that has been neglected this week, in between long hours at work and a really good novel. My ripple blanket has made some significant progress since last pictured here, but has stalled in the last week as I have come to the end of my spare yarn. I think that I have enough oddballs left to make it into a square, so maybe its destiny is to be a baby blanket?

Currently measuring 3.3'x2.5'





















The ripples are not only hypnotic to the eye, but very soothing to crochet





















If you like what you see above, click on the Ripple Along link in the sidebar to see even more beautiful afghans made by crocheters more talented than myself. They are very inspiring!

It Smells Like Sheep In Here!

So, I attend school with this really nice guy from northern Wisconsin. About the time he decided to attend graduate school, his parents decided that they needed to find a way to combat an empty nest. So they got a sheep; mind you, they are not farmers. Soon one sheep become two, and so on and so forth until they arrived at the current fifteen.

Well, somehow word got around that I knit and spin, and my friend conveyed to me his parent's new found love for sheep. It must have been the gleam in my eyes that sparked the idea that his parents needed to donate wool. That idea came to fruition this week when I received two bags of freshly-shorn wool.

If it weren't totally smelly and dirty, I would totally stick my face in it. Ah wool! Anyway, I need to find time to pick through it before sending it to a local mill to be cleaned and carded. And then I will stick my face in it.

I Am A Crafting Machine

FINISHED:

The Golden Clutch
Have had lots of positive comments about this clutch. It is a wonder that it took me so long to sew a lining and zipper in, but the finishing touches are worth it.



PC Bag
A handsewn bag to ferry my laptop to and from work. Much less bulky that my laptop case and super cute to boot! Made from quilted fabric and twill tape, with 3 snap closures.


The Wheel In Motion Skein
After 4 months lying dormant, my spinning wheel is up and running. In just four nights of spinning and one of plying, I have my very first wheel-spun skein. Describing my wheel in one word: Fabulous!!!


STARTED:

Ripple Afghan
With no knitting ideas floating around my head at the moment, I thought that I would jump on the crochet Ripple bandwagon. Plus, it gives me something to do with my huge pile of scrap yarn.

DG Afghan

After making 6"x6" squares for 4 months, the DG afghan is finally finished! And just in time to be auctioned off this weekend.

My friend Jane and I starting sewing the squares up on Friday evening to ready the quilt for its debut on Saturday. Little did we know that this was going to be an 8 hour task! Three movies and a couple of PB&Js later, we had a quilt! I am just glad that the it is done and I can start working on more interesting projects.

Jane sews squares together

The finished quilt

Jane's beautiful lace border

I also had some time this weekend to finish some old projects and start an exciting new one, though pictures and stories will have to wait until the next post. SPOILER: No more drop-spindling, I need to break in the wheel!

The Oven and The Sewing-Machine

While the oven was my medium of choice for my last post, I've switched my attention to the sewing machine this week. My sewing machine was inherented from my Mother, an old Singer machine that she recieved as a college graduation gift and subsequently passed onto me during my college years. It is still in good working order and was quite handy in fixing all of the holes that had developed in my clothes since I last got it out.

In addition to mending a few items, I performed a little surgery on a T-shirt I won at the bar the other week. As exciting as it is to get free stuff, the XL nature of free T-shirts usually has me passing them to the fiance rather than swimming in them myself.

The free XL Jack Daniel's shirt I won at the bar

However, I saw a link on the Craftzine blog to a tutorial on how to make T-shirt pants, a perfect use for my free bar shirt. I must say that these pants are SUPER comfortable! I would only mention that it probably best to follow directions for the waist, as I am not 100% happy with the two versions I tried.

The resulting pants are super cute and comfortable!

In the knitting world, I finished my second Monkey sock!!! I'm now in a race to finish this DG afghan by Saturday, when it will be auctioned off. I need to do a 12"x12" section and a few more 3"x6" sections before it can all be sewn together. It should be doable.

And my final creation of the week was made last night in the kitchen--a batch of Maple-Walnut cupcakes from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook. My roommate called them 'muffcakes' as the walnuts make them very muffiny, but they are still delicious. The only thing I did not like about them was the really buttery taste of the icing; I don't think that both sticks were really necessary.

Yummy muffcakes...

Have a good week and happy crafting!