Project 4: Patchwork Square #26

I'll warn you right now - some of you might think this is cheating.

I kind of agree.

But, I have to make rules somehow, and so I'm sort of using some of the rules from the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup, which allow modular pieces of a larger project as a complete project if they are (or add up to) over 64 square inches (an 8 x 8 square).

Pattern: Square #26, Simple Shell Stitch, from 63 Easy-To-Crochet Pattern Stitches

Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver, worsted-weight 100% acrylic in country blue (not pictured) and soft navy, and Red Heart Giant (same yarn, bigger skein) in aran

Needles: Size I/5.50mm crochet hook

Yards: 67.7 by weight

Ravelry page (for the whole project)

Mods: I had to tweak the second row of shells to get them to line up correctly. The directions had them one stitch off, at least I think they did, so I had to fix that.

Not a bad start, and using these squares to fill in some classes will be a great way to motivate me to finish it and not leave it as a pile of squares forever!

Project 3: Summer Flies

I made a belated (oops) Christmas gift that just got finished a couple days ago. It's a free knitting pattern - the Summer Flies shawlette, knit in a worsted weight superwash wool.

Pattern: Summer Flies

Yarn: Queensland Collection Super Aussie, a superwash worsted-weight merino wool

Needles: size 8/5.00 mm Knit Picks Options, nickel plated

Yards: 194

Ravelry page

Mods: Instead of knitting ten rows in stockinette at the end I only knit eight, hoping to use a little less yarn. I ended up having to join a new ball of yarn about 40% of the way through the picot bind-off anyway. (Note: I'd started with a partial ball, so I only used about 1 3/4 balls of yarn total and if I'd started with a full one I wouldn't have run out during the bind-off.)

Project 2: Ribby Toque

I bought the yarn to make Paul a hat and finally got around to it. The pattern, Ribby Toque, is from the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of Knitscene. The yarn is Knit Picks Swish worsted in Truffle (a nice chocolate brown color) and using size 8/5.0mm needles I used almost an entire ball of yarn at 103.4 yards (by weight).

I was careful in weaving in the ends so that the hat is reversible too!

Borrowed a different model...

Inside-out...

Regular-side-out....

and

THERE'S a good picture

December Stashdown Report and Final Summary

December - the month that's a whirlwind, and before you know it it's over. I bought yarn on December 1 and that was actually my last purchase through today. I'm trying not to pay too much attention to the accomplishment lest I ruin it just to spite myself.

Of course, December 1 was a busy day with some lovely laceweight and some other goodies half off.

So, we'll see how long this streak goes. I'm not counting my Alina Shea club yarns as purchases, not only because the payment for 3 months was prior to Dec 1 (I think) but also just because.

December yarn in: 4,544 yards
December yarn out: 103 yards .... dismal

September to December challenge in: 22,437 yards
September to December challenge out: 3,846.2 yards
Break Even in 18,590.8 yards

2010 Final Yarn In: 71,295.25 yards
2010 Final Yarn Out: 15,801.8 yards

2010 Yarn In - Yarn Out: 55,493.45 yards

Errrr. Maybe it will look better as a graph?

Hmmm. Nope. That green line was supposed to be on top of the blue line. Those equations on the side there boil down to saying that on average I used up 44.3 yards of yarn per day and on average gained 197.65 yards per day. That's the most sobering statistic of all, I think.

Biggest Yarn-In Day: November 22; 99 cent skeins of wool = downfall to the tune of 7,360 yards

Biggest Yarn-Out Day: March 29; finished a blanket 3,531 yards

In 2011, I am choosing to focus on what I accomplish instead of the negative side of what's coming home with me, because this tactic didn't exactly help in 2010. S0! The new for 2011 goals: make lots of stuff, don't worry about buying yarn, but I think I will keep up the reporting. I really like spreadsheets. If I see something that I want to buy, that's fine. If I don't that's fine too. I'm wondering how long I can go...

November Stashdown Report

There was a sale. I've since unsubscribed to the technology that alerted me to the 99 cent skeins of lovely wool, but the damage was already done... Looking back, I definitely just gave up in November. Not that I didn't give up in the months before, but this time it was obvious.

Ironically, December fared much better.

November yarn in: 8,990 yards
November yarn out: 1,102.3 yards

September to December challenge in: 17,893 yards
September to December challenge out: 3,743.2 yards
Break Even in 14,149.8 yards

Year-to-date in: 66,751.255 yards
Year-to-date out: 15,698.8 yards

Project 1: Orange Squeeze handspun

Here it is - my first finished object of 2011.

It's about 1oz of superwash BFL, spun into a continuous single, wound into a center-pull ball, the inside and outside ends held together and wound into a plying ball (on an tennis ball) and then plied. The plying ball was interesting in a tangly sort of way, but I would try it again at some point in the future.

29g
51 yards

12 wpi (dk weight)

The fiber (I dyed this one myself):

My stash page on Ravelry.

Not that easy

Hello, again.

If you thought you'd escaped the endless torment of my blog, think again, because I am BACK! My friend in all things fibery Pacasha and I are steamrolling through 2011 with a ridiculous goal. A goal so absurd that our group dedicated to the cause on Ravelry has 203 members, all just as crazy as we are. We are testing the boundaries of sanity and attempting to finish 111 crafty endeavors in the year 2011.

We WILL finish 111 projects in 2011.

That's one project every 3.29 days.

One project every 3 days, 6 hours, 55 minutes, and 8 seconds.

Alternatively, 30.4% of a project per day.

Because, well, it's good to have goals...

To keep track of things, each project will have its own post here on the blog with the vital statistics, and will only be numbered once it is FINISHED. I'll have a page to track them up at the top there. I've already got a few waiting in the wings for their moment to shine, so best to get going I think!