Hello, Internet!
Long time, no blog. It seems it's easier to say I'll blog every day when I'm bored over the summer than it is to do when I'm at school and running around like a headless chicken. Let's just say, 15 hrs of classes, 10-12 hours of work, and rehearsals 5 nights per week, every week makes for some interesting schedule juggling.
HOWEVER! My time has not been wasted, and I have lots of crafting progress to report :-)
First and foremost: I've finished one of my 3x1 ribbed socks out of the Plymouth Happy Feet!
Yaaaay! I stopped at the one because my shipment of regulation yarn from Socks for Soldiers had arrived and I got started on a pair of regulation socks!
That is a 12" leg right there! Rather impressive. And tedious, but it feels like I get more good karma every stitch :-)
Unfortunately, I keep putting off picking up stitches around the heel for the gusset, so I haven't gotten any farther than the heel flap. And started on the leg of the second sock. But then I got distracted by the arrival of yet ANOTHER shipment of lovely yarn! I ordered a bunch of yarn to make my brother's blanket 2.0 (the first attempt got lost and/or stolen by the US Postal Service. I'm still a little bitter.
Link to a post about blanket attempt #1 ). I got 3 skeins each of Black, Light Gray Heather, and Teal Red Heart Soft yarn. And here's the progress so far:
And a closeup:
It's a simple ripple afghan pattern, with 3 rows of each color. What you see in that picture is just about a whole skein of each color, so I'm worried it's gonna take way more yarn than I thought to finish. Is it too wide maybe? I guess I'll see. :-) I want him to have and enjoy this blanket forever and ever! So a few extra skeins are worth it. :-)
I hope to finish it by Christmas, so it will be his big gift this year. It seems like a lofty goal, but I've found a surprising amount of time to crochet. I'm Assistant Stage Managering (ASMing) for Vanderbilt Off Broadway (VOB)'s musical this year, Nine, and that means I have to be at every rehearsal (3 per week, about 3 hours each) to help out. Normally I don't do much other than help with line cues and move chairs around sometimes, so I have lots of time to crochet. :-) Also, I'm heading home on Saturday for Thanksgiving weekend, which will mean a whole week to crochet. :-) Unfortunately, my brother won't be able to come home for Thanksgiving (just a 4-day weekend, and it's not worth it to fly across the whole country for just 4 days), but that means I won't have to hide the blanket from him while he's there. :-)
I also bought yarn for some Harry Potter house scarves! I finished mine yesterday:
Using a skein each of Lion Brand's Vanna's Choice yarn in Brick and Mustard. I thought the colors would be weird when I saw them at first, but they look great together! I also got these:
for my friend Joe's xmas gift, a Hufflepuff scarf! That's Lion Brand babysoft in lemon and black. Now, my scarf was done in a hurry (for the movie premier tomorrow night. I'M SO EXCITED AND I'M DRESSING AS HERMIONE AND I CAN'T BELIEVE ITS ALREADY HERE AND I CAN'T CONCENTRATE ON HOMEWORK CUZ IM SO EXCITED YAAAAAY!!!!) so it's just plain ol' garter stitch the whole way along. Simple but I like it :-) It's also nice and warm, and pretty comfy for 100% acrylic yarn, and I haven't taken it off since I finished it last night in rehearsal ^^ Joe's scarf, on the other hand, will be knit (stockinette stitch) in the round all the way along and then flattened and tassel-ified so it looks more legit. :-) If you're on ravelry, follow
this link for the pattern.
Those are all of my current projects (other than the Vilai socks, which are hibernating). I've made some GORGEOUS impulse yarn purchases recently:
Those are two different colorways of Crystal Palace Yarns' Mini Mochi, turned in the picture to see all the color changes. Unfortunately, the light in my dorm is not that great, so the colors aren't quite true in the picture. But they're SO GORGEOUS and SUPER DOOPER SOFT (80% Merino, 20% Nylon MACHINE WASHABLE YAY) that I just couldn't resist. And I got 2 skeins of each colorway, and I have NO clue what I'm going to do with them. :-) For the purple/brown colorway (on the left), I was thinking of maybe some socks for yours truly, and the one on the left I haven't figured out yet. I was thinking maybe some arm warmers. My brother wants me to make him some armwarmers, but he wants super-long ones and made with all-natural fibers so he can wear them when he's spinning fire poi (don't know what that is? Check out this
Youtube video. It's phenomenal.) Then I thought maybe my sister would wear them. The colors are a little more neutral than she usually wears, but I think it could work. It's worth pondering, at any rate. :-)
Other than crafting, not a lot has been going on in my life. The usual school, work, and extracurriculars. I turned in my application on Monday for a summer study abroad program in Japan. It's a 2-month-long intensive language course in Kyoto, and it's pretty much PERFECT for me. So I stressed and stressed and stressed over the application, but then I submitted it on Monday:
YAAAY!
I get to go see the midnight premier of Harry Potter 7 tomorrow night at our local mall, for which I am SO INCREDIBLY excited, and I head home for Thanksgiving this Saturday (I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving!) and I will have a glorious weekend of relaxing, SLEEPING, crafting, cooking (YAY) and stuffing my face with yummy Thanksgiving food. :-)
And now it's off to homework and crocheting and sleep <3
Happy crafting,
~YoungKnitter
