WIP Wednesday 30

I've had such a hectic week this week, I realise today I've not posted since last Thursday. I had no finished work to share on Friday, so missed out on Tami's FO Friday linky. It felt really odd to not be posting!

The weekend was a busy one, as our old housemate came to visit. He comes to visit at least once during the Six Nations, and we chill out in front of the TV watching the rugby, drinking beer, eating pizza and staying up way too late playing Arkham Horror.

Despite the busy weekend, and not having a project of suitable size to take to roleplay night yesterday, I have made plenty of progress this week on my outstanding WIPs.

Granny Rectangle Blanket (Ravelry project page here)

I actually worked on it this week! Each round is getting longer to complete as it grows; we're up to 46 rounds now and showing no sign of reaching the finished measurements yet (I don't know exactly what those measurements will be - eventually I will reach a stage where I throw it over the sofa and declare it "big enough").


Not this sofa. The big sofa.

 Progress is slowed by the fact that I keep running out of the colour I'm working on; I recently stocked up on more of the colours, but neglected to buy another black ball. Predictably, work on the blanket ground to a halt towards the end of last week when I ran out of black.

It's so bright and colourful. I love it!

The blanket has also caused a casualty - I broke one of my two 6mm crochet hooks on it this week. They are cheap plastic Pony brand hooks from Hobbycraft, and I have to say I have abused this one a bit on this project, so I am not surprised it has snapped.


Ooops

 Super Secret Project (Ravelry project page here)

My super secret project is finished! Thanks to all you lovely ladies for your blocking advice last week - I pinned it out and sprayed it on Sunday, and unpinned it from the board yesterday, and it looks fab. I haven't gifted it yet, though, so probably not going to appear on the blog until next week's FO Friday post.

My first socks (Ravelry project page here)

Slow going on these, I'm still on the foot section, but about an inch away from reaching the complicated bit, where somehow a heel is going to appear. It looks huge at the moment, but I have generously decided to make these to fit J, and they look like they are the right size for that.

Avalon Top (Ravelry project page here)

I have made solid progress here. Last week I was just finishing off the yoke and preparing to start the body. I took it along to roleplay night on Thursday, and made a good start to it.



Once you get into the rhythm of the body pattern repeat, it is mindless crocheting, very straight-forward. I have seen on a number of project pages for this pattern people complaining about how boring this part is in comparison to the yoke motifs, but I quite like it. By the time you are done with the yoke, you are ready to relax into mindless pattern repeats, and it crochets up so quickly you've done 15 rounds before you know it, and are ready to get complicated again with the trim, which is a version of the same pattern used in the motifs.



Front!



Back!

  

Obligatory "me modelling clothes" shot

 Once I'd finished the body section, I decided to have a break before starting the arms, as the arms are just narrower versions of the body so will be very easy but also rather dull, I suspect. So I started looking for another project to "cast on" (is there a crochet version of this term?). I've got a few lined up that I'm going to be working on in the near future, but couldn't start anything from the list because I didn't have the materials for any of it yet. So I turned to a spot of stash busting.

Sadly, I don't have much of a stash at the moment. All the yarn I have bought has been intended for a specific project, so all I have is leftovers from those. I really didn't fancy doing something pointless with my bright orange Sirdar Bonus DK, and want to save the rest of the pale yellow DK for a bigger project, as I've got a fair amount of it left. Then my eyes lighted on the Patons Fairytale Dreamtime 4ply I had left over from the Time In Lobster project. This was yarn I'd bought back when I didn't really know much about different yarns, and I'd just picked it on the basis that it was the right colour and looked about the right thickness (I had previously used Patons Fairytale Colour 4 Me DK in the Time Out Crab) although I realise now just how different the two yarns are!

It seemed like such a waste to leave the rest of this yarn just sitting on the shelf, so I started hunting through Ravelry to find a project I could use it up on. The pattern I kept coming back to was one already on my queue, the Afternoon Tea fingerless gloves from Crochet Insider. I've had my eye on them for a while, as I want to make a pair I can wear when at LARP, to keep my hands warm but still look vaguely in-character. I had planned to make them from Patons 100% Cotton 4ply with a 2.5mm hook, as per this project on Ravelry by Kianie.

So I thought I'd give it a go using my stash yarn, and a 3.5mm hook (the smallest I had).

My first gloves (Ravelry project page here)

I love this pattern. So quick! So easy! So pretty! Although I will admit to a certain amount of dismay when I reached the main body of the glove, and realised those stacked arches were the same as the ones on the Avalon top that I'd wanted to take a break from!
  

Curse you, stacked arches!


The first glove made up really quickly. But then I was faced with an awful decision. I had run out of yarn. I could start glove 2, but I wouldn't be able to finish it. I'd get the cuff done, at most. I had two choices. Buy more Fairytale Dreamtime and have a pair in blue wool for personal use, and make the LRP ones at a later date, or rip these out, use the Dreamtime for something else, and go buy the 100% Cotton and a smaller hook?
 

Look at the pretty! How could I not want to finish the pair?

 I did try to be sensible about it. I went to Hobbycraft, where I know they stock both yarns, and spent what felt like an age kneeling in the aisle, trying to choose a colour. The problem was, they stock far more colours for the 100% Cotton DK than for the 4ply. The colour I really liked, indigo, was only there in the DK.

In the end, I decided to go away and look online, and find a supplier who had all the colours in the 4ply, so I could choose something I would be happy with, as I really didn't want to have to fall back on black. But, to compromise with the delay, I bought another ball of Dreamtime in blue, so I could finish this pair as well!

All that remains is finding the right buttons, attaching them, making button loops and a gentle block to straighten out the stitches and open up the cuffs a little.

Meanwhile, I went online to PurpleLindaCrafts and ordered myself a ball of the 100% Cotton 4ply in indigo. Even faced with a full colour range, I opted for the colour I had already seen in the shop. The difference in colour between the fuschia in shop and on screen made me wary of trusting the other photos, but maybe it's just that purply/pinky yarns are difficult to photograph. While I was there, I also picked up 4 balls of yellow crochet cotton and a tiny metal crochet hook - filet crochet is going to be featuring in my future very soon! But more on that in another post. I've rambled on for long enough.

Don't forget to head on over to Tami's blog and check out everyone else's amazing work.