Year of Projects 4: 11 January update

It's been a while since I updated on my progress of my fourth Year of Projects (in fact, I haven't updated at all since I posted my list and first post back in July... ooops!). While I've been pretty busy over the summer/autumn, and haven't had much time to blog, I have been working on things and making some progress towards my goals.

Firstly, the outstanding WIPs that needed finishing. I still haven't got around to blocking Peerie Flooers, which is quite frankly becoming embarrassing. It has now been two years since this hat came off my needles. Two years! I simply must get round to it soon - I don't want to be carrying this forward to the fifth Year of Projects in July.

Chunari is currently hibernating. With no firm due date in mind, and no real idea as to when I will ever wear it once it is finished, there really is no incentive to get it finished. Which is something of a shame, as I am sure it will be stunning once completed.

However, I do have one completed WIP from last year's list! My Knotty Gloves were started in February 2014, and I knit all but the thumb of the first glove before losing interest and moving on to something else. At Christmas, I was inspired to pick them back up again (the influence of one of my knitterly friends, who was staying with us over the holiday) and in less than two days I finished off the first glove, and successfully completed the second!

The yarn is Knit Picks Palette in Serrano, and I used less than one ball. If I'd been paying more attention, I would have reversed the cables on the second glove so they were a matching pair. As it was, I had to rip them back and start over due to not paying enough attention, so I think if I'd been trying to reverse the chart as well I would have made a lot more mistakes!

There were a lot of socks and shawls on my list this year, probably more than I will now have time to finish, since we are less than six months away from the end of this challenge and we are only a few months away from a new LARP season! So far, though, I have managed to complete one shawl, and a hat (which replaces one of the shawls on the list), and have started on the first pair of socks!

Andalusia is another fabulous shawl from the wonderful Mimi Codd. After knitting Mrs Tumnus in 2013 I knew I would enjoy knitting another of Mimi's horseshoe shaped shawls. I used Zauberball for this one, in a rather vibrant pink colourway. Frustratingly, I ran out of yarn about four rows from the end, and had to order another ball. So instead of using up a ball from my stash, this shawl has actually had zero impact on the amount of yarn left on the shelves!

I had originally put the Spring Leaves scarf on my list with plans to use my Madeleinetosh Tosh Merino Light. However, the colouring in this yarn really doesn't match up well with lace patterns, and is much better suited to plain stocking stitch. So out went the scarf idea, and in came the Sockhead Hat. I've seen several of my knitting friends make this hat before, so I knew it would be a winner. The colours look amazing and it's incredibly warm for such a light yarn. I haven't blocked it, as I don't think it needs it. It is the perfect pattern for mindless knitting. No need to count rows or stitches till you get to the decreases; just row after row of effortless stocking stitch in the round. Perfect for knitting during a James Bond film marathon!

Starting on the endless list of socks (I think there are at least five pairs on the list!), I have opted for simple vanilla socks in this striking England colourway from Regia. I have plain white which I am using for the toes and heels, so the stripes stay consistent, as this is something I didn't do with my knee high socks and I don't like the way self-striping yarn goes a bit funny over the short row heel. So far, I am making good progress, as I only cast on yesterday and am already almost at the heel. The first time I made Wendy's Generic Toe Up Socks it took me ten days, so I'm hoping to knock these out in the next couple of weeks.

I'm fairly sure that unless something drastic changes, I will focus on the things on my list where a yarn and pattern have already been assigned. So socks, and probably one other shawl. I'm leaning towards Pogona at the moment, as a nice excuse to knit with Wollmeise again.

With respect to the nerdy section of my list, I have made relatively good progress there too. Of the four Doctor Who themed cross stitch charts I designed, two are now completed and just waiting for frames.

I've also finished the third of the Game of Thrones charts and am now deciding which one to tackle next. Something with a less complicated chart, I think, as this lion was tricky.

Finally, I got around to designing the chart for my Star Trek cushions, and started knitting the first one the other day. There is endless black stocking stitch to go before I get to the interesting bit though, so no progress pics of this one until it gets to the good stuff!

I was worried that I would come to review my progress so far and find I had done nothing at all, but considering everything else I've been up to, I don't think my progress is too disappointing. I just need to keep up the momentum now I've regained some of my urge to knit, and hopefully will have more to update with in the coming weeks.

Daleks in Manhatten

Back at the start of the month I shared the charts I had designed for my Doctor Who themed cross stitch art. I've been working on and off on the first chart, and I'm so pleased with how it's going.

How awesome do the Daleks look! I am even more excited about getting to the Tardis one now I've seen how well the charts are translating into a finished piece. It'll be a while before I get to that chart though, as I still have two more gold Daleks to stitch after I'm done with this one!

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Stuff

A couple of weeks ago, I was sat watching Doctor Who with my husband, and I had an Idea. What this house really needs is some Doctor Who themed art work on the walls. Now, I could be lazy, and just go and buy myself an Exploding Tardis Van Gogh poster, but where would be the fun in that! I want art that I can control.

It all really started when watching the end of the Rose Tyler story arc, when the Daleks and Cybermen confront each other in the Torchwood Tower. There's a fantastic bit of dialogue between the leaders of each of the races, both convinced of their own superiority.

Cyber Leader: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?

Dalek: Four

Cyber Leader: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?

Dalek: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect.

Cyber Leader: What is that?

Dalek: You are better at dying.

The Cult of Skaro are some of my favourite Doctor Who bad guys, and I wanted to immortalise their coolness in some way on my walls. I quickly sketched out an idea in my head, and suggested it to my husband. A set of four cross stitch panels, individually framed, featuring our favourite quotes from the series and some iconic imagery. After just a few hours, and several more episodes of Doctor Who, I had the basic charts figured out.

Only the Tardis is my original work, the rest is all borrowed from free charts I found on the internet, rearranged alongside the quotes I wanted to use. I used this cross stitch calculator to figure out how big my pictures would actually turn out to be, and luckily had a copy of the DMC catalogue to figure out the colours I'd need. On Sunday, we went to Hobbycraft and I picked up the supplies I needed.

I was only able to pick up two pieces of Aida, but managed to get every colour of thread I needed. I'll have plenty of time between now and when I finish the first two pieces to pick up two more. It's a very limited colour palette, but I think that will help keep the set looking coherent.

I did pretty well at choosing colours from the catalogue; only the blues and the dark grey are different to the colours I initially chose, as once I'd found them in the shop I didn't think they were the right colours. 

I decided to make a start straight away, and have started work on the main Cult of Skaro chart, which depicts the moment the rest of the Cult reject Dalek Sek's leadership.

I'm already completely in love with how it is turning out. Once I've finished up, I will tidy up the charts and publish them here as a downloadable PDF, so more people can have some Doctor Who love on their walls!

The War on WIPs

Ok, so I might not be as crazy as Keri (who, along with the Year of Projects, is now also planning to knit 26 pairs of socks in the same timeframe and has joined in another KAL on top of that), but I did discover another blog-a-long challenge that I am adding to the list for the forseeable future.





Over at Revelations of a Delusional Knitter, War has been declared on all those projects languishing in boxes, bags, drawers and otherwise hidden from view.

Now, unlike earlier in the year, when I had up to 10 WIPs on the go at once, things aren't quite so bad as they seem round here at the moment. I've got 5 active projects on Ravelry, of which three belong to the Year of Projects, so they don't really count for this. This is for old projects that have been abandoned.

Well, I have two of those. Regular readers will recognise them, and I'm sure will be keen to see them finished, given all the lovely comments they've received in past posts! There's also one other WIP, not a knitting or crochet one, which I'm going to add to the list because it's about bloody time it got finished.

First, it's Wand'ring Lonely, my poetry inspired filet crochet panel which I originally started thanks to the Craft-a-Poem challenge started by Lazy Knits and Purls. I've been working on this since the middle of March, and I'm only a third of the way through. I want this finished so I can frame it and put it up on the wall!

My other longstanding WIP is the Poncho Resurrection, which has looked like this for the last month, completely untouched following the making of the first three motifs. Out of 120. So there's a long way to go yet!

The final WIP I'm going to try and get finished is this cross stitch kit which I've been working on for an absolute age. I think it was meant to be a Christmas present, at least two Christmasses ago! All of the colour is done, what is taking the time is I decided to do the entire background as well, in white, and fill it out enough to frame it.

As you can see, I've still got a lot of white to do! It will definately need a good clean when it's finished, as you can also no doubt see, Jamie has spilled coffee on it at some point.

While my list of WIPs is not never-ending, I am hoping that having this obligation to make progress to report on will prevent these projects from being totally overwhelmed by my Year of Projects list! I believe the progress reporting day for the War on WIPs is Thursdays, but I may not stick to any sort of schedule on this, and just post updates as and when I have updates to make.