Updates

Well, I got that shawl done with plenty of time to spare.

Here's a little preview for you.

I haven't managed to get a moment to go take proper pictures yet. Especially because I need John's help and he has to work.

But it did get done! And even came in handy Saturday night when it was a little chilly.

So, now I've moved on to yet another project with a quick turn-around time.

Steph and Brad's wedding is coming up and... you already know is going.

I HAVE to knit a new shawl in time, don't I?

I have until September 15th, though. So it's a little bit more wiggle room.

I'm using that lovely speckled yarn I got at the last pj party.

I do have to get another color to go with it because the pattern I picked uses two colors. I looked in the stash, but I don't really have anything in the right color/weight/fiber. So... guess I'll be putting an order into Jimmy Beans.

Bless them and their incredibly fast shipping, enabling my last-minute knitting madness.

Big Plans

Great Trails is nearly upon us. 

And with it comes a crap ton of last minute planning, especially because we weren't sure we were even going to be able to do it this year. 

And of course because I'm me, I decided that I HAD to have a thicker shawl to wear in the evenings when it gets pretty cold at camp.

So, I grabbed that grey bulky weight yarn from the Great Lakes Fiber Show...

Wound it up into balls bigger than my head...

Then promptly went pattern hunting. 

Of course, I couldn't find anything I even remotely liked that I had enough yardage for, so...

I sketched out an idea, did some quick math, and promptly got to work.

The goal is as big and squishy as I can get using as much of the yarn as possible. 

And I have to have it all done by Thursday...

Ain't no party like an Ashatning party because an Ashtaning party don't stop until it's 3am and I only have 8 more rows and a bind-off and who really needs sleep anyway and can I block this on the bed and still be able to sleep on it?

I've only been working on it for a few days, but it looks promising. 

I started it the 17th and got through the first ball yesterday. I didn't get as much done over the weekend as I'd hoped since we were setting up. And it's going a little bit slower, too, because the plan is to eventually release it as a pattern on Ravelry. 

I've given it the tentative name of Squish Squash.

I'm probably halfway through ball two now and am going to have to decide soon if I'll have enough for six body repeats, or play it safe at five. I was aiming for seven, but I can't really afford to lose at yarn chicken.

I suppose I should actually get back to working on this thing, but let me leave you off with a little bit about this yarn.

It is not very soft, it is NOT very strong, it smells like machine oil, and I have spent So. Much. Time. picking bits of vegetation out of it. And feathers! There are damn feathers spun into it!

See that little white bit by the brown?

Yep, pretty sure it's a chicken feather.

I don't think it can hold up to frogging, which is why the one cable up there looks a wee bit funny. I accidentally missed two rows in the repeat, but I didn't want to accidentally rip the yarn when trying to frog.

The stitch definition is terrible. 

But...

My god, this thing is so damned thick. 

I'm hoping and praying (Henry, counting on you) that once it's washed (assuming that it doesn't just dissolve in water) and blocked (assuming that it doesn't tear) that it's going to do exactly what I need it to and keep me (and let's be honest, probably mostly John) toasty AF at camp.

So, little grey wool and cotton buddies, don't let me down.

A Fade-bled Project

Some patterns tend to take the knitting world by storm. The Bee Keeper's Quilt, Hitchiker, Wingspan, Jaywalker Socks... all things that everyone seemed to be casting on at once in the thousands.

In late 2016/early 2017 THE THING to be knitting was a shawl known as Find Your Fade. Minimal lace work, almost no purling, absolutely massive, AND it was written using 7 different colors. Dyers everywhere started making Fade kits in droves and ravelry was just filled with people's projects.

At the time, I didn't really want to make one. It didn't really appeal to me. Not to mention the very real concern that my loose knitting would mean I'd end up with a finished object that would better be served as a sail rather than a shawl. So I gave it a hard pass.

Well, until this year at least.

After finishing Mojito and wanting to sob from all the intricacy, I needed something plain to soothe my poor battered soul. I started pulling skeins out, looking for inspiration, and loved the idea of using a bunch of colors, but didn't want to do actual color work. My brain snapped to Fade and I decided why the hell not.

It was intended to be a long-term, travel project. Instead, it became the only thing I wanted to work on. I was also deep into planning for the D&D campaign and my character ( a tiefling bard named Aralith) had a whole fire and water thing going for her, so this shawl quickly became Aralith's shawl.

It took me quite a while to finish it, as I've said in a previous post. But last Wednesday (at 3 in the morning, mind you) I finished my bind-off and finally laid Fade out.

And...

Well....

I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

When I measured it before blocking, it was already 112 inches wide.

I really shouldn't have been all that surprised since I really should have been using something like a size 2 needle instead of my usual 4's.

But could you imagine doing a large scale fingering weight project on the knitting equivalent to toothpicks?

Blocking itself was a total nightmare, with nothing going right, and a frustrating lack of room. It was the closest I ever came to having a total meltdown and just throwing a whole damn project out.

It's final measurement was a whopping 12 feet and 8 inches wide.

At first, I was angry and upset and just so damn frustrated. How the bloody hell was I supposed to wear this thing?! But as I kept playing around with it, draping it in different ways, I figured out exactly what this was.

This was FUN.

Listen, this thing is absolutely ridiculous. It's never going to function as a "proper" shawl. But it IS just so dang enjoyable to toss around me in various dramatic ways.

It's great for tossing around multiple people, too. Especially ones you like to snuggle with.

And I just absolutely ADORE the way all of the colors work together.

Especially because this shawl was 5/7ths stash yarn.

It also fits my character perfectly, but alas, I can't say too much since my party reads my blog.

So thank you, Fade, for being as ridiculous and over-the-top as your creator.

Stars know we could use some levity in our lives right now.

P.S. Isn't my new letter board totally awesome?! I can't wait for the various shenanigans that the possibilities of this board holds.

Taking a Bullet at Journaling... Wait a Sec...

So, if any of you know me half as well as you think, you could say that I'm... less than organized. That may be the kindest phrasing.

I like the idea of organization and keeping my life on track, but I'm shit at it. "Daily journaling" becomes "day of journaling," and then is never thought about again.

Well, at least until I see a new pretty journal that I HAVE to have, as the basket of mostly empty ones beside my bed will attest to.

So when the bullet journal fad kept popping up in my social media, I thought "ooooooooh, new thing!" immediately followed by, "for a week."

I wasn't going to participate. Nope, not me! No sense in it!

But it kept nagging me. That little voice in the back of my head started really trying to convince me. And then it pretty much sold me when it pointed out that we could rope John into it, too.

I had bought myself one of the famed dot grid notebooks a while back, intending on using it for knitting projects.

For those of you not in the know, you always have to give the 'specs on your set-up for your fellow bujo junkies. This baby right here is a Dingbats A5+ Dot Grid Notebook in Green Deer. And it's been serving me well.

My first weekly spread (spread is the lingo for them fancy cohesive layouts you make across a pair of page) was inspired by one I saw on reddit.

Of course, I put my own spin on it. The original was black and white and the doodles were completely different. But I was still pretty impressed with myself.

Then I started buying all the bits and bobs that go along with it, including these adorable cactus stamps.

I also got a nice set of fine liners in 36 different colors off of Amazon. I was a little nervous about them, especially for being so cheap, but I've been pleasantly surprised.

This week's spread was done entirely with them.

But it's not just weekly planning that I'm using my journal for. Take a look at my Fade spread.

Which, by the way, is now OUT OF DATE!

That's right! I finished the monster. But you'll have to wait for that one.

If the weather holds up, I'm hoping to be able to take pics this weekend.

Guess I should go add that to my bullet journal now.