WIP Wednesday - January Edition

Time flies and suddenly it's been MORE THAN THREE MONTHS since I did one of these last!!! Woah.... Granted, I haven't actually been crafting all that much recently (I've rediscovered my love of doing jigsaw puzzles :-D ), but still have managed to finish quite a few things and have MORE than a few things on the needles :-) Off the Needles I started the Fiesta Mandala Square during the last lockdown as I needed something challenging. It served the purpose nicely, and I learned a lot of new crochet terms. I have NO idea what to do with the finished object though, as it's not really useful for anything. Too bumpy to be a doily, wrong kind of yarn to expand into a blanket, too large to be a pillowcase :-P Ah well, sometimes it definitely is the process rather than the product that matters.

Our neighbours had a baby girl this past November, so obviously I had to make something for her. I loved the Zork I made for Nora (every girl needs an alien), so decided on another of those :-D It flew off the hook and was finished in no time.

Nina had asked me to add a bit of neckline to the Santa Plum cardigan, as it was too wide, so I got it back in October and added 2-3 cm of garter to the neckline - decreasing a bit along the way to draw it in some. She was supposed to try it on before I cast off when they came over for Christmas, but COVID happened, so we had to ship off the presents instead - meaning I found myself one morning rushing to cast off all the stitches before work, so Mum could come pick it up and add to the parcel.

Nina told me that Christian keeps stealing the hat I knit for Jordan last winter, and asked me if I'd knit one for him as well. Of course I said yes! (See above re. being knitworthy). So this is my third time using my own design as a baseline and adding new patterns to the colourwork! It is such a quick knit - I cast on Sunday and cast off yesterday!

On the Needles My Veneto Sweater is STILL on the needles. I could have finished it several times over, but keep getting sidetracked by other projects. Really silly as I can't WAIT to finish it, and am only missing 1.5 sleeves! Could finish in about a week if I stuck to it :-P I'm really loving how it's turning out!

One of the things I've gotten sidetracked by is a vest for Henriette. It's the most amazingly soft yarn ever, so even though the vest has tons and tons of cables (each row takes me about 15 minutes) I'm really enjoying working on it! The pattern was originally written to be knit in pieces, but that seemed silly, so I adapted it to knit in one piece instead. Took a bit of yarn management when I got to the pockets, but I made it work :-D

Mum and dad got me a cross-stitch kit for Christmas. I used to do HEAPS of cross-stitch, but gave it up 10-12 years ago as it's really not very useful. However, I stumbled across this kit for a pillowcase with owls over the summer and could not stop thinking about it! I'd already decided that if I didn't get it for Christmas, I'd go out and purchase it myself, so was VERY chuffed to unwrap it :-D I started pretty much right away, and have been working diligently at it. Each owl background takes me 2-3 hours, but I'm finally almost done and can soon move on to the detailing. I'd forgotten how much I love doing embroidery! May have to pick up some of my old kits again, even if it does take time away from my other crafting.

Awhile back I came across some gorgeous yarn that just screamed "Nina!" at me. It took awhile for us to find the perfect pattern for it, but with the fiesta square under my belt I finally felt ready to tackle a crochet shawl, and got started this past weekend.

Finally, Liz and I decided to join a CAL (Crochet-A-Long) together. It's a design for an afghan made up of 25 squares, with one square being published each week. The pattern for the third square will be made available later today, and I'm really enjoying working on it. The yarn is just cheap acrylic, but surprisingly good quality - really yummy to work with and SO soft! Can't wait to see the finished project.