Sheep On My Stuff

Would anyone be interested in beta-testing the Epic Bracers pattern? It will take about 100g (200 yards) of worsted-weight yarn, and is knit in the round.

On Tuesday I was so close to finishing the blanket project that I didn't post about it until it was done.

Today I was so close to finishing this project that… what do you know, I put it off until I could post about the completed item.

This is not a habit I should get into, but it's awfully fun when I have a finished project to post about!

So anyway: Here are a pair of epic purple bracers armwarmers, knit for a friend for warming of arms! Before I send them off, I'm going to see if I can get a mana restore enchant on them. The only problem is, I'm not sure Teu ever got that enchant… maybe a Major Stamina enchant would be just as good!

(Love and hearts to my favorite boomkin!)

Several marathon crocheting sessions later, it's done! The stripey blanket is finished, and it's big enough to cover the bed, which is awesome. (The nightstands are a little messy. Please forgive my excitement, which outweighed my desire to present a clean bedroom for photographs.)

This used 2040g of yarn. If only that were enough to actually start destashing. Ha! It isn't. But every little bit counts, and now I'm on to another project.

I got Handknitting With Meg Swansen for Christmas, and I've been obsessed with the idea of the Puzzle Blanket ever since. I thought about ordering wool for it, but then decided on Homespun — it makes soft blankets, so who cares if it's acrylic? And I've knit two bedspread-size blankets out of it, so it can't be that bad!

Well, that was what I thought until I tried knitting the first fifty stitches. My hands couldn't take the lack of stretch, and I quickly decided to shift gears and make something fast. What's fast? Crochet.

And so now I've got a crocheted blanket-in-progress to go with my Mystery-Blanket-In-Progress. Sigh. It is going quickly, though; I'm nearly halfway done with it. :)

Soap savers are wonderful for destashing purposes. I'm still trying to perfect the pattern — or rather, the number of stitches needed, and whether I should knit or crochet them — but I think I'm getting closer!

This is a bag made by chaining 11 stitches, 10 sc, then — without turning — make 10 sc in the other side of those stitches. Join into a round. 10-12 rounds of sc, then sc-ch2-skip next 2 sc-sc in next sc, repeat around. Two rounds of sc on the top. Ch-40 for a drawstring.

It seems really small, but with as much as cotton stretches when it's wet, it seems to fit my handmade soap just fine. Crochet is scrubby and provides some nice structure, so I'm finding it much better than knitting right now. We'll see how these hold up; I'll report back in after a few days of usage.

This was also a destashing project — I was able to destash the last 39g of my kitchen cotton on this project. Considering that I've brought 2000g of yarn into the house this year, and haven't finished any projects (so I haven't been able to mark anything off the stash list), anything is good!

When Grant and I went to New Zealand in 2005, for all that there were sheep everywhere, there were very few yarn shops that I could find. And the ones I could find were mostly commercial shops with mass-market yarn that I could have gotten at home. :( However, there were a couple of places where I was able to buy handspun yarn local to New Zealand. That was very exciting!

I finally used up the last of this yarn making a 1×1 rib scarf. I'm afraid the wool isn't very soft (it ain't Merino; my best guess is it's Romney, since that's what most sheep are there), and even a soak in Eucalan didn't make it really soft, but I could wear it out if it were cold, which is what I plan to do with it. :) I'm not giving this scarf to anyone; it's mine! It's a souvenir from the best vacation I've ever taken, and I'm really happy with it. :)

The first project of the new year: a soap saver. It was a tiny project that I did during downtime in raid. :)

The pattern is the Rainbow Soap Sack from the 2009 Knitting-Project-A-Day (Or So) Calendar. I picked that up at a bookstore today; at 50% off it seemed like quite the bargain. So far there are two patterns I'm interested in trying; this was the first, and a pair of socks for Grant will be the second.