Since I’ve basically been on vacation for the last 3 weeks, I never posted a wrap up post for August! HPKCHC break months are always a little odd for me. I push hard to finish projects during term, and am glad to have a bit of a breather during the break month. At the same time, I want to clean up anything left from the last term and prepare for the upcoming term. This particular break month skewed more towards the taking a breather and less towards cleaning up and preparing!
August Goals
In my August Preview Post, here’s what I said I wanted to craft:
I have several projects that are close to complete that I would like to finish during August.
- MAPLE LEAF the Third I just need to finish weaving in all those ends. I started on this, and have been doing a couple at a time, as breaks between bouts of housework.
- Granny Square Blanket I have a couple more squares to crochet and I have to assemble it.
- First Ever Socks Last fall, I started my first ever pair of socks. I am using a self-striping yarn, so doing afterthought heels. I got the socks totally knit, except for the heels, and discovered that the bind-off was too tight for the socks to get over my ankle. I have to unpick the bind-offs, bind-off again looser, and knit the heels.
- Baby Blue Hugo Monster I knit this monster last fall. All the pieces are knit; it just needs to be assembled. Stuff it, sew the arms on, sew on the face. Done!
- Lux Top Spun I am about 1/3 through the spinning of the Lux Top braid that I had started late last month as part of my OWL. I would like to get that finished this month.
In addition to finishing up those nearly there projects, I have several things I have yet to start that I would like to complete in April.
- Three MAPLE LEAF shawls I have 9 more to knit for Christmas presents. I want to be totally finished with the knitting by the end of October so that I have November and December to dye them. Done by the end of October means I need to knit 3 MAPLE LEAF shawls per month in August, September, and October.
- Mini Maple leaves I have several different ideas about how to dye the big shawls. I want to knit some small leaves (about the size of my hand) so I can practice different dyeing techniques over the next couple months. By the time I am done knitting, I want to have a plan for techniques and colors that I will use on the shawls.
August Finished Projects
I finished MAPLE LEAF the Third.
I finished my First Ever Socks.
I got a little bit more of the Lux Top Spun, but not much. I might be about 1/2 done with it now.
I did not touch the Granny Square Blanket or the Baby Blue Hugo Monster. I did not knit any mini maple leaves.
I started and finished MAPLE LEAF the Fifth, but did not do two additional shawls.
Planning
I did a little bit of planning for the HPKCHC term. I decided I wanted to do an Arithmancy OWL, knitting socks. I cast on for the Autumnal Socks to use as a swatch for my OWL. I did not think I could use the First Ever Socks as a swatch because I cast them on almost a year ago. I know my knitting gauge has changed this year, due to the wrist injury I had in January, so even if the First Ever Socks would have been accepted as a swatch by the HPKCHC OWL examiners, I would not personally have trusted them. I didn’t finish the Autumnal Socks in August, but did make a lot of progress on them.
I made a lot of progress on planning for this blog and other projects that I’m not ready to announce yet. I did have a major bit of frustration related to these other projects, leading to a setback in the timeframe. This planning and dealing with the setback took up a great deal of my time and are the reasons that I did less crafting than I originally planned.
August Stashdown
I actually decreased my stash in August (compared to July, anyway)!
The MAPLE LEAF shawls came in at 504 yards each, the First Ever Socks used 305 yards, and I gifted a skein of yarn to my mother when she asked me to teach her how to knit, for an additional 123 yards removed from my stash.
- August Total: down by 1,436 yards (0.82 miles) of yarn
- YTD Total: up by 12,504.8 yards (7.11 miles) of yarn