In last week’s post, I told you I wasn’t sure what to bring with me as travel knitting while attending my sister’s graduation in Baltimore. I broke my general rules of travel knitting, and brought 6 skeins of yarn for 3 different projects. It’s a good thing, as I ended up having a lot more time to craft than I expected. I used part or all of 5 of the skeins, and worked on all 3 projects!
Projects Mentioned Last Week
I finished the Baltic Blue Quinn Bag. I started writing the blog post on it while I was away, but I only brought my iPad with me and I was not able to add links in the post. I will finish the entry and post it tomorrow.
The Maple Leaf Shawl was not in a good place for travel knitting, so I did not bring it with me. I also did not bring my spinning wheel — my wheel is not designed for plane transport — so I did no spinning this past week.
Granny Square Blanket
I brought 3 skeins of yarn for the Granny Square Blanket, one in each color. I worked on Granny Squares on the flight to Baltimore, every time we were in the car, and at the graduation (we arrived 2 hours early). I made a total of 8 granny squares while I was away! I used up all of the multicolored yarn, and all but very small quantities of the green and purple. That means I have finished a total of 13 squares so far.
My goal is to make a total of 35 squares by the end of July, and assemble to blanket in August. I am right on track to meet that goal!
Sapphire Monster
Last year, I decided to make monsters for charity. My cousin Avery works at Hartford (Connecticut) Children’s Hospital on a ward with chronically sick children. When I’ve finished a few monsters, I will send them to her so she can bring them in to work. This is one of the projects I brought with me as travel knitting. It will be one of my projects for Round 2 of Quidditch.
The pattern I use is Hugo the Couch Potato Monster from Rebecca Danger’s The Big Book of Knitted Monsters
I haven’t made a monster since December, and I forgot exactly how I do the modifications. I usually make each leg 6 stitches smaller around than the pattern calls for, because I like the arms and legs to be the same size. On the first round of the main body, I increase 12 stitches (6 for each leg) so that I have the correct number of stitches for the body. I forgot to do those increases on the Sapphire Monster. I ended up with a lot of extra yarn! I think that if I make another smaller Hugo I will be able to make a third, multicolored small Hugo with the leftover yarn from the other two!
I still have to make the arms. I lost the stitch marker I was using on this project, and did not have another small stitch marker with me. I also need to sew on his face and stuff him. In order to use this project for Quidditch, I need to finish it by the 25th, which should be no problem.
Begonia Swirl Shawl
The final project I brought with me to Baltimore is the Begonia Swirl Shawl. This project is my Order of the Phoenix Mission; cast on day for Missions was Sunday the 18th. My sister attended a wedding that evening, so I had lots of time to knit. By the 18th, I had already finished all the granny squares and the monster, so the only project I had to work on from Sunday through Wednesday was this shawl. My plan was to knit 12.5% of this shawl this week. Since I was already out of other projects, I decided I would try to knit 25% of the shawl, meeting both this week’s goal and next week’s goal. Once I was home, I could then focus on my other HPKCHC classes, OWL, and Quidditch projects. The end of May is coming up quickly and I haven’t met all my goals for those other projects yet!
The pattern calls for US size 4 needles (3.5 mm). The yarn I’m using is the Good for Ewe Mirrorball yarn I bought at Nomad Yarns booth at The Fiber Event. The yarn suggests knitting on a US size 3. For lace projects, my rule of thumb is to go up two needle sizes from the recommended needle size, so I cast on the Begonia Swirl Shawl with US size 5 needles. I knit the first 18 rows and decided I did not like the fabric. It was too open. So I ripped everything out and reknit it on the recommended size 4 needles. I liked the fabric much better.
Even with this setback, I managed to knit the first 25% of the shawl by the time my plane landed back in Orlando. I won’t work on this project again until after June 1, so I can get my other planned projects on schedule.
The Week Ahead
By next weeks WIP Wednesday, I need to finish the Maple Leaf Shawl, the Sapphire Monster, and another project for Quidditch. In an emergency, I can use one or more of the completed granny squares as Quidditch projects. I also need to finish at least one other HPKCHC class project. I have turned in the Palindrome Scarf. I will turn in the Maple Leaf Shawl and at least one granny square for classes, leaving me with 3 more class projects to be finished by May 31. I can use the granny squares for the rest of the class projects, but I did have other projects lined up. We’ll see how it goes. I also need to spin at least 2 more ounces of fiber for my OWL. My goal was to spin 8 ounces by the end of the month; I have only done about 2 ounces so far, putting me a little behind. I’ve got a lot of work to do if I want to meet my goals, but I am still optimistic about my ability to finish it all!