Friday Project Roundup - May 29, 2025

    It's been a busy week around here as school is coming to a close and these's school event after school even for the kids. I haven't had much time for crafting, and much of my crafting time was devoted to wool laundry for putting away the winter clothes. Temperatures have been pretty consistently above the 50s lately, so I'm washing all the wool for the end of the season and packing them away in their plastic bags to wait out the moth months. I also took the opportunity to wash the pouches to prepare them for lining. I also need to set up a warp for the strap to the little bag for my kid, but I need to stop at the hardware store for a few things to make it easier first, and I just haven't had the time. Next week I also might starting working on the pants I've been meaning to repair for my spouse. But that's next week. Here's what I got done this week:

New Pattern!

    I released a new design for the first time in an embarassing long number of years this week. I've actually had this (and a few others!) kicking around in my drafts folder at like 80% done for a couple of years, but it just took me a while to build up the confidence and just get it all done!

    I'm calling it the Begonias Hat and it's available on Ravelry. It was originally made for one of my children, one who is very femme, so the original colors were pink and white, but I've done mock ups in several colors and it works really well with a variety of shades, in both high and low contrast. The slip stitch pattern used to create the chevrons is easy to memorize and, at least for me, fun to do. It's worked from the brim up and uses just 200 yards of lace weight yarn, and less than that if you're using a larger diameter yarn. I hope you enjoy!

Spinning

    I started on the red portion of my "red, green, and in between" project. I got all the punis carded and rolled for all 3 colors a while back, but I only recently got started on spinning it up.

    At this point, I'm planning on spinning the red, then the green, then the blend. Based on my previous experiments, though the green especially looks fairly distinct in the blend now, I think that quality will be muted pretty significantly in the actual spin, because I did blend them fairly well. I did about 4 passes each on the carders per puni, so what you see on the outside of the puni is no promise of what lies underneath at that location. I'm pretty excited to see it spin up, even though I know the end result likely won't be very visually exciting - just a heathered warm brown. But it will be fun to watch it develop!

    I started with the red, and the layering on the copp makes it seem like there might be some slight variegation in the final skein. The extent to which this happens depends largely on how many of these longer sections of disparate color are matched with each other and which are barber poled instead. I won't know until the end, so that's a fun surprise to look forward to.

    I also noticed that it seems like the color was mostly taken up by the longer, coarser fibers and the finer, shorter fibers have more of the natural color peeking through. I wonder if that has anything to do with the qualities of the fiber itself, or if it has more to do with how it was laying in the dye pan? It's something I intend to keep an eye out for next time I dye these fibers. If it is related to the qualities of the fiber, I'm very curious to research why that might be.

Knitting

    Finally getting started on the socks I spun all that shifting-color yarn for!

    The pattern is Södera Socks by Vilma Vuori, and calls for a gauge of 7.5 stitches per inch, which I think is basically the bare minimum for socks, but I don't think really displays the lace to it's full potential. Obviously looking at it pre-blocked in this swatch won't give you the proper idea, but I have been stretching it out as I worked on it, seeing how I liked the interplay of the stitches, and at 7.5 stitches per inch, it's just really not hitting for me. I'll definitely keep that for the foot of the sock because I'm not trying to wear them out instantly, but I'm trying some larger needles to see what size I feel shows off the lace best so I can use that for the leg of the sock (you know, the part anyone will see anyway) and that portion will be exposed to much, much less friction, so if the gauge isn't as durable as it could be, that's probably not a huge loss. 

    Once I've got that sorted, I'll start on them properly, probably next week, and then I have plenty of time to work on them because I won't really need them until September or so. It gets so hot and muggy in the summers, I'm usually wearing slides the whole time. Leaves a funny suntan on my feet, too. 

    Also added 3 new yarns, all of them green, to the scrap blanket this week. That brings this strip up to a total of 48 inches long. That's more than half, and I'm more than halfway done with the total of strips, too. I've been working on this blanket since 2021, but now that I'm at 10 out of 13 strips, I'm starting to have to seriously consider how I'm going to finish the edges. Do I want all one color, and if so, what? White or black are obvious choices that "go with everything" but that sounds so boring. I actually might just continue in scrap yarns for the edges too, because it feels like that's the only way to properly match the energy this blanket is already giving.  I have time to think it over, but it's seeming like there's a possibility it could be finished in time for this winter. That would be nice, as the quilts are getting pretty heavy use (both of them already have new areas in need of repair because of course after all that sustained effort I don't get any kind of reprieve, let's be real here) and having something to swap out for them so they can be treated a little more lightly would be nice. Of course, that also means I have to immediately get started on my next scrap blanket once this one is finished, and I'm genuinely not sure what I'm going to do for it. I've been working on this for literally 6 years, because I actually started this blanket in 2020, frogged it because I didn't like how it was turning out, and started again in 2021. I know I definitely want to work on it in pieces again, that aspect has been very satisfying, but I don't know if I want to continue the theme of sampler strips, work in more quilterly blocks, maybe do a more intentional, coherent theme? I definitely still have months at a minimum to think about it, but I'm kind of a planner and not having a plan at this point is kind of giving me hives. I'll probably come to a decision about it soon, but as always, I reserve my right to change my mind if it's not working out!