Stitching Away

I’ve been neglecting the blog lately. There are several reasons. One being that the craft room is an unholy mess again and my computer keeps getting buried. Another being that I’m busy zooming during prime blogging time on Wednesdays so doing WIP Wednesdays is harder than it should be. Yet another reason being that I’ve just been too busy crafting to want to write about it. It’s a moving target, you know? Also, my iPhone doesn’t sync pictures automatically with the Windows laptop so I have to actually plug it into the computer to download photos of the things I’ve been making. It feels too much like a chore on most days so I don’t bother. Then I don’t have any pictures to show you. Then it just piles up and feels even more like a chore…it’s a vicious cycle. No real way to get around that one though, I’ll just have to get over it.

Anyway, there will be a slight restructuring of the blog, I’m not gonna focus on WIP Wednesdays or FO Fridays as much anymore and instead am just going to blog…whenever.

That being said, on a Thursday, I have a FO for you!

It’s a hat I knitted from a deceased friend of a friend’s yarn stash as a gift. She has been working very hard as the executor of this person’s estate and I thought it would be nice for her to have a little something knitted from the stash that my friend so thoughtfully gifted to me. It’s The Whitman Slouchy Hat by Danielle Morgan (couldn’t find an off-Rav link). It’s a very simple moss stitch hat that shows off hand dyed yarn beautifully. It went super quick!

A side view of my friend wearing a teal blue moss stitch slouchy hat.

Aside from that, I have started knitting the last Christmas stocking commission I’m doing for my mom’s friend. She pays well, otherwise I’d never even consider it, but I’m getting weary of stockings. And I still want to make some for my mom and sister! The brief for this one was flowers, butterflies, and bees, in yellows. Interesting. Not very Christmasy, but the client wants what they want. I tried pulling in a couple more Christmas colors – burgundy and pine green – to ground it a bit. Here’s what I’ve got so far. Or at least what I’ve photographed so far, I’ve gone a bit past this.

A start on the leg of a Christmas stocking with a light blue cuff, yellow background in varying shades, and purple waves, pine green leaves, and large burgundy flowers.

Since that picture I’ve added the butterflies. The background of the butterflies, along with the heel and toe will be the light blue shown in the cuff. I’m on track to finish by the end of October.

However, what I’ve been truly hyperfocusing on has been this Cryptid SAL by the Witchy Stitcher. My fabric arrived six days earlier than predicted, so I got to start on it a week ago. Here’s the daily progression of the SAL.

The corner of a black frame on hand dyed aged looking linen. The designs along the top edge have little bats.

The black frame has expanded, showing little triangles along the sides and at the top right edge A “Cr” is visible.

Brown moons have been added to the side of the frame, and a smaller black frame with “mothman” almost spelled out at the bottom.

A cute little black mothman with red tipped wings and red eyes, with little skulls beneath the frame.

The main frame has extended down the side with more moons and the start of a second smaller black frame beneath the skulls has emerged.

An almost complete second black frame with an “E” in it.

There have been 5 cryptids released so far. Mothman (the only one I’ve completed so far), the Fresno Nightcrawler, the Enfield Horror (which I have started), the Jersey Devil, and the Chupacabra. Another is going to drop tomorrow!

I’m busily trying to catch up. I’ve been spending almost every waking hour working on it. At least when I’m not zooming or watching TV with the fam. Hard to stitch when I’m doing those things. Knitting is better for zoom meetings.

There are things churning in my brain for the future too. One of the yarns that was gifted to me in the giant stash, was a mass quantity of this, well, I guess you could call it novelty yarn.

Two balls of yarn, one metallic gold, one metallic silver, gold and teal.

It’s a tube of metallic stuff held with a strand of mohair. It’s very enticing with the fuzzy and the metallic together. As soon as I saw how much there was (1,635 yds of the blue, 872 yds of the gold, worsted weight) I started dreaming of a sweater. A striped sweater. with short sleeves and to be worn over something because the yarn is kind of itchy. Probably top down raglan sleeves since I’ve actually done that before. I could be convinced to do a fade rather than stripes, but I haven’t decided yet.

I don’t know that there is a pattern out there that looks like what’s in my head – I haven’t looked. If I can find one, great. If not, well I guess I’ll be designing it. I have several books that can help with this. There’s the classic “Principles of Knitting“, and “The Handy Book of Sweater Patterns” for basic structure. Then there’s “You Can Knit That” for modifications for better fit. It’ll take time. Significant time. I really haven’t knit that many sweaters before so I barely know what I’m doing. Also, this is a yarn with mohair. How well will it frog if I screw up? This could be a monumentally bad idea, but I can’t get it out of my head, so it’s happening. After I catch up on the SAL and finish the Christmas stocking.