FO Friday: Swap Time!

Wow, sorry I didn't post anything on Wednesday! I actually had finished the project I'm going to show off today on Tuesday, therefor no WIP on Wed, and I hadn't progressed on any of my other projects at that point! I'm kind of a slacker in that sense, but I did get an entire project done in 4 days. That's pretty impressive if I do say so myself.

Now, some of you may know that I am taking place in an Arts and Sciences swap within the SCA. The particular swap is called Noblese Largesse, and it's pretty cool. When you sign up, you are required to fill out a questionnaire, and from there I'll quote from the Noblese Largesse's facebook page.

So, how is this supposed to work?

No doubt, you've noticed that you've had to fill out a questionnaire. We use an Excel spreadsheet and the RAND function to take your name and match it with someone else. We will then send you the information that your recipient filled out on their questionnaire. It is for you to decide at this point what to make them. After you make the object(s), send it out. Please make sure you send a note with your item, revealing yourself to your recipient.

Also, there's a limit to how much you can spend on materials. $20

Pretty simple, eh?  Well, yes and no. I had quite a few difficulties trying to choose what to make for my swap partner. Being a new SCAdian, and new to the world of A&S as a whole, I didn't have a wide variety of skill sets to pull from. I have knitting, I can make some glass beads, I can do some pathetic embroidery. That's about it, so I went to what I know best; knitting. Now, what to make?

From the questionaire I received, my partner has a French persona, her colors are red and gold, and to throw a wrench into my plans, she tries to only wear period (and persona) appropriate garb. I know nothing about late period French knitted garments as of right now, which is sad since my persona is late period French. Realizing I was kinda screwed, I asked if my partner liked shawls. Nope.

Time for plan B! Problem. There was no plan B. So, I spent the greater part of 2 months trying to find something I could actually make, and would be something my partner would enjoy and use. My solution? Mittens! I found this free pattern on Ravelry for these mittens, and I'm in love with them. Check it out!

I think they're pretty spiff. They're made out of a sport weight 100% wool yarn called Wool Of The Andes purchased at Knitpicks. This yarn was much softer than I expected and wears amazingly well. Not to mention, at under $3 a ball, I was able to purchase all the yarn I needed, for a little over half of my budget which still left money for the knitting needles and notions I needed! I would highly recommend this yarn. 

So, what do you guys think? I'm pretty proud of myself. I think I'll end up making more mittens in the future. Now that I know I can do this, why wouldn't I want to make such a fast, and easily transportable project?

WIP Friday? True Story!

Well......this is technically supposed to be FO Friday, but since I haven't actually finished anything, I might as well show the two new projects I started. ^_^;; I like having a variety of projects going so that I always have something to work on, no matter what mood I'm in. Do I want to make a shawl? No problem! Bag? Can do! Blanket? Sure thing! Even though it might be a bit maddening at times, it really does help when I get bored with a project. So, on to my latest projects.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to start working on the Sharktooth Shawl by Stephen West. It just so happens to be the first shawl for this shawl club (still writing up a post for that)! I love this thing. The only problem that's really stopped me from working on it more than I have is that I don't have the pattern printed out yet, and knitting at my computer makes my back hurt. :/  So, here's the first half of section 1 completed!

Note: I have all of section 1 finished, I'm just too lazy to take a picture of it right now. Just sayin'.

The first "teeth" have just been completed. Love how the yarn looks

Here's a better picture of the colors in the yarn.

Now for something a bit unusual for me. I started a crochet project last night on a whim. My dear husband (DH) has been asking for almost a year now, for me to crochet him a blanket. Up to date, I've started and frogged 4 different blankets for him. Reasons varied from project to project, like bad tension, gauge different from piece to piece, not knowing what I'm doing, ect. The list goes on and on. I think I finally figured out what the problem was. I didn't have a pattern.




It's so simple, but I've realized something about myself. If I do not have a pattern for a project, then I won't work on it. Weird, I know, but true. Hopefully I'll finally be able to make the DH happy finish a nice crochet project!

I'm using 3 different color for the Afghan. The two darker ones don't quite contrast enough for my liking, but I've gotten this far, and I'm not going back now.

Now, you might be wondering to yourself, "Self, isn't that just one big granny square?" The answer would be yet. 100% yes. Well, at least for now. I'm not sure how large I'm going to make this beast until I start another one. I'm planning on having between 4-6 of these monster squares completed and seamed together to create the blanket. Simple, but effective.

Also, it eliminates all the gauge issues I was having the the regular sized granny square afghan I was trying to create. It also didn't help that the thought of seaming together 180-200 granny squares gave me the chills. Much easier this way.

Big Changes

As you can tell, the blog is undergoing some major changes again! I wasn't happy with having to make a new header everytime I wanted to adjust the size of the borders or the body of my blog. So, I've changed it up a bit. It definitely feels cleaner and a little more streamlined to me. I've also added (and taken away) a few gadgets!

So, let me know what you guys think! Leave me a comment telling me what you think I can do to make this blog even better, because I want you to enjoy reading as much as I enjoy sharing. And let's be honest, without you guys reading, I'm just a crazy person writing to himself, and nobody wants me to be that. Right?

Also, before I forget!! I finished my first shawlette! It's the perfect size to use as a scarf. I'll probably need to get a nice unisex shawl pin, just to help keep it in place, but other than that, I'm pretty happy with it. It's the one I mentioned in a previous post that I made using the alpaca/wool yarn. Even though I still can't find my camera, I used my laptops webcam to snap some pictures, just so you guys can see a little what it came out looking like.

Okay, so the images are REALLY grainy, but I did warn you that they were taken with a laptop webcam.

Until next time!