Too Much Yarn

Sunny, No More

I've been taking tons of photos on my phone in hopes to blogging each day, but that didn't happen for more than 3 weeks.  We've had 3 releases during that time (real work) and I've been working late.  In addition, I've been making cards.  I finally opened my etsy shop at Mapleweave Designs.  I'll try to add a link on the side soon.  I'm stocking up my shop and I'll need to add knitting cards, soon.

So, the first week after I blogged last, I'd been waiting patiently for the yarn from UK to make the Sunny Log Cabin blanket.  Jennifer and I were going to do a CAL.  Well, I tried.  My gauge were off, my circle curled.. and I finally gave up after completed a few rows.  So, now, I have tons of acrylic yarn for another blanket.  Maybe I'll design something with all the color yarn I have now!

Let's move on, shall we?

I'm almost done with my Skipping Dots shawl.  I have just a few more rows left for the garter edging.  But it's a bit boring to be knitting garter of 350+ stitches per row.  So I knit one row and then, do something else...

I am going to need to finish this before Romi's mystery Shawl KAL starts in a couple of weeks.

Romi did release the 3rd pattern of the eBook on Asymmetry Shawls.  I've knitted 2 shawls each on the first 2 patterns.  I wonder if I'll knit two for this - not because I don't like the pattern, but because it's a big one.   This is where I'm at so far:

I'm using yarn I bought when I was out in Boston... from Island Yarn.  Unfortunately, I did not take any photos of it by itself, but here is the photo of the bundle when I was trying to decide which color to go with:

 

I'm about to get into the second skein of the blue...

No sock progress...

Oh, I finished the baby blanket - 3 weeks ahead of schedule.. But I haven't woven in the ends.  I first finished the edge with the same color:

Then, I decided it wasn't "finished" enough, so I added 2 more rows...

I'm happy now...   just not happy about weaving in the ends.

My Temperature Blanket is behind.. I had 12 squares to crochet this morning.  I think I have 6 left.  It's so easy to get behind!  But I must keep it up!!

Until next time...

My sock drawer went viral!

A week ago, I woke up, wondering WTH?  I'm getting all sorts of comments on my blog.. Turns out, the day before, I read a blog post from attic24 (Lucy, the crochet queen) about how she's starting to knit socks.  HAHA, I was thinking, I'm going the opposite direction as she is.  I'm going from knitting socks to crocheting blankets!  So, I shared a link to my blog post from the summer of 2014 where I had just bought the ELFA shelves for my socks.  Before I know it, she edited her blog post and also posted it on her facebook page, and I can say there were more than 7700 people had seen my sock drawer!

When I showed Mr. Mapleweave the number of likes (at that time, it was more like 4000), he looked at me and asked, "that's your drawer and your socks?" 

Obviously, it no longer looks like that.. A lot of pairs are in a pile because it's Winter!  I'm wearing them.  That photo was taken in the summer where all my socks were available!  Anyway, the number of hits on my blog (especially that post) also went up (today, it's gone down to zero!)

 

 I haven't knitted much except maybe my socks.. I finished the heel flap and the gusset. 

And I worked on the baby ripple blanket.. I'm at about 1/2 way there.

I do have a lot of ends to cut off.. I may do another turn towards the edge and then, cut it off.

But mostly, the hobby of the week has been making cards.  I'm cranking out about 2 dozen Baby Shower invitations that look like this (this is my prototype)

Then, 2 days ago, I took a day off from work and went to learn a new technique using alcohol inks from my friends.  This was the first one I did:

By the end of the day, this was the result.. the background paper using alcohol ink:

The top two in the photo below are aluminum foil and then, we put the ink over it.  The one with the dragonfly is to illustrate what we would do with the background.

This one is my favorite.. I love it when dark lines just suddenly show up when you dilute it with the blending solution (kinda like rubbing alcohol).

Another sample card made from the alcohol ink background:

Then, we tried with just distress ink - these are water-based ink and we spritz water on it and watch the ink move.

and as any other crafts, there are gadgets and accessories to cut the butterflies and lattice background.  All in all, I didn't knit or crochet a single stitch that day, but I was very happy with my crafts.

Back to yarn talk... So I enabled Jennifer to get the kits from Wool Warehouse as we're going to make the Sunny Log Cabin blanket from the attic24 blog.  I think my yarn has just arrived.. I'm afraid to face the person who brought the package in.  Should I tell him I'm making him a bright blanket for our 25th Wedding Anniversary? This is the blanket we're going to make:  (our own CAL)  Photo from attic24's blog.

 

Do you see the diamonds?  I was going to share a snow image with you, but my copy and pasting is not allowing me to!  So you'll just have to imagine the beautiful snow!!