Presenting: Color Affection!!!

Welcome back! Sorry for being away, but I appreciate your patience with my blogging break while I was busy novel-writing.

But! I did still get a few crafty things done in between the writing. One of which was to finally, at long last, finish my Color Affection shawl. Huzzah!!

Dimensions in Space by Cori 2012.

Pattern: Color Affection by Veera Välimäki (available to purchase from Ravelry)

Yarn:
IndigoDragonfly Merino Nylon Sock in TARDIS (1 skein)
Knit Picks Gloss Fingering in Coast Grey (1 skein)
Knit Picks Stroll in Black (2 skeins)

Needles: US 6

Man, what can I say about this? It took me five months to make, which is kind of insane. Especially since I don't know when I will ever actually get the chance to wear it. I also completely screwed up by doing a stripe of blue when I should have done grey, and then not wanting to rip back two whole rows just let it stand. (Although my husband really likes that part, funnily enough.)

But. I really do love it. All of the yarn came together very nicely and it is very soft and cozy. I LOVE the colors and how they look together. I am glad I made it, and I know that the next time I have occasion to wear my little black dress, this will go with it perfectly. Plus it was a good exercise in making something garment-sized.

Still, I am oh so glad to be done with it and on to the next thing!

Maybe Too Much Progress

I think right now I am in one of those yarn-related funks where I am getting stuff done but it really doesn't feel like it because my efforts are spread out among too many projects. Currently I have three things in the works: the dragon blanket, my Color Affection shawl, and an impromptu project for my kiddo.

Dragon blanket in progress.

This is actually coming along a lot better than I had hoped for, I am just kind of stalled out at the moment because of another project. The two panels with the dragons, which is the actual finicky part of the blanket, is sixty rows. I have done twelve already. I can do at least six in a day (when I actually get to sit down and work on it). After that it's just twenty more rows of the stripes and the border. Easy peasy. It's just a matter of actually doing it.

For the record, I am really pleased with how the dragons seem to be turning out thus far. I mean, I know that's their tails but I can see how it will play out, I think, and it will rock. I was a little worried since my sample swatch was in half-double crochet and I am doing the blanket in double crochet. But the change doesn't seem to have messed anything up.

Dimensions in Space in progress.

So here's my shawl. I was going to try to finish it before starting the dragon blanket but I kind of got a little burned out and had to take a break from it. I've got maybe ten rows left in the second section and then I get to start the "short" rows, which sound fabulous to me! I have a wedding to go to in October and the goal is to have this finished by then so I can wear it. We shall see if that happens. I think if I can do a few rows a week on it at least, and maybe give it a full week in between each big project, that will be doable.

Cuddle Up blanket in progress.

(Now with cat tail for scale!)

This one is kind of the current distraction. I am hoping to get it done today though, actually. We've been having some issues with my daughter's sleep patterns and I have been trying out some new strategies to get her back on track. This is one of them. Since she quit sucking her thumb, she has lost her trigger to make herself go to sleep without just running herself until she keels over. My thought is that if she has a special blanket that she can grab whenever she is starting to feel sleepy but doesn't want to get in bed yet, that might help the transition a little bit. But you can see why this one has kind of taken priority.

Anyhoo, it's just a big granny square. I had four skeins leftover from my last blanket so I am using those up. Quick and easy. Well, it would be, if life wasn't being so distracting. For some reason I have been having a hard time finding a chance to just sit for an hour or two each day to actually play with my yarn. It's been sporadic at best. But my goal for this week is to work on that. A Cori who doesn't get her allotted yarn-play time is really not a happy Cori, after all.

Also, for those wondering about the yarn circle, last week's meeting saw much progress! We managed to move on to single crochet and both of my friends seem to be getting the hang of it. With practice it should become completely natural to them. We are skipping a week since I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday, but we'll kick off August right with our next session. Should be fun times.

Room to Grow

So, for Christmas my daughter received a My Little Pony nightgown set that included the nightgown and a pair of matching slippers. She adores the set but her favorite part is the slippers, which she calls her "pink shoes."

As I am sure you can imagine, six months of hard wear by a toddler has taken its toll on the slippers. The nightgown is still holding up pretty well, though like most things my daughter owns, it is now way too short (all legs, that one, she's gonna be trouble later on). I noticed a little while ago that the slippers were starting to come apart at the seams in a few spots and realized they were not long for this world. So I decided to try to make the kiddo a replacement pair of slippers.

Just A Little Big by Cori 2012.

Yarn: two skeins of remnant Red Heart Super Saver
Hook: I

I totally winged the pattern, but it was inspired by the knit slippers that my mom has made for me since I was a kiddo myself. I let my daughter pick the yarn for her slippers out herself, and she very much enjoyed trying them on as I made them (to check fit and see how much I had left to go). Once I had finished the first one she happily wore it as she waited for the second to be made.

My hope was that by engaging her in the process of making them she would take to them as replacements for the "pink shoes" a little more quickly. It has more or less worked. She seems to prefer her "green shoes" (as she has dubbed them) for when she's hanging out in the house and her "pink shoes" at night for sleeping. I'll take it. I've sewn up the holes in the pink slippers, so hopefully they'll last for a bit longer.

I really like how these came out, and I've tried twice to start a pair for myself but the magic doesn't seem to be happening on a larger pair. Give it time though, maybe the third try will be the charm.

In other news, I've started the next blanket and work progresses, if slowly, on my Color Affection shawl. It might be done by the time the weather actually cools enough for me to wear it...

Dimensions in Space (progress shot) out at a ball game.