Weekly Update

I felt better this week. I finally got to the store and bought supplies, and I worked on each of my projects.

Crochet:
It was hot when I went to the store and I really missed having a hat (the one I have is ugly and has to be washed by hand, so it's sitting at the bottom of the clothes hamper), so I bought some yarn to make the crocheted sunhat I keep promising myself. I'm putting aside the afghan just long enough to get the hat done, then I'll get back to it.

I'm a fast crocheter, and I got this done just while listening to Creative Mojo yesterday. I'll probably have the hat done tomorrow or the next day.

I'm using a trick I learned from Carol Wolf's blog, Wolf Crochet: I'm crocheting the brim with 2 strands of yarn to make it stiff rather than floppy. I used one strand in the crown to keep it lightweight.

Quilting:
I've sewn 7 squares of the 4th row together on Batik Cascade (Batik Go-Round) by Karen Combs.

Blackwork:
For my blackwork project, I pulled out the Blackwork Chessboard by Anne MacGregor. I plan to make it into a wall hanging and display it as a sampler rather than use it as a chessboard.

Here's what I already had done. The design calls for metallic gold thread, but I decided to substitute a dusty aqua rayon floss. The rayon floss is difficult to work with, but nowhere near as bad as metallics are.

Detail of 1 of the squares:

And here's what I'd got done yesterday:

Details of the 2 squares I finished this week:

Cross Stitch:
I made good progress again on Brilliant Butterfly Celebration from The Gold Collection by
Dimensions.

Swedish Weaving:
I got one whole row done on the Feathers To and Fro afghan from Learn to Make Monk’s Cloth Afghans by Marilyn T. Magly.

Knitting:
For my knitting project, I pulled out yet another UFO: the adorable Octopus Garden Blanket by Georgia Vincent. The best link I could find for her was this writeup of her winning entry in a Patternworks contest. Apparently this talented lady enters -- and wins -- all the contests. The Octopus Garden Blanket was a winner in a 2006 Patternworks contest.

This afghan is made up of many knitted panels which are embroidered and then joined together. The octopi are knit separately and then appliqued.

I had finished knitting the center panel and started the embroidery.

This is one of two sides. It's a bit hard to see since I apparently stopped in the middle of a row.

This week I got a bit more of the embroidery on the center panel done. I also discovered a mistake and had to frog a few stitches.

I also did some more knitting on the side.

I haven't started my finishing project yet, other than opening a few of the supplies. Hopefully I'll have done some work on it by next week.