Squirrel.
How do you maintain focus on your projects? Is it building time into your schedule to work on them? Are you really good at selecting projects with techniques that will hold your focus? Do you have deadlines? Do you find yourself pushed forward because you want the thing you are making?
I ask, since it's been a week when I thought I'd make more progress than I actually did. However, I also shoehorned a couple of projects into the time available that I didn't even know I was planning to start prior to Saturday. So maybe it's not that I "didn't get things done," but that my brain didn't formally reset itself once my priorities changed. In any case, I hope your projects are progressing in a way that pleases you!
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…to learn (and do)
CURRENT CLASSES & EVENTS
Social Stitching via Zoom
Thursday, January 21, 4:00-6:00pm Social Stitching is back from winter break! What have you been working on?
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/981942707?pwd=TExyQlRPWnB3OW40QkFZRCs5aVRtQT09 OR open Zoom and enter 981-942-707 for the meeting ID
PASSWORD IS 330044.
Reminder: we've consolidated to just one Zoom event for now, but if you'd like to share project photos, chat, or share KAL progress, we'd love for you to create an account at yarnfolk.com and participate in the community we're building there. No intent to be yet another social network, but it's an option for sharing that doesn't depend on any outside platform. You can find it here.
...to anticipate
Malabrigo Rasta is a cold weather favorite--150 grams of super bulky merino squish. After seeing lots of Lotus Flower Beanies on Instagram, I started pulling together color combinations from our stock of Rasta, and whipped out a shop sample. (I started mid-Saturday afternoon and finished later that evening, with a drive home, a couple of errands, and cooking dinner in between!) The pattern is written for four sizes and two yarn weights (super bulky and chunky), and two skeins of Rasta will make two hats if you reverse the colors, OR (my personal favorite option) a hat and a pair of mittens. (And in the spirit of speedy projects, I made the mitten while slogging through a Windows update.)
You can find kits here--two skeins of Rasta, the pattern, and a printed copy of a free pattern for super bulky mittens. (Shown in Fiesta & Campfire.)
…to inspire
© Naama Ido
I hadn't really delved into the "hot right now" patterns on Ravelry on Sunday, but when I looked this morning, I was really taken with the Weave In Knit Scarf, which starts with the simplest stockinette knitting, adds a dropped stitch element, and then adds a bit of weaving at the end. I can see using two skeins of a simple solid in Berroco Ultra Wool or Lanas, and then incorporating miscellaneous multicolored odd balls from your collection. Alternately, you might rely on a more variegated colorway of Malabrigo Rios or Washted combined with solid contrasting scraps. The pattern is easily adaptable to any weight of yarn, and is an appealing option for incorporating small amounts of special leftover yarns into a project. The designer, Naama Ido, has also recorded a helpful and friendly video tutorial you can find here.
(She also has some excellent videos on fixing brioche knitting here.)
...to stitch
Advent Socks 2020
The Advent Socks 2020 are finished! Originally intended as a 12 Days of Christmas project (Christmas through January 6th), I completed them on January 17th. The background of both socks is Berroco Ultra Wool Fine (leftover from swatching Soundtrack Sweater Kit options), and the cuffs, heels, and toes are an ancient skein of Brown Sheep Wildfoote. The pattern is a 70-stitches of stranded colorwork extending from leg all the way through the foot, so these are generously sized (and comfy) house socks. If I were to knit them again (or, more likely, take on a future Advent Sock project), I might do something like use Zauberball Crazy to produce color changes with out the one million ends to weave in.
