Yopping Update #50 - Ta-Done

And she is done!

So there is that. 

I have made some progress on the Fisherwoman's sweater - six inches this week. I can manage 4 rows before I have to put it down and give my arm a rest so it will be slow going.  I have 6 more inches on the back before I start the neck shaping.  I have already cast on the two sleeves, and done the ribbing so once the back is done I will do the sleeves before the front. 

This week there has been some pool exercising for my arm, and on top of physio I also had doctor and dentist checkups. On Thursday I went to the Vancouver Symphony where they played live the soundtrack from "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" while we watched the film.  It was a wonderful evening and I even took my own wand to the event to be part of the dress-up that seems to be important at functions like this!

Two more weeks to go for this Yopping year and I am working on my list for Year Nine.   I have been through my queue on Ravelry and picked out some things to work on, but knowing me I will find other projects that interest me along the way. 

To follow my other Yopping friends check out their posts here.

This morning and afternoon we have had a riot of hummingbirds flitting back and forth to the feeder, the swing, and the trees.  I am not sure if it is mating behaviour or fledglings, but it has been exciting.

Yopping Update #49 - 1000 stitches and counting!

I worked on putting my squares together and I am very happy with the result.  I used mattress stitch to put the sides of the squares together in strips and then used slip stitch crochet to put the strips together picking up the cast on and cast off edges.

Next the border decisions.  The pattern called for knitting each side of the border separately but I opted to pick up all the stitches and work the border as one!   I picked up 39 stitches on each side of each square - that was easy for the cast on/cast off edges, but I had to do the math to equally space 39 stitches over 58-60 rows.  I luckily have a 100cm circular needle which can hold all my stitches.  At the beginning and end of each row I do an increase so the corners end up mitered.

I did the math to figure out if I had enough stash to do the border.  I knit a 20 x 20 garter stitch swatch and then weighed it.  4 gms.  I frogged the swatch and measured the yardage. 8 yds.  Then I calculated how many stitches in each colour of the border.  It came out I had enough of one colour, but I really wanted some orange to pop the border.  I went to Michaels and as I walked towards the bins of Loops and Thread DK there was the colour I wanted.  Easy peasy.  And with my 40% off coupon it only cost my 4.99!  I wanted to finish the border with dark blue, but didn't have enough in my stash.  I took the blanket to my quilting friend, and lo and behold she had the perfect colour blue in her stash.  That is where I am today - I will do the last 3 rows in the dark blue and then it is done.
I currently have 1000 stitches on the needle.  Good mindless knitting as I binge watch the new season of Killing Eve.

I have been weaving ends in as I go, so once I cast off and sew up the one mitered edge it will all be finito!

So that was my week. No work on Fisherwoman's sweater, but she will be on deck as soon as this blanket is off the needles.

I have physio tomorrow and the dentist so I imagine tomorrow evening I will be grumpy and sore.

I am working on my list of projects for next year.  I think that it will be pretty free form except for my advent knits.  I also am committing myself to getting my novel published one way or another in the coming year - so that will be at the top of my list too.  I know it isn't crafty related, but it is creative, and it definitely is a project!

Exercise wise I got to the pool only once this week (feeling sorry for myself), but I got in two walks, and I tried a Zumba class yesterday.  It wasn't a real Zumba class as I thought it would be, but it was a class called Strong by Zumba which was like a pilates/aerobics/boxing class.  I did what I could while protecting my arm.  There were a lot of squats so I expect my legs will be uber sore tomorrow.

So that's it for me - except of course the ubiquitous picture of my grand-daughter - sleeping like a baby!  I wish I could sleep like that, but with my sore arm a full night's sleep is still impossible.

To follow other yoppers as we count down the end of Year of Projects 8 check out their blogs here.