June goals - end of month

At the end of the month it's important to evaluate whether or not the goals have been met, and whether they need to be rolled over to the next month.

Goal 1 - the closet purge.  Not completed.  :-(  Washing has begun, but there's still more sorting and purging to happen.  I'm hoping I can work on this a lot in the next week while I'm on annual leave - so this will be rolled over to July.

Goal 2 - Project life catch up. I've made definite progress, and in some ways this is a silly goal, because it will never be entirely met.  But I'm happy with where I am.

Goal 3 -  Household file.  Not done, in part because the printer isn't hooked up yet.  Rolled over to next month :-)

Goal 4 - blog about Project Life.  July has been declared PL month :-)

Goal 5 - the Tea Towel Stole.  That's not done, but I have completed the Kobo Cover, blogged about my UFOs, AND begun on the Great Big List of UFOs.

Goal 6 - 40% on Goodreads goal for the year.  Not there, but I've made some progress.  This month at least I won't be rolling this goal over.

[Finished Object]: a mat for cats

Bishop helpfully wanders into shot with his cat mat

I'm always reading more than one book at a time.

When it comes to craft projects, I'm the same (have you seen my UFOs list?  And that's the short one.)

I don't always jump into a new project the moment I have the inspiration for it, but this one had a timeline involved.  Two days before we were due to pick up our adorable new cats, I realised that they might like a blanket for their carrier.

Having frogged my first attempt at the baby afghan, I had multiple balls of Patons Jet with no intended project any more. And as I was sorting out my craft room I found the Modal Vera Marvel 'Parrot' that I'd bought for the edging of the LoriBlankeet, a fabulous rainbow yarn perfect for the kitties joining a queer household.

I used the same basic principle as the baby afghan; two yarns, a large hook (10mm) and loose tension. But I changed the pattern, to two rows of trebles and one of DC. It's worked up beautifully quickly, although I don't think I've followed the pattern entirely without mistakes.

What I've learned from this project:

The great thing about the large tension in this is I've finally been able to work out where I've been accidentally adding stitches all this time. It's fantastic to finally work that out and it's going to make other projects much more straight forward in the future.

A bonus:
I had a small amount of the Moda Vera "Parrot" left over, and I worked it up into a headband for me.  There are times when you just want something subtle-but-not-subtle in rainbow colours, and this seemed just right.

Holbrook's Yellow Submarine

For months at my workplace we've been a collection point for pieces of yellow knitting and crochet. The were all bound for Holbrook, a town about 40 minutes north on the Hume freeway.

For reasons not actually understood by pretty much anyone, Holbrook, a town hundreds of km from the nearest ocean, is named after a submarine captain, and has a giant decommissioned submarine sitting in one of its parks.

In celebration of a number of things (World Wide Knit in Public Day, International Yarnbombing Day, Holbrook Sheep and Wool Festival, and the 40th? 50th? Anniversary of the Beatles first arriving in Australia), someone in Holbrook or MurrayArts or something decided to yarn bomb the submarine.  Yellow, of course, given the Beatles connection.

I provided two small pieces of crochet:

Lots (and lots) of other people provided lots more pieces, to come up with this:

I even think I found one of my pieces :-)

More of the photos taken by me, and by my GF, are on the Chez Stutters Facebook Page.  For more fabulous pictures of how the whole project came together, visit the Holbrook Yellow Submarine page.

UFO challenge

Once again, I'm blaming the fabulous Kellie Winnell for this. Kellie posted about a number of her unfinished projects with the challenge of finishing them by the end of the year.

Well, I've got piles of UFOs (unfinished objects) around the place. Maybe one day I'll embarrass myself with a full list, but for now I'm sticking with those I want to finish by the end of the year. I'm also going to limit this to projects that have gone into hibernation, not ones I count as being current (ie the ripple blanket, the Elphieblanket, and the cat mat).

Dish towel stole

Dish towel stole - this was supposed to be a 'quick' version of my quilted stoles. I love the symbolism of the dishtowel, and the stole was inspired by a Maundy Thursday sermon; in 2009. It's meant to be more of a Lenten stole, but I'd like to get it to it's intended recipient before the beginning of Advent this year. (It's also in my June goals list, but there's precious little of June left).

Golden Teddy

Teddy bear - this little golden knitted teddy was only ever supposed to be a 'finish off' project. We found the teddy itself knitted and left (still to be sewn up) in the library store cupboard a number of years ago.. I've sewn him up and stuffed him: all he needs is a face, which I should be able to do with a mixture of surface crochet and wool embroidery. This wouldn't take long if I'd just pick him up and finish him. Then he'll go to this year's church fete in early November.

Tinkerbell Cross-stitch

Tinkerbell cross-stitch - meant to be a Christmas present last year, not finished in time.  We have a friend who is nuts about Tink, and this kit was on sale.  Since I picked up crochet in April last year, I've kind of dropped the cross stitch, which used to be my main form of crafting.  I have another unfinished cross-stitch that is a present for my mother, but that will go into 2015's UFOs challenge, I think.

40th Bithday album

40th birthday mini album - I have all the bits and pieces to put together a mini album of a friend's 40th from February this year.  Except for printing out the photos.  Again - the planned deadline is Christmas.  Obviously, although the picture shows two Core Kits, I won't be using all of them for a single mini-album.  But Blush and Maggie Holmes are the two I'm planning to use for this.

Chez Stutters (the house) album

Our new House mini album - Although I've been trying to keep up with

weekly PL spreads, the GF suggested a mini-album about the move.  There's a lot of work to do on this one, and of all the UFOs it's probably the lowest priority and the least fixed deadline.  But I'd still love to see it done before the end of the year.  This is using one of the new 6x8 albums, all the house and home-related cards from 5th and Frolic, some Ali Edwards digital elements, and Kellie Winnell stamps.

And if you're wondering what the heck it is I'm talking about here, July is going to be Project Life month here at Chez Stutters, so that I can finally get around to blogging my almost-a-year-long-now new scrapbooking method/obsession.

Purple Headband

Purple headband - earlier this year I went on a headband-making spree. I've completed two pink ones, but this purple one got somewhat lost in the house move.  This one matches my work uniform, so I'd like to get it done so that I can wear it next time I get my hair cut. Which really ought to be soon.

TARDIS blanket

TARDIS blanket - it was supposed to be a Christmas present for a friend last

year: I'm determined he'll be given it THIS year.  No, there's no pattern other than one I've vaguely drafted up after looking at various other people's TARDIS blankets on Pinterest. 

Kobo Cover

Finally, and most ridiculously, my Kobo Cover.  All it needs it two snaps, a button, and a chain loop.  I've had the snaps and the button for ages, and I've been using the cover on my Kobo for a good six months: it's just those final little things that need to get done.  This one I really ought to be able to get done *today*.

A little pre-warning...

I feel it only fair to warn readers of this blog (should there be any) that Chez Stutters is about to get two new inhabitants on Saturday (aka "Catterday").

I will try very hard not to turn this into a cat blog, but I'm just warning you all that Bard (left) and Bishop will quite likely make their presence felt, even in cyberspace.

Currently Creative

Kellie Winnell has said that she's reinstating a regular "currently creative" linkup.  As you may have noticed, I'm trying to be more regular with this blog and to build it into an actual blog instead of just an occasional series.

If you're here from Kellie's blog linkup - welcome!  This is what I'm currently creating:


So, there's the Elphieblanket: I'm at 20 of 27 repeats of the main pattern before I start the multiple rounds that make up the border.  And I've read through the pattern for the border enough times that I think I almost understand how it works.

I'm slowly working on getting my craft room set up properly.

And I've created a Facebook Page for this 'ere blog and am working on graphics to use for it.

(For regular updates on posts to this blog, please "like" the Chez Stutters FB page, even though it's currently fairly bare.)

On the hook: the Elphieblanket

A friend is having her first baby, and is moving away from the area at the end of the month, and my GF declared that I was going to make a baby blanket.

Attempt No 1 - I chose a pattern via Pinterest - although I'm using a slightly smaller hook.

I'm using Patons Jet in emerald (which is getting used up ridiculously quickly) and Patons Rainbow in Rainforest.  The Rainbow is gorgeous yarn, comes in a massive 200g ball, and I was grateful that I got balls of both Rainforest and Horizon during Lincraft's sale.

It's a lot plainer than my other blankets, and the edges are no where near as tidy as they should be.

On the evening on June 17, I decided I'd had enough.  I began to frog.

The same day, I'd recieved my copy of issue 19 of Simply Crochet, containing an utterly gorgeous pattern for a baby blanket.  So attempt 2 is using that pattern.

With the second attempt I'll only be using the "Rainbow" yarn, putting the Jet aside for something else.  (I don't know what.)  It will also be a far smaller hook size.

Because either way the blanket will be green, and because we're going to see the musical "Wicked" this weekend, I've christened this particular project "the Elphieblanket".

You can find the appropriate Ravelry entries here (attempt 1) and here.