So here we are again, another Sunday and another Year of Projects update. This week I have been pretty productive. I finished my iris crochet shawl and started did some more on the elise shawl. I only did a couple more rows though as my hook has been annoying me. It’s plastic, which I admit has a tenancy to annoy me anyway because I feel like my yarn is sticking to it some how. This one also has a flat bit where the size is written (like most do) and the edge between the round bit and the flat bit lewis catching on my yarn. We’re of to a bbq today so hopefully I’ll have time to go into the craft shop before we get on the train and see if they have any other brands. The shop I normally goes to only has pony brand hooks which are cheap and handy, but not as computable for me as the single Boye hook I have. It’s my birthday soon though, and I’m asking for a set of nice foods to replace them - at which point I’m tempting to see if I can adapt the pony ones to try knooking…

I also was very good yesterday and made another octagon for my blanket! I have to say that whenever I finish one and it’s the same size as the others I’ve made, it’s quite a relief! Once I’ve finished doing all the main colour groups I’ll try too blur them and do blue and purple and green and yellow, etc. I’m really enjoying the pattern and I nearly have it memorised although taking a week off didn’t help me. I do have a very long way to go now still and I’m not expecting to finish it this year.

I’m so glad it’s Friday again! I missed last weeks FO Friday, but this week I have something to share. My Iris shawl is finished! Blocking was an adventure, as you can see from yesterday’s post and last night it finally finished drying in time for me to finish sewing in the ends before bed. At one point I started to think it would never be dry, but then again, I do get impatient! We took the photos this morning before work, and the weather just wasn’t co-operating, so we had to use the flash, and the flash does not flatter me, so I have no head!

I’m really happy with my shawl. More than I thought I’d be I think. I really like the pattern. It’s pretty quick and very easy to learn. The silk on the other hand was really annoying to work with. I’m glad I got it on sale, because I’d have hated to pay full price and be so annoyed with it while working. If I do work with pure silk again, I will try out another brand I think.

The blocking really helped to bring out the pattern in the lace, and it is wonderfully soft. It’s pretty warm too and I’m (selfconciously) wearing it to work. I don’t normally wear scarves, except in winter, but the air conditioning in our office makes it feel cold enough to be winter sometimes and I’m tired of having goosebumps!

Don’t forget to check out everyone else’s awesome FO’s over on Tami’s Amis!

Last night I finished off my shawl and got down to blocking it, which took ages and a lot of crawling around on the floor! In fact it took me so long, I didn’t have time to check out everyone’s WIP Wednesdays, until I went to bed and checked them out on my phone (which means I couldn’t post on any of the blogger ones, sorry!).

The pink is my yoga mat, but it was too thin by itself and the pins wouldn’t go into the floor at all, so there’s three towels underneath it, which helps a lot. It also wasn’t quite wide enough, so I have a tea towel under there to raise up the height of the towels to the same as the mat. I pinned the whole thing out, which turned out to be a mistake. Then I soaked it with a spray bottle (and considered whether a watering can would have been better) and then I discovered it was stretching a lot more so I unpinned it, stretched it out more, and pinned it again. All in all, I’m pretty happy with it. Next time, I think I’ll just soak whatever I’m blocking in the sink and then pin it out, but for the first time I thought it might be easier to block it out dry (and I was wrong). Hopefully by the time I get home from work it’ll all be dry, it was halfway there this morning I think. My husband can’t have a shower until it’s dry, because his towel’s underneath it too!

It’s yet another Wednesday and everyone is showing off their WIPs on Tami’s Amis. I love WIP Wednesdays, it’s awesome to see what everyone is working on - although it does take me a couple of hours after work to get around everyone’s blogs!

Since Sunday, I’ve just been working on my Iris Crochet Shawl and it’s nearly done. I just need to finish off the row of tc and a row of dc and it’s ready to have the ends sew in (which I hate) and blocked (which I’m really, really nervous about). It’ll be the first thing I’ve blocked - because I’ve been putting it off with the scarves I’ve finished. Click the photo to see it full size - it looks better, I promise! Unfortunately, the rest of my last ball of silk is the worst of the lot (which is why it was saved till last) and the end of the ball is looking very hairy and has the worst thick bits of the lot, so I’m going to get a new skien today to finish it off.

Last night, I also started the Elise Shawl. I’m using Drops Baby Alpaca Silk in off white and it is gorgeous! The yarn is so soft and it feels wonderful. I’m really going to enjoy working on it. The Elise Shawl has been bumped up because I’m going to wear it with my dress for the “casual” wedding my father-in-law and his posh partner are having. The wedding is the 17th of September, and we go on holiday on the 10th (with my lovely mother-in-law) so it has to be finished and blocked before we go. This gives me about two and a half weeks to get it done! Hopefully it’ll be quite quick (like the Iris Shawl that I started on Firday). I’ve reached the point where the pattern repeat gets going, and it’s very easy to memorise, and I’m enjoying it so far - it also doesn’t have any long chains (other than turning chains) which is definately a plus for me.

Don’t forget to check out Tami’s Ami’s and everyone else’s posts!