Three On Thursday

January 18, 2018 By Carole

I made myself a promise that this year I will be better about tracking my knitting on Ravelry. I was an early tester of Ravelry (my number is 31!) and I used to be obsessed with it, constantly checking my friend activity page, queuing up lots of patterns, taking and sharing photos of my knitting and handspun. In recent years, though, with the advent of Facebook and Instagram, Ravelry just became another social media platform and I got overwhelmed with trying to stay on top of it. So I just sort of stopped. I didn’t stop knitting and I didn’t stop using it for finding and purchasing patterns, but I definitely stopped tracking things – my knits and yours, too.

I have a plan, though, for using Ravelry more and I bet you know, since today is Thursday, that my plan is a 3 pronged approach.

Thing the first: getting my project page caught up with the things I knit last year. I spent some time on this the other day and made pretty good progress. Once I photograph Peace Cowl #2 (it’s currently blocking) and once I block and photograph the Islington Shawl, I will be completely caught up there. And that gives me a chance to start fresh with 2018. I love a fresh start.

Thing the second: Using my phone to get update Ravelry. First, I set up a shortcut to Ravelry on my iPhone. And then I read about how to start a project on Ravelry from my phone. I’m a big app user but there’s no app for Ravelry. Turns out, though, that it’s pretty friendly for mobile use and that will make a world of difference to me. For one, it means I can add a project no matter where I am when I start it or think of doing it. For another it means that I can add photos of my project right from my iPhone. That alone will make it super convenient for me to keep my project page current.

Thing the third: The Ravelry Project Challenge. You know I can be a bit, errrr, competitive and the idea of a knitting challenge truly appeals to me. I haven’t made any definite decisions yet of how I will use this challenge but at it’s simplest it will be similar to the GoodReads challenge I set for myself every year. Seriously, if I can commit to reading 75 books then I really ought to be able to commit to knitting a specific number of knitting projects. Plus, I think it’s a great way to narrow down my queue to the things I really want to knit soon.

I bet you all are big Ravelry users and if you’ve got tips and tracks for how to use it to my best advantage I’d love to hear them!

If you wrote a post for this week please include your link below so we can all see what you’re talking about this Thursday.

An InLinkz Link-up

Wednesdays Are For Knitting: Project Peace 2017

January 17, 2018 By Carole

Hey y’all – I have my first finished project of 2018 to share with you today. (And let me just say, I have a few from 2017 that I haven’t shared yet that I will be posting in the coming weeks.) But, for now, Project Peace 2017 is done and blocked.

The shape is a big ole long triangle, which is not the easiest to photograph but I think you can get the gist of it here.

The yarn for the stockinette section is Plain and Fancy Sheep & Wool Co. Sport which was, if I recall correctly, a gift from Margene back in the day. I’ve been saving it for the perfect project and I think peace and Margene go pretty well together. In other words, the time was right to finally use this yarn.

The feather and fan section is Woolen Rabbit Sporty in the color Pumpkin Patch. (I think. I’m not actually 100% sure on that.) And it’s a really nice compliment to the Autumn Leaves color of the Plain & Fancy. And I do love to knit feather and fan. So easy and fast but with a great pay off when it’s blocked.

As I said, the shape is odd but once it’s wrapped around your neck it all works out. And it doesn’t slide off which is definitely a bonus. It was a soothing knit, for sure, and I look forward to the peaceful feeling of wearing it.

So there. A finished handknit and it’s only mid January. How ’bout that.

Thinking About Peace 28/30

November 28, 2017 By Carole

Peace is my One Little Word this year and it’s been on my mind a lot. I’ve found some great ways to incorporate it into my home as well as into my life, and, even though I have pretty much dropped the ball on the monthly prompts from Ali Edwards, it’s been a true experience of growth this year.

So, in that spirit, I have decided to sign up for Project Peace again. It was slightly on my radar (but not really) and then yesterday I read The Healthy’s Knitter’s blog post called Say YES to Peace and next thing I knew I was texting Kym and asking her what she was planning and then, just like a monkey on a cupcake, I was purchasing the pattern.

I’m not sure about the time frame (and whether or not I’ll stick to it) and I’m not sure what yarn I will use (but I’m sure there is something in my stash that will work) but I am sure that anything that helps me to focus on peace as a daily habit is good.

Won’t you join us on the peace train?

Unraveled 15/30

November 15, 2017 By Carole

I spent a lot of time in the car last weekend and generally that means a lot of time knitting. However, much of our travel was at night and that made knitting difficult. And honestly, during the day I was checking out the scenery. So. Not a lot of knitting time while in the car. I did finish Hannah’s socks (I’ll share good stylized photos of those later) and I started a pair of fingerless mitts for me.

The yarn is leftover Woolen Rabbit Opal in the color Oh Ruby and it’s super soft. I’m sort of winging the pattern. I cast on 52 stitches and I knit 2×2 rib for an inch and a half and now I’m just going round and round. When I get bored I throw in a few purl rows or a YO K2tog row and then I knit round and round again. We’ll see how this works out. And yes, I do always coordinate my knitting project with a Stitched by JessaLu Bag.

On the reading front, like the knitting, I did not get a lot of time to read over the weekend. However, I’m fully into Little Fires Everywhere and really enjoying it.

Head on over to Kat’s to see what everyone else is making and reading!

Unraveling 8/30

November 8, 2017 By Carole

Friends. I am in the home stretch on my Islington Shawl. I’ve been working on this for months and months and on Sunday I finished the last row of the border chart.

I was worried I was going to run out of yarn.

But I didn’t.

Now it’s just a few rows of garter stitch and then a somewhat time consuming bind off and this beauty will be done.

On the reading front, as good as some books are, others just aren’t. 4321 may have left me with a bit of a book hangover, honestly, because everything I’ve read since has felt lackluster. BUT. I just started Little Fires Everywhere and I’m hoping that pulls me out of my reading slump.

What are you knitting and reading this week? Head over to Kat’s to see what we’ve all been doing.