For awhile, I kept track of how many stitches I used, in which yarn. Then I settled into 48 stitches, with the right side having a ssk before the middle marker and a k2tog after it. I didn't like how stretched and tall the tops were, so more recent squares have decreases in the second-to-last row, too.
At some point along the way, I bought 3 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill sockyarn in black.
I hit 100 pairs (adult-size) knit. I churned out mitered squares here and there.
And then, last week, I was staring down the barrel of 14.5 hours of virtual but live training - a zoom call with 400+ participants.
I scrounged and found one skein of the black. (Where are the others? Still don't know.).
I found a small-ish enough crochet hook. (US E4/3.50mm)
And I got hooking.
Why make things small when you can make things big?, I asked myself. So I made it 12 squares across - not crazy huge, but big enough to cover me up, not just a lapghan.
By the end of day 1, I'd gotten the first row of 12 squares and the second row of 11 squares outline in black and slip-stitched together.
By the end of day 2, I'd gotten the next two rows attached to each other and to the first chunk.
Fully aware that once I put this thing down, I will forget what I'm doing, I'm trying to work on it a bit every day, and yesterday I got another row added. If I happen to put it away and forget about it for another 12 years (not impossible), I should know that the edging is two stitches out of every three, single crochet, with more around the tops, and it's slip-stitched into every stitch, easing differently-sized pieces together however works.
It has also become clear that the black will probably not be enough (though in the first row, I hadn't yet figured out to only pick up 2/3 stitches, so that used up more than an average row will). It has further become clear that the Cherry Tree Hill black super sock is discontinued. (Angry frowny.).
It is even further looking like I'll need many, many more squares. So, maybe by the time I run out of black, another solution will have presented itself.
Yarn!
I spun some stuff!
This is Allons-y! Fiber Arts merino/bebeh camel in the colorway Fiber Romance, spun thin-ish and then chain-plied. I'd guess it's about a sport weight. I told Rav it's 434 yards, which was good thinking, because I immediately forgot that fact.
This is Allons-y! Fiber Arts merino/cashmere in the colorway Open Concept. I was not a fan of the yellow/gray trend of however many years ago that was (2? 8? no idea) - but this is a yellow/gray combination that spoke to me, and what it said was: yasssssss.
I also thought, "boy, it would bother me deeply if I could turn all of this utterly luscious fiber into a yarn that could be used in a single project - I'd better do something harebrained." So I divided it into three strips, and it wasn't an even division, and I decided to fix it in post, which is to say, spin them each a proportional thickness and somehow end up with all three of them ending up the same length.
No. That did not work.
But, the above yarn is delightfully unbalanced and sooo squishy, and I have no idea how much there is 'cause I was done with this "measuring things" horse pucky, so it's definitely enough for a cowl.
Then there's this - a chain-plied super-thin I-can't-even-communicate-how-many-times-this-single-broke several hundred yards (I'm guessing, who knows) that is also soft like butter and goes from gray to yellow and back to gray.
Other Stuff
Okay, I know I've been working on other stuff. What, though? Oh yes:
Baby Quilts
Here's a baby quilt top:
Okay, that's sideways. I blame the pandemic. This has a white inner border and spotty blue outer border now, which I have not photographed. Due to my brilliant planning, this bad boy also has a zig zaggy green backing, though I'm not sure what the binding will be and any day now will drive an hour over bumpy, broken roads, don a mask, and use my birthday month coupon to buy some handsome binding at 20% off.
This baby quilt, which has, since this terrible picture, been sewn together and is awaiting borders, is mostly Terrarium by Elizabeth Hartman. I love it, a lot, and have reminded myself that having the best baby quilt ever in the history of the world is no reason to have another child. (Children are so much work.) I have a green on green butterfly backing for this and it will also need binding.
Stuff More
The Tour de Fleece is happening, though the Tour de actual France is not. I've spun more Nest in Good Intentions:
It is so pretty and happy and I love it and look forward to plying, which now that I think about it could happen tonight, given that last night I finished the first half of this:
Which is Frabjous Fibers merino in Cathedral (#235). I feel like a total dilettante in my Hoar de Fleece group, with people who spin mostly fiber that looks like it grew on an animal and understand the difference between short and long draw and woolen and worsted spun. I do none of those things, but they tolerate me anyway.
Craft on, craftykins!
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