Blog-A-Long

Starting on July 1, I’m joining with a group of other bloggers on Ravelry for a blogging and stitching project.  The project involves stitching your way through either a book, your Rav queue, or a group of patterns you select over a period of a year, and blogging the results.  I will have a big post on July 1 with a list of the patterns that I will be completing, but right now I’m still in the planning stages.

I really like the idea because I do have many patterns that I’ve been meaning to make, but just have not gotten around to yet.  This seems a good way to hold myself accountable to my goals, while reading about and supporting others who are working towards the same aim.  It will also be a good way to get through stash—and also a good motivation to complete any WIPs (works-in-progress) that I have going right now.

With that in mind, I have a few pre-goal goals:

1. Finish Sangria Cardigan (I’m about 1/3 finished and it’s a fairly quick project).
2. Finish Ugly Blanket (a blanket of acrylic scraps of all sizes and colours to get rid of leftovers and less desireable yarn.  It’s almost finished.).
3. Finish a lovely shawl that is currently in time-out.  I was working on it a year ago when I realised I had made some major mistakes that would require ripping out over 1/3 of the nearly-complete project.  Frustrated, I put the whole thing in time-out.  However, I really love the pattern, and so I think it’s time to rip and redo.  And no, it’s not the kind of mistake that isn’t visible—I usually don’t rip back for small mistakes because they don’t bother me, but this effects the structure of the shawl and there is no way to fix it without taking it apart.

I think all three are doable to finish in about six weeks.  I attend two knit/crochet groups per week, so I have at minimum six hours of crochet time per week.  I usually do some crocheting at home a few nights per week, too, and I stitch pretty quickly.

In terms of my goals for the project itself, I do have a large pool of projects as contenders right now.  I need to cull the group.  I also need to separate the group into small projects (like dishcloths, market bags, hotpads, cowls, etc) and larger projects (sweaters and shawls).  In general, I’m thinking of doing nine larger projects and at least 18 smaller projects.  I think I may want to incorporate a charitable aspect into it, too—I have been wanting to stitch pet blankets for shelters, and I think this would be a good way to get that done.  Also kicking around in my brain: if I make, say, three of the same hotpad pattern, is that one project or three?  If I stitch 20 pet blankies, how do I count that?

So, clearly still a work-in-progress.  I do know that I’m going to list my project patterns as a sidebar on the blog and add completion dates as I finish them.  I’ll also post pics here (unless the completed object is a gift for someone who reads this!) and in my project page on Rav.