WIP Wednesday: Secrets Revealed and New Project Planning

Things have been moving right along with the Fuzzy Mitten Mystery KAL, and this week I managed to actually make up the clue, lol. It's the shell! The mystery is officially solved - it's a turtle :) I was right! 

The nicest part about this clue is that the designer included instructions on how to knit it in the round - bless you, Barbara Prime! lol I really don't enjoy seaming and I don't mind using dpns at all, so this worked great for me. I only had one snag though ... I was knitting and knitting, getting closer to the moment that I would close things up and  be finished. I kept thinking, "Where does the pattern say to stuff the shell? Does it not get stuffed? That's so weird!" and I kept knitting anyway. Then it hit me - I was changing the original pattern - the pattern is actually written to knit flat and then seam, so you would stuff it after it's completely knitted - ugh oh.

I had already finished knitting the main part of the shell by the time I figured this out. Not wanting to unpick my stitches, I tried stuffing it through the teeny tiny cast on hole on the bottom first. It wasn't the most pleasant experience, but with determination it worked, lol. Also, for the record - I HATE this kelly green yarn. It's Loops and Threads Impeccable from Michael's (their in-house brand) - I purchased a skein a few years ago and remembered it was similar to Red Heart With Love, when I saw this awesome kelly green I snapped it up. They have definitely changed their product! This yarn is awful. It's so grippy that I could barely get it to slide off my needles, and it gripped itself ridiculously too so it was difficult to keep the stitches even looking. I had another skein of this yarn, and I took it back I was so unhappy with the kelly green, lol. So just be aware if you're in the market for acrylic yarn - stay away from this stuff!

I'm kind of sad to post a picture of my Agatha cardigan, lol. It looks almost identical to the last photo I posted of it. I did knit a few rows this week, but that was about it. Again, I'm working all over my house and redoing furniture in my spare time, so it hasn't left much time for knitting. I'm not too worried about it though since this is a long-sleeved wool sweater and our temps are in the low 90s in the day already. Ugh. I hate Florida summer.

Also, I had kind of a sad morning a few days ago, and decided to console myself by trolling Ravelry boards. I had seen the Geek-Along last year posted by various people, but it just didn't interest me at the time. For some odd reason, this project really appeals to me now. Random! The cool thing is that this year they are making all the blocks with patterns for either double knitting or tapestry crochet - pretty cool. I'm actually contemplating making two blankets - one crocheted with the official blocks for this year so I can enter the contest at the end of the year and one knitted with random blocks I like from last year along with ones I make up myself. I think it's a fun idea. This year's theme is Mad Scientists (the example block up there is for Tesla), so I think it could be a fun project. They will release 48 free block patterns and the blanket is designed to be made up of 24, so you can choose your favorite blocks as you go. My only change I will make is to use worsted weight yarn instead of sport - I have very little sport weight yarn and my stash is overwhelmed with acrylic worsted, so it's the obvious choice. Anyway, I haven't technically started any blocks yet, but I've watched videos on how to crochet intarsia so I'm itching to get started when I get an evening to myself. The Ravelry group is here if you want to join in the fun!

So that's what I have going on this week :) Head over to Gracey's Goodies to see what else is happening in the yarn world.