Wildlife Catch-Up

 In November, I was very sick for two weeks. And when I was recovering, I got more motivated to finish this Wildlife Graphghan project. I finished two squares in the last week before December.

Macaw/Parrot

Red-Eyed Tree Frog

Of course in December, I only finished one more square because I had so much else to do.

Sloth

Then I kicked off the new year by finishing up the last two squares in this project. Next up, attaching them all together and a border.

Koala

Squirrel

Polar Bear

I have mixed feelings about the color choices I made, in some lighting, it really doesn't work. But in other lighting this Wildlife Graphghan square looks pretty nice. Square 15 out of 20. This project is really moving along now.

I wrote these last several posts on the same day and then published them one day at a time. Partly I was putting off spending time writing some things I need to write. Some of them may be blog-worthy and some of them maybe not. I was also hoping that by now I'd have the next project on my list ready to share. And I don't. This is equal parts my not having a realistic idea of how long it takes to do things, procrastinating, and getting hung up on perfectionism. Additionally, I had decided to actually finish this project rather than just do the next part.

Well. Today's a new day, we'll see how it goes.

You Are My Baby Penguin

Being on a bit of a crafting roll, I then spent two days at a conference watch party. In these types of situations, I typically pack one too many craft projects to keep my hands busy while I listen. But in this case, I finished both projects that I took and then had time to spare. It was a little surprising for me.

Part of the problem is that I started with the Baby Penguin from the Wildlife Graphghan CAL already past the halfway point. I had pushed myself the night before to get past the beak so I would have one less roll of yarn in my bag. Well, two less actually because I finished the lighter grey also.

The two greys don't have a lot of contrast, but there really are two shades there. I didn't use the darker grey as the designer had designed because when I look at pictures of baby penguins, that darker grey doesn't make sense to me. I should have known it wouldn't take as long to finish this square since it has so few color changes.

The next past project on my list is called You Are My Sunshine and was designed by Christine Bumgarner. I started it in May 2018 which was in the middle of when I had been working on the Solar System CAL. At the time I was seeing a lot of other people crocheting along with the releases of the pattern and had a lot of ideas about how I wanted the colors to be, but I didn't write any of those ideas down. I'm pretty sure, last fall, when I worked on part 2, I made a fresh plan and then also didn't write that down either. So for part 3, I picked out some colors and made a plan for the remainder and I'll see how it goes.

Keeping the colors simple helps the textures pop out more.

This time I wrote down my ideas for the colors. And by "wrote down" I mean, I made a document in my Google Drive in the folder with the YAMS pattern so next time I pick up this project I don't have to do all the overthinking. I'm pretty excited to see how it pans out.

Horned Owl

Here's block 13 from the Wildlife Graphghan CAL, a horned owl. I finished it July 25th.

Can you see the mistake? I can't stop seeing it. I changed the colors that the designer recommended so that I had a very dark brown instead of black and then an off-white/cream/I don't remember what it's called instead of white. I don't like to use white if I can help it.

I enjoyed making this owl, it's so stern and the colors turned out well even if the photography doesn't show that to it's best advantage.

Pandemic Projects

Apparently in times of distress and trauma, some people are overachievers and some people are underachievers. Guess which kind of people I am. So even though crafting is typically a good coping mechanism for me, I really struggled to settle into any kind of decent crafting rhythm. I halfheartedly picked away at a few different things here and there.

I have about 16 ongoing yarn projects. Some knit and some crochet. One is a temperature project which I always intend to work on daily because it's a small commitment, but I often skip a few days and create a larger task for myself. This could be a bit revealing about other parts of my life. Another project is a Wildlife Graphghan and I consider it my most current ongoing project. So I take the 14 past projects in turns alternating with Wildlife squares. I pick up the next project on my list and complete the next step of it and then I'll do a Wildlife square, then move on to the next past project. 

In late March, I finished a Wildlife square and then gathered the supplies for the next two squares in my Moogly 18/14 CAL project. I made a post about that project in March in anticipation for completing those two squares. Then I got distracted with the April Art Challenge. I had hoped that that challenge would help motivate me to get back into my crafting rhythm, but it didn't. I also participated in a Mystery CAL that I could make a post about but I never took pictures of the final result, so that can wait. Once I finally sat down and forced my way through the squares, it only took a couple of days to churn them out.

This is the 9th block in the 2018 Moogly CAL. It's called Coral and Stone, designed by Elena Hunt of Beatrice Ryan Designs. I'm not super pleased with how it lays and the shape of it, but it's anyone's guess how much of that is a me problem and how much has to do with the pattern. 

The 9th block from the 2014 Moogly CAL is called Op-Art and was designed by Jennifer Christensen. This one was very quick to work up although it would have been better if I'd had more contrast between the colors of yarn. 

I finished these about 2.5 weeks ago and have been very productive in the crafting department since then, but I think that's enough for one blog post.

Slowly But Surely

I've been slowly working my way back into my usual routines. A big obstacle now is sleeping at the wrong times. I'm getting about the right number of hours, just starting in the 2-3am range rather than a more respectable hour. This week I'm going to try to do less scrolling on Facebook and more time doing something productive.

Crafting counts as productive.

Today I finished the next square in the Wildlife Graphghan. But by today, I mean at 11pm. So I don't have a picture. The square I finished in February was a Zebra.

So my crafting routine is to do a square from the Wildlife Graphghan and then work on a past project. I just have to hope I have the right colors of yarn handy. There's also the ongoing temperature project....I haven't knitted any of March yet. I guess I should decide which stitch pattern I want to use now that March is almost over.

ETA: this photo of the Brown Bear Square

Tracking

This is about three fourths of a shawl. I did that thing where I jumped into the project without checking on the required amount of yarn first. Now I can't get anymore of this yarn. That's what I get from detouring from the original plan of alternating between a series of past unfinished projects and current projects.

So today I'm going to get back on my crafting track and start the next square in the Wildlife Graphghan. It looks like I finished a square in February when I was skipping blogging. It was a zebra and I didn't take a picture of it and now it's dark outside. Maybe I'll remember to take a picture tomorrow. Nothing seems very urgent right now.

I have little routines that are important to me and I've taken a break from most of them for a week. So my big goal for this upcoming week is to figure out what my routines look like with the entire world cancelled. Small goal....leaving my phone downstairs when I go to bed tonight... It's important because I'll sleep better but it's hard because having it closer makes me feel less isolated.

Wild

Last May, I came across a very cool looking crochet square pattern that was released by a blogger named Kinga as part of a crochet along she called Wildlife Graphghan.

Unlike other CALs, the squares were released as she finished designing and testing them so there wasn't a set schedule. I kept up with it pretty well for some of the squares and then got distracted with other things.

Some of the colors look better in person than what I've ever been able to get photographed.

That tiger drove me nuts, I accidentally did the wrong color on one of the eyebrows.

These squares use a technique called corner to corner or C2C. You start with a graph of squares and work diagonally.

I like to use Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn. It's softer than Red Heart and I've never had problems with dye lots....until this project. The Panda and Chimp used an older skein of yarn and when I went to replace it, I found that HL has replaced that color with two similar shades of green. One of them has the same name as the yarn I had, but it is not the same color. So I had to choose a different color for this giraffe and now that the full set has been released, I have all these problems to work out.

Anyway. I finished that Giraffe in mid-July. And then following the Temp Wrap, I started the next square, which I've finished today....

While I was making it, I was wishing I had different grey yarns...but the more I look at it, the more I like it. I didn't try to make the color changes as crisp as possible because it seemed appropriate to leave them a little muddled.

My big plan is to do the next step on a past project and then make the next square from this blanket. It's like using one yarn project to take a break from another yarn project.