The Influence of Exploding Snaps

One of wonderful groups to which I belong on Ravelry is the Harry Potter House Cup group, where I am a proud member of Team Slytherin. If you have no idea what I just said, that's really probably best. So anyhoo, I saw the sign-ups for something called Exploding Snaps and without really thinking it through (this was only a day or twoafter my surgery so there were still loooots of painkillers involved) jumped in to the competition. Actually it's not really even a competition, it's just a Hogwarts-wide attempt to WIP-bust throughout the month of August. So I promised to:

Frog the green silk shawl. I've just ordered a TON of beads so this is an excuse to start over and add beads to it this time. And any excuse for beads is a good enough excuse for me.

Finish a super-secret-up-for-publication project. I didn't really have a choice on this one. It needed to be done and at the magazine's offices by today. I finished it at 4 am on Thursday morning and had it blocked and in the mail by 10.

Finish the pink baby blanket of doom. Not really of doom, but of fluffy pink acrylic, which is basically doom.

Finish my new red bamboo/merino handspun. It's from Frog Tree Fibers and it's lovely, but I'm just having a hard time with it. The bamboo makes it very slippery and I have to hold on tight or it breaks and gets itself all tangled up. Oh well....it should get done this month.

And my big project that I want to Snap out of the picture by the end of August is the Sweet Honeysuckle Wrap in Baby Twist. That way I can get it to count for my 10 Shawls in 2010 too. It's technically lace but it's a strange pattern that I've never been able to get really imbedded in my brain, which slows things down dramatically. That and every time I work on it, this happens:

Lets see....other news.

I have decided to abandon my finish-4-start-1 rule because it's just not working. Instead, I plan to have an exploding snap project for myself every month. So quite simply, take one project out of hibernation per month and try to finish it. This applies to all crafts, including sewing, cross-stitching, rug-hooking, spinning, and crocheting as well as the obvious knitting. This month has to be a knitting/crocheting/spinning month though since it's a ravelry thing.

I'm going to be designing a pair of socks soon. The design will be available for free to all of the members of the True Blood group on Ravelry (and anyone else who asks nicely). This is a pair

of socks for Sookie and will have optional beads. Since it's just a self-publishing thing, I'm not going to worry about keeping it super-secret.

I won a few ribbons at the fair! Woohoo! The Seascape stole placed second in Knitted Lace, any item, and I also placed 4th in Handspun: Llama or Alpaca with 4.2 ounces of fingering weight llama that I got from PegAlex while she was stashbusting. The best stash is free stash! I also got Honorable mention for Handspun: Novelty for some yarn that looks like an acid trip that I spun a while ago. I'm pretty proud of myself for this even though the handspun that I was sure would do well didn't even place. Oh well- can't win them all!

In other news, my cat likes salad.

Happy Knitting and have a great day!