March Wrap-Up

I know it's not exactly the end of the month yet, but since I have today off, I figure I better take care of a few of March's loose ends will I have the chance. Next week is going to be extraordinarily busy at work.

First up is the UFO Resurrection Challenge. I'll admit it, this month was hard for me. A lot of my knitting time was taken up with my Design Class and my favorite distraction (I'll admit it), Under the Hoodie. However, I had made a goal for this month to finish my brother's sweater and since I have really been working on this sweater more than 8 months, I think it is safe to call it a UFO. I NEED it done. But, I just couldn't get to it and I KNOW I won't get to it next week. So, I decided (when all else fails make up new rules, right?) that my brother's sweater gets two months toward the Resurrection Challenge. March is the prep-month, where I get my motivation ready to work on it. And April, will be devoted (not entirely, of course!) to finishing it up. Now, I know I am violating the official rules, but I also don't have a full 12 UFO projects, so I was going to need to straddle a couple over two months anyway. Oh well. I still feel like a cheater, so that should count for something right?

Next up is Project Spectrum. Since the first two month period concludes at the end of March, I wanted to share my progress towards my Manos blanket. Since the colors for February and March where blue, gray and white, I only made one square since there will be no gray or white in my blanket. The light in my place is either too bright or too dark, so unfortunately, it leads to some very poor Manos photography. This block is Mallard (36), which is a wonderfully rich blue which reminds me of deep, dark Caribbean Sea water. I had some real trouble trying to capture the beauty of this fabric, but I figure it is just one of many squares to come, I'll pay more attention to the lighting when it comes time to photograph the final blanket.

I haven't blocked it yet, but I pinned it out so you can see what it will look like. Each block will be approximately 14X14 inches. In the pattern, they have you work three strips of four squares each, so you only have two seams. However, I am starting to wonder if I will have any trouble with bleeding. As this is the first time I have actually worked with Manos, what have your experiences been? I like the minimized seaming, but if bleeding is going to be a problem, I'd rather block each separately and then seam a bit more.

The pattern I worked for this square was "Stripe," which is a rib of regular rib and all purl stitches. It's really fun to pick the square pattern for each piece and I'm trying to keep each choice in mind when picking out the next.

Speaking of the blanket and the colors of Project Spectrum to come...I was able to pick up the following at the 25% off sale at Knitting in La Jolla yesterday:

left to right: Bing Cherry (M), Thrush (37), and Cinnamon (V)

One thing that was very interesting, is that by looking at the color selection of the Manos at both Knitting in La Jolla and the Black Sheep, you got a feel for the color preferences of the owners. Both stores had a very nice color selection. However, Black Sheep had more of the cool, deep saturated colors I want for my blanket, while Knitting in La Jolla had more of the light, summery colors. This was a good thing for my wallet as I wasn't tempted to buy more than I needed at this point because of the sale. (Each was less than $10!)

Finally, this is how I spent my Sunday afternoon. While B was reading, Jenny and I took a bit of a cat-nap in Balboa Park. It was heavenly.

I'm going to try and keep this feeling with me while I work my way through Cap hell next week. I apologize in advance for being absent from the blog world next week. See you all soon!