Two FOs!

I am in a finishing mood! And I'm doing really well at resisting the urge to cast on all the things, which is very good. 

So this week, I've got two FOs. First, the picnic blanket that wouldn't end. It took up my whole weekend, but I got it done! Including the coordinating bag! 

That's off the needles - well, hook. It was crocheted from a pattern in Crochet Today's special blanket edition from a few years ago, using a 5.0 mm hook and Red Heart Super Saver in Real Teal and Turqua. 

I didn't think I was a yarn snob, but after working with the acrylic Red Heart, it was so nice to move on to better yarn. It was just so rough on my fingers! I hope that I can avoid using it again for a while. 

After I finished that, I moved on to Heaven - Plymouth Yarn Heaven, that is, in color 122, on US 10.5/6.5 mm needles. I finished a baby blanket for Tiffany and Phillip!

You can see the diagonal stripe in the center if you look closely - I had two balls of one dye lot and four balls of another, so I intentionally spaced them like this. You can't see it so much in person, and really, it's going to be all bunched up around a baby, so it won't matter much. But the point is, I prefer an intentional stripe to a random clump. 

Once I finished those, I moved back to a pair of gift socks. I turned the heel of the first sock, and I'm partway up the leg. I'm nearly done, because it won't be a really tall sock, and I've only used 24g of a 100g skein, so I'm going to be fine for yardage. This is really good, because I want to use the leftover yarn to make a pair of handwarmers for myself! 

Here's a sneak preview of the socks:

Still on the needles are Mum's Moonlight Shawl, my grey stripey socks, dishcloths, and my sock yarn blanket (which I have misplaced! If you see my baggie of yarn scraps, please tell me!). 

Finally, I've also been in a ripping mood. Last week, I started ripping out a ripple afghan that I started a very long time ago. I finished winding all of the yarn back into center-pull balls. A few nights ago, I started ripping out a baby blanket that I started in 2004. That's NINE YEARS AGO. If I haven't finished it by now, I'm not going to. I'm actually going to reuse the yarn to make a baby blanket using the same pattern I'm using for the sock yarn blanket, but I've got to finish ripping it out first, and finish knitting and crocheting a few other things. 

So that's what's going on in my crafting world!