Knitting Sandwich

weather blanket update- german edition

I don't think I've checked in with my weather blanket since way back in May (sorry), so I thought it was about time for me to do so too, lest you think I've abandoned it.  Though I still have a long way to go, I have to say I'm farther than I expected myself to be! I got through mid-November done before running out of white yarn (ack!).  

Thankfully, the first snuggle tests have been met by a seal of approval. 

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Though Johan is just as horrified as mama by all those ends...

It pays to be clever like Melissa and weave as you go.  I'd better get busy! 

-claire

july weather - minnesota edition

july is finished, and, after a day spent playing catch up crocheting the squares for the last 11 days, the july section of my weather blanket is also finished.

again, with only one day in the 90's (the little pink guy) july was a surprisingly pleasant month!  lots of days with highs in the 80's (red).

 *lots* of days with highs in the 80's...

 july is definitely carrying on the iron man tradition!  

my due date is on tuesday the 4th, and i'm just hoping august can hold off on its traditionally hot and humid weather until baby lemon is on the outside!

 -melissa

since people always ask, here's a belly shot from a couple weeks ago (i was 37wks i believe) when we were up at the north shore for a little vacation:

may weather - minnesota edition

with the ending of another month, it is time for another weather blanket update:

 the blanket is growing, and the colors are veering into the warm half of the spectrum.  we saw what i can only assume will be the last low in the 30's until fall...

 and just a few days ago we saw our first low in the 60's...

 things are heating up, but slowly - which is fine by me.  i am enjoying all these pleasant days with their cool evenings.

 who out there is ready for some summer weather?  who is already feeling the high temps?

-melissa

april weather - minnesota edition

things are starting to green up around these parts!  both my lawn and my blanket!

 april was definitely a month to add the kick of color to the weather blanket!  

as was forecast we really did hit 82 degrees on april first!  that's about the only kind of april fool's prank i can get behind.

 i mean seriously, look at that little jokester red square sitting there... 80 deg in the beginning of april... insane!  

 mostly this month added a healthy dose of green to the blanket.  i love love love that grass green color, i would root for temps to be in the 50's so i'd get to use more of it!  

 four months in and i'm still loving this project.  i love having claire's blanket to compare it to (although she is really making me wish that i had white borders around all my squares... but alas, it was not to be.), minnesota's weather definitely is more variable than her weather in bavaria but we're both following the same general trend.  

i'm looking forward to seeing what colors may will bring!

-melissa 

totally hooked

Totally unexpectedly, though it took me almost three years to finish my hexagon blankie, once I finally did I was immediately hankering for another big crochet project.  Luckily the ever-tempting Melissa talked me into undertaking the weather blanket with her and I'm proud to say that I've been keeping up quite well so far.  

Here we are through April already.  As you can see, our weather here in Bavaria is extremely predictable, orderly and stable (as one would expect German weather should be).  My colors are pretty steady- one might even say boring after making TWELVE identical squares in a row.

 

It is still hard for me to get used to no longer living with the mood swings of midwestern weather, as you so colorfully see in Melissa's blanket.  Alas, I'm really enjoying the project and am very proud that I've actually been keeping up with it so far.  We'll see how that goes once baby brother decides to arrive...

BUT if it weren't enough to be committed to daily crocheted temperature squares (in all honestly, I usually wait about 4 days and then do a little group together) I somehow decided I need to take on yet another giant crochet blanket.  This one full sized!  And for me!  I can't remember the last time I made something for myself.  I'm using the the Circle-in-a-Square pattern as a jumping off point in yummy DROPS Nepal Alpaca yarn.  

One thing I've learned by how much I'm enjoying the weather blanket, and how loooooooong it took me to finish the hexagon blanket or (ahem) work on blankie, is that I do best when I don't have to determine colors for each piece as I go.  It always took me so much longer to decide on what color combinations come next than it did for me to actually crochet/knit the thing. And if the light wasn't right or it was too late at night I didn't even feel like I could work on the darned thing.

So my anal side kicked into full gear to spend a ludicrous amount of time planning and mapping out and calculating a gameplan for this blanket.

 

It took a ridiculously long amount of time and was rather absurd the lengths I went to,

 

but now that I have a plan, crocheting this thing is a joy and a breeze.  I'm sure I'll find bits that bug me as I go along but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.  

So there I am, totally hooked on crocheting, I'd have never thought it possible.  Is there anything that's gotten you hooked lately?

-claire

march weather - minnesota edition

march didn't mess around.  it came in like a lion, turned into a lamb, turned back into a lion, and then went out like a lamb.

 yes, do you see that lone orange square sitting there?!?  we had a day in the 70's... in mid-march, in minnesota.  we can hit 70 at the end of march, but this was a pretty big surprise.  then in true  minnesota form a week or so later we got 6" of snow!

 this also happened - a 4 square of matching colors...

 at first it stressed my inner neurotic crafter out, but then i decided since it made a yellow circle in the middle it was pretty cool.  so i just keep breathing deep breaths and embracing the random.

 all-in-all i am extremely pleased with march.  it really stepped up to the plate and brought the colors to the blanket.  well played march, well played.

-melissa

ps - as some sort of crazy april fool's joke the high yesterday was 82!  insane!!  today things are back to normal with temps in the 60's, but we already have at lease one red square to look forward to next month.  

look what she did to me

Sometimes it's dangerous to have clever and creative friends with great ideas.  Very dangerous.

I immediately fell in love when I saw Melissa's weather blanket.  At first it was from a total outsider perspective, admiring from afar what an awesome and fun project Melissa was embarking on.  But then came the email from dear Melissa saying that I absolutely had to make one too...  

And, though I'm a bit terrified at the daily commitment, how could I say no to such a clever and creative friend?  I tried.  Oh how I tried.  Thought of every excuse in the book.  After all, I do have two blankets which I've been working on for years...

 But then I couldn't help but order this while I was deciding

And once THAT comes in the mail you can't help but jump in with both feet, right?!  It arrived only on the 21st of January so I had quite a bit of catching up to do, but as of yesterday I'm all caught up and excited to keep going.

I have to say that I find it incredibly liberating to have no choice or control over what colors come next- I think what stalls me most with rainbow blankie or hexagon blankie is just planning out every combination and sequence.  It takes me WAY longer to find just the right combination of colors to satify my very anal tendencies than it does to actually knit/crochet the darn things.  But with the weather blanket I'm free! I just follow my handy color/temperature guide.

Of course I had to add a little table inside to appease my anal side just a little.  

Thanks Melissa for nudging me into this new 2015 adventure!

Let's hope we are still as enthusiastic and diligent come mid July. :)

-claire

time for sitting is time for knitting!

with winter storm gemini spreading ice and snow across the midwest this past weekend we decided to delay our driving down to tennessee until the roads were clear.  that gave us time on saturday for this:

 as well as a fair bit of time for this:

 we left sunday afternoon after the storm had passed, but it left in its wake a gorgeous display of ice covered nature, so beautiful i just couldn't believe it!

 every *single* blade of grass was coated in a thick layer of ice!

 14+ hours in the car, once i stopped staring out the window i was able to do quite a bit of this:

 we are now safe and sound in tennessee, ready to celebrate the holiday with brian's family!

here's to smart traveling and lots of knitting time!

-melissa

second verse, same as the first!

it's a different week, but the view's the same:

and no, that's not the same snow from last week.  this is new snow that arrived just this afternoon!  

the weather's been all over the place this week, as has my crafting.  (now that's totally a segue worthy of the local news!)

i've been spinning:

i dusted off my dear blankie and have been mitering away:

and then to satisfy the voice saying, "blankie will never end and i need a quick-finish project," i cast on this cowl with some of my handspun:

so there you have it.  we just keep on keepin' on over here... 

-melissa

squares of joy - april edition

my april square for my square a month project for bundles of joy is finished!

four down, five to go!

and speaking of april... this morning we woke up to this:

one last snow day!  hooray!
-melissa