I feel like I owe y'all an apology.
There's a post that's been sitting in my drafts since the end of June, about a project I've really been enjoying! I posted a little about it in my old haunt on Ravelry, and I tossed a very early photo into my Discord server, but it hasn't graced Instagram or the blog.
I'll throw the original unfinished post here between page breaks, and then discuss further after:
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(from ~17 June)
With the crochet baby blanket completed and the Umaro/Mayan Blanket/Lunar Crossings frogged (🙃), I'm excited to say I've casted on a new, somewhat portable project: Argil by Clare Lakewood.
Argil was released in Pom Pom Quarterly in summer 2019, and it's been in my queue since I picked up the magazine. Honestly, it's a great magazine and, while I'm never going to like every pattern published, I consistently like several patterns in each issue. I might consider subscribing in the future, but right now I have a hefty library of patterns I like to shop through when choosing a new project.
As a sidenote, my Habitation Throw is still on the needles, and juuuuuust about halfway finished. It lives on the couch as my TV knitting because it's getting to be quite large to tote around.
For Argil, I'm using Less Traveled Yarn's Tweed Me base in the Merlot colorway as my main color, and leftover Knit Picks Stroll Tweed in Oyster Heather for my contrast color. The result should be a very wearable top to pair with a skirt or jeans!
While my WIPs have been dwindling down, I've been thinking more and more about working through my stash. I'm keeping my fiber subscription, but I really want to get through some of this yarn, especially what's been in stash for years. While it's tempting to lean on crochet or weaving to eat up yardage, and I do want to set aside some time to plan out my next large weaving project, the truth of the matter is that I need to actually work on things and continue on my quest to stare at my phone less.
So, here I am, casting on again but not feeling overwhelmed by WIPs.
That was the goal, wasn't it?
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How's Argil doing an entire month later? Good!
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| Porch knitting, best knitting. |
Well, mostly good. I ran out of my contrast color, so it's on hold for a minute.
Otherwise, it's been a very fun, very potato chippy knit. There's a contrast stripe after every six stockinette rows, and that really keeps things moving and makes it easy to measure progress.
I took Argil along on our 1,600-mile (each way) road trip to see our family in the Midwest a couple weeks ago, and it was also a great car knitting project. With only two colors, it fits in a small project bag easily and without too much tangling. We split the drive in half every day with me driving in the morning and my spouse driving in the afternoon, so swapping to the passenger seat after lunch and getting my project out was a super easy transition. I didn't work on it every day, but having the option was great.
Some afternoons I just stared out the window.
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| I really, really don't get tired of this view. |
Currently, Argil is about 75 percent finished, and I'm happy to work on something else until I have the yarn to finish it. I've reached out to folks in my Discord server to see if they have any leftovers, but I'm also not fussed about buying a new skein. It's not an expensive yarn, and I can't imagine having a leftover bit of cream-colored tweed yarn in my stash would be detrimental.
That's about it for Argil right now, but if you'd like to hear a little more about our trip, I'll add some more tidbits below!
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We stayed in cabins most of the trip out and back, and split our time
back home between a cute little cottage and tent camping (joke's on us;
we didn't book early enough to get the cottage over the holiday weekend).
It was hot and humid, so having the air conditioned cottage most of the time was great. We also had some adorable trash panda visitors (parent and three littles) by our campfire, lots of birds to watch, and groundhogs galore. I could occupy myself for an entire week just watching the wildlife. 🦝
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| Hey there, bud. (click to enlarge) |
We also got really lucky over the weekend that we were tent camping because it rained that Friday night, and temperatures stayed cooler over the weekend. Family came out to barbecue, and everyone had a good time. We did have a skunk visitor in the tent camping area, but everyone kept their distance and avoided a spraying incident. 🦨
In any case, I'm going to have a hard time topping this morning view.
Until next time, be safe, stay cool, and keep crafting. 💕
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