April craftiness

It's May already? This year is just flying by! Temps are warming up (I think we hit 85 the other day) and everything is greening up (before it turns brown again over the summer). I've been working on greening up my own space too. But that's for another post. On to the craftiness!

I've worked just a bit on my poncho, but not enough to show any real progress. I did have a couple knitting FOs though! First up, Brickless from the skein of handspun I finished in March.

Brickless, paid pattern by Martina Behm

It's already in it's new home. My mother loves lilacs so I sent this shawl to her for her birthday in April since the yarn is shades of lilac and green. =) I've had this pattern for ages, but hadn't gotten the urge to knit it until now. Not sure what took me so long. It was a lot of fun to knit and a super simple pattern to memorize. I just had to glance at the pattern to see how many to bind off for the different sections. I may make another of these some day for myself.

Next, I grabbed a skein of yarn I dyed myself back in the Fall of 2013. I kept holding onto the skein for the perfect project and thought I'd found the perfect match with the Shard shawl I snagged when the designed had a coupon code for a free pattern recently. Here's the skein:

It's color blocked with sections dyed in blue/green, blue/purple and grey. I've seen a few finished Shard shawls online and really wanted to make one. I'm not entirely happy with my result:

Shard shawl, paid pattern by Romi Hill

I in no way think this is the fault of the pattern, though I really think this needs to be a 2 skein shawl with more repeats than the pattern calls for. I only had the one skein and no way to recreate it so I took my chances. What I ended up with was an awesomely textured, tiny shawl. The depth is fine, but the length isn't something I'd ever use. I still need to block it and I'm guessing it'll grow some, but I don't think it'll grow enough. I'll decide after blocking what its fate will be. I may frog it or I may just move on and donate this one. Some people do like small shawlettes... Either way, I may very well knit this again with more yardage. The pattern is very easy to follow and memorize.

At the same time I started the Shard, I caked up another skein to try out a Pinch shawl. Two projects involving tons of short rows probably wasn't the best idea. lol

Pincha shawl, free pattern by Pinpilan Wangsai

What you see above? Yep, it still looks like that. I haven't frogged it yet, but I think I will. Nothing against the pattern. I've seen some awesome finished objects! But it's all short rows that you really have to pay attention to and I think I got my fill of short rows for awhile. ;-)

Not much sewing happened last month, but I did sew up a few very useful bags for my little backyard garden space!

I picked up a roll of landscape fabric and pulled out my serger that was already set up with some polyester thread and whipped out several planters in no time. I've been debating between doing containers or a raised bed or possibly just digging up a larger space in my yard than I used last summer to avoid the cost of materials and soil. I've been planting perennials (lots of berries!) around the edges though so space was dwindling if I didn't want to cut too far into doggie space. My yard is tiny and frankly, I wasn't excited about weeding and didn't really have the budget for a lot of materials so... containers won! ;-) And these were super easy! And cheap!! Win-win. I just cut off a section of fabric, folded in half and seamed up both sides. Then I boxed the bottom corners. I folded the tops down to give a smidge more stability. I played around with the sizing and finally settled on a good size then planted away until I ran out of dirt. Once I get more soil, I'll whip up a few more of these for the seeds I have started in little peat pots. The dirt in my yard is about half rocks (yep, lots of fun planting my trees) so containers mean mobility and good dirt. I'm sure the plants would thank me if they could. =)

So, not a ton of crafting last month, but it all made me happy. Okay, the one didn't so much but frogging it won't bum me out either. lol I'm hoping to actually finish the poncho in May and I already have a pair of socks on the needles... it's been ages since I knit socks! For me it's all about crafting what's making me happy though so it's all good.

Until next time, I hope you all craft what makes you happy! =)