Blog Week Day 2: A Mascot Project

Since I labelled myself as a project crafter yesterday, it won't come as a surprise that actually sitting down and consciously picking a project is really hard for me. I trawl the pattern database on Ravelry almost daily to some extent, and despite all the pretty stuff I see, I hardly ever actually sit down, pick a pattern, buy the yarn and make the project. Rather, I get an idea and fiddle around a bit on my own first, and if I don't figure it out myself I might look for a pattern to make with some stash yarn. It's no surprise that most of my projects are small things like amigurumi or hats or mittens... Most of which were made with stash yarn.

These days, most of my 'inspiration' to create comes from other people, as I'm sure is the case with many of you. I regularly thumb through the new projects on Ravelry, and there's a topic in a group I frequently visit called 'Patterns not everyone has seen' that is really inspiring, it's almost 300 pages of patterns with 100 projects or less and there's gorgeous items in there! Most of them are garments or accessories, and as I was looking through the posts with this day's topic on my mind, I did consider going with a more ambitious project as my mascot.

However, my first idea for a mascot project for this week was a blanket. Blankets are often worked in smaller pieces, like blocks or strips. and then sewn together later, so they really are projects that you can work on whenever you feel like without too much hassle, or without having to either memorise or stick to a pattern.

Were I to pick a blanket, I would have to choose one of the following:

© Clockwise to centre: Kate Davies, A Passionate Yarn, Solveig Grimstadt, Bumpyduey(Ravelry), Crochet86(Ravelry)

Clockwise to centre, these are:

1. Kate Davies' Rams and Yowes Pattern. Rows and rows and rows of little sheepsies, how adorable is this? I think I first saw this blanket on the blog One Sheepish Girl though I might be mistaken on that one. It's a knitted blanket, and that alone would put me in a position to learn so much techniques in order to even be able to make this one that it's unlikely to be a pattern I'd go for, but honestly, despite that, it's still a lovely blanket that I'd love to have. Sheep! I mean, come on!

2.  A Passionate Yarn's Easy Meadow Lace Baby Blanket Pattern. The name is a mouthful, but what a cute little blankie! From what I can gather, the pattern is easily memorised and knits up quick.

3. Solveig Grimstad's Flowers in the Snow Pattern. It's so pretty! What can I say? It looks so neat and put-together, and even though I'm not a flower person I'm drawn to this one like bees (ha!) to honey!

4. Attic24's Neat Ripple Pattern. I love this pattern because it's so easy to memorise and leaves the colour options wide open. Ripple a rainbow? No problem. Ripple an ocean? No problem! As moderator of the We Love Lucy-group on Ravelry, I have seen every colour combination in the world, from bright to subdued colours, from rainbows to randoms, from simple colour changes to interlocking ripples... I'm very partial to the interlocking rainbows, though.

5. Sarah London's Wool Eater Blanket Pattern. I actually started this one once. With leftovers. Needless to say it's in hibernation now because this one is called Wool Eater for a reason. It's lovely, though.

But I'm not picking a blanket. Nope. My post yesterday may have already shed some light on this, but I'm ready to move on to bigger, better projects, but need to pluck up the courage to actually do something out of my comfort zone, in other words, something that's not crochet. Knitting it is! Now, since most of my projects are chosen by sheer coincidence of having a type of yarn that suits a type of project, I've decided to dedicate this post to my box of skeins that I originally bought to make a knitted, lace shrug. I've got the needles, I've got the yarn, now let's see what I can make with that, shall we? In pure me-fashion, I went through my favourites on Ravelry to find some patterns that I liked, not paying attention to yarn weight or anything as for most shawls, this only influences the size and that's adjustable in most patterns. Simply do a repeat or two extra!

© top-left to bottom-right:Veera Välimäki, MrsSophie(Ravelry), Veera Välimäki, Martina Behm, Trefles(Ravelry)

Clockwise from top-left to bottom-right, these are:
1.High on the list of possible projects is a shawl like Different Lines by Veera Välimäki. It's a really popular pattern on Ravelry, with over 1100 projects listed, and it incorporates 2 colours of yarn into a striped shawl. I love it! It's modern, it's got stripes, and it's mostly stockinette (I think, haven't seen the pattern yet), but it's got an interesting design.

2. Stephen West's Daybreak. I think everyone and their mother has made a Daybreak by now so it shouldn't come as a surprise that I too have hopped on the Westknits bandwagon. Of all the designs he's made so far though, this one is definitely the most likely to ever end up on my needles, though whether that is soon, I cannot say.

3. From the same designer as the Different Lines shawl, there's also the Stripe Study Shawl. It's so pretty! Similarly to the Different Lines shawl, it's a modern, stripey shawl with a twist in its design.

4. Martina Behm's Leftie. A shawl designed for leftovers? I have those! And plenty of them, too! The only downside would be that I have no idea what my leftovers are made of, so it would be an experiment to actually make this without having to rip out the colour rows all the time if they come up to short or the yarn is off in thickness and warps my knitting... But it sure is adorable.

5. Marc Smollin's Megalodon. More stripes! More asymmetrical shapes! More of basically the same things in the previous patterns. I'm sure you've begun to see a pattern here too.

If I had to choose, I'd go with the Stripe Study shawl. I love the slightly asymmetrical look, it looks easy enough for a beginner like me, but it's also interesting due to the design. I think it also looks like a project I can easily put down and pick up whenever I want, even if it is a big shawl, because there's no stitch pattern to keep in mind or follow religiously, like my first ever crochet shawl, the Elise shawl, where I messed up so regularly and had to rip back a whole row that it was no longer funny! (which reminds me, I need to block that monster again, it's beginning to look a bit scruffy.) The Daybreak is a close second, though. Like I said, I might have to make one for myself someday soon... But after I've made the Stripe Study.

Is it the perfect project for someone like me, from the House of Bee? I like to think so. It's a big project, one that I can merrily work away on and it will satisfy my need for relatively easy projects that I can work on whenever I want!