Today is the last day of the Finish It Challenge!

You have until 11.59 in your time zone to post your FOs on our Ravelry page! When everyone is past midnight on August 1st (that’ll be midday GMT), Pia of Stitches n Scraps will draw for the prizes! All you have to do is post a WIP on the Finish It Challenge WIP discussion page and then a photo of your Finished Object on the FO discussion page. Simple! Can’t wait to see who wins. 😃

And if you haven’t finished, don’t worry, this was just for fun. Look forward to seeing your FO in due course.

TA-DAH!!!! FO – My Finish-It-Challenge Blanket

Well here it is!

I started this blanket on the 27th December 2012 after my Mum fell in love with a ripple blanket I’d made for my sister (you can see it here) but that blanket was a single size, with 2 DK yarns held together on a 7mm hook. This one is a double bed size, with one DK yarn on a 4.5mm hook…

I have a love hate relationship with this blanket. I like the yarn, I like the pattern and I wanted to finish it for my Mum but… I picked it up and put it away more times than I can tell you.

Then came a bloggers chat with Pia from Stitches n Scraps over our respective blankets that we wanted to finish but were struggling with. And from that was born the Finish It Challenge on Ravelry. One month and the WIP had to be over 6 months old.

It was what I needed. I’m a moderator on the challenge. I HAD to finish my own project. For most of July I felt like I was literally grinding out the rows. I *might* have moaned about it on my blog?! (Surely not?) I was so envious when Pia finished her blanket about midway through July! Check it out here. And suddenly yesterday my blanket was done. And then last night at 11.30pm I finished the border.

The border is one row of doubles and one row of single crochet. (Warning, this might be US terminology, I get confused, but I learned to crochet from US patterns.)

So, there we go, my finished blanket. And I’ve finished the challenge three days early. I am grinning from ear to ear. I’m off now to post on the FO thread on the Finish-It-Challenge Ravelry page.

And finally, I took most of the photos outside for the colour, but here it is laid out on my sitting room floor. It appears to be perfectly square. That’s a bit surprising !

You’ve heard me referring to this blanket as the Blanket of Guilt, then morphing into The Blanket of Doom (because I felt doomed to never finish it!). Pia had the Neverending Nightmare Stashbusting Blanket. Hers is now known as the Reversible Rainbow Blanket. I’m not sure what to call mine. All suggestions gratefully received. In any case I shall be giving it to Mum on the 10th for her birthday.

Edit: I forgot to mention that this blanket is partly my friend Sam’s fault. He and his partner Josh bought me half the yarn for Christmas 2012….

Second edit: it took me THREE hours to sew in the ends. Argh!

Third edit: I now think of it as The Thank God It’s Done Blanket 😉

Finish It Challenge: 3 weeks in, is the end in sight?

It’s been a real pleasure over the last few weeks seeing people post pictures on the Finish It Challenge Ravelry group of their WIPs in progress and more recently pictures of the finished items.

One of the blankets that started this challenge, the long term WIP of Pia aka Stitches n Scraps, has turned into the most glorious blanket, which you can check out here. Really I did have to subdue the green eyed monster when I saw it – because it’s gorgeous but also because it’s finished!

It just goes to show, sometimes all you need is support – or a challenge – to get something done.

My own WIP, a striped ripple crochet blanket is now over 80% done. At time of writing I have 28 rows to go – and a neat edging to put on the sides. Oh and sewing the ends in.

Big note to self – when attempting large scale projects in future, sew or crochet the ends in as you go! Last year when taking part in the CAL run by Hannah of Not Your Average Crochet, every week alongside our rows to complete was the instruction ‘sew your ends in’. She was so right! Oh well you live & learn!

This challenge has been really hard for me. I generally switch between projects quite a lot so sticking with the one thing for a month has been tough. And boring at times. But I am going to be SO happy when it’s finished!

If you’ve been taking part in the Finish It Challenge and have turned your WIP into Finished Item, congratulations!

For anyone still working towards finishing by July 31st, you can do it! I recommend working out the number of rows you have to do as well as all the finishing touches and allocate them to days. That way you know what you need to do each day.

And remember, this is for fun! If you do get behind and go a day or so over, that’s ok.

Keep those posts on Ravelry coming!

Sunday in the garden

The morning started rather unexpectedly with D making chocolate brownies. He hardly ever cooks so I was surprised – but pleased!

My friends Sam and Josh and my Mum came round for lunch, with their craft bags and dogs! So we had two crochet blankets and one black cotton cardy in progress as well as Mollie, Lucy the spangold and Bentley the lurcher…

Sam is working on the most amazing granny square blanket:

As he’s also taking part in the Finish It Challenge, I took a photo of our blankets together (we had a bench each as you need to spread out when blanket constructing!) – not exactly neutral!

Mollie kept stealing Bentley’s bed…

So he chilled out on the grass

And after Lucy the hooligan broke some pansies, wore one in his collar!

He’s so sweet – a rescue who has landed on his paws!

It was a lovely day and much work on the respective blankets was done. I manage to catch myself up having done none on Friday or Saturday! After everyone had gone I did more outside, then inside! Determined to finish this in July!

My personal Finish It Challenge

I blogged earlier about the Finish It Challenge that Stitches n Scraps and I are running over on Ravelry. And I wanted to share with you one of the two blankets that started the whole thing off. No doubt she’ll tell you about hers! So this is my Finish It Challenge:

Otherwise known as the blanket of guilt. I’ll explain. Several years ago I made my sister a really pretty ripple blanket; she’d specifically asked for a single size as she gets cold and her husband doesn’t, and I held the DK yarn doubled. I found it boring but it grew quickly and I did two rows a night last thing. It was hard work but paid off. When Mum saw it she asked me to make her one, only she wanted it thinner (ie DK weight) and double bed sized. I agreed, started the thing and then realised what a commitment I’d made! I love the wool I’ve chosen:

I think it’s really pretty too:

The only problem is it’s a lot of rippling. And I get bored easily. I like complicated patterns! I call it the blanket of guilt because Mum asked for it and I want to get it done for her but I’ve put it aside too many times for more interesting projects. However it’s time has come. I’ve mentally committed to it! The only exception will be my Socks with Sarah socks which will be my train project. I’ve bought a 2.5mm Addi circular specially! I’ve dipped out of this KAL for a couple of months because of my knitting wrist (a knitting related injury!) and I am diving right back in again alongside the Finish It Challenge. So there’s my story. Please drop in to our group on Ravelry and see what everyone else is finishing!

Finish It Challenge starts on Tuesday!

It’s nearly time for our Finish It Challenge to start.

StitchesnScraps and I are very excited to get started with this one!

If you’ve signed up, now is the time to dig out your WIP, post a photo onto the Ravelry page and to start preparing. Here’s a few tips to get your start off to a flying start!

– find your pattern. Or work out what you were doing!
– if you’re following a pattern locate where you are in that pattern.
– have a quick look at your work, are you confident you haven’t made any mistakes in it?
– locate the right needles/ hook/ any other paraphernalia you’ll need!
– put it into your favourite [insert craft of choice] bag. A bit psychological this one, but chances are if it’s been hanging around for ages it will be in a bag you don’t use very often and possibly don’t like. Put it into the one you use every day.

And you’re ready to get started on Tuesday!

I also think there’s a good argument for asking ourselves WHY this WIP is so old. Is it because it’s tedious or too complicated or is it because secretly you don’t like the yarn/ pattern/ combination of both? If it’s the first few you’ll love the Finish It Challenge because it’ll get something you like done. If you aren’t sure about what you’re doing, if there’s something about it you don’t like, then you have to ask yourself, will I wear/ use this. If not then frogging something is a perfectly good option.

I’m going to be finishing a blanket during July. This one!

I love the yarn & the way it looks, it’s just BORING! 32 minutes a row! But I’ve got a couple of projects upstairs I know I’m not going to finish, so I’m going to frog them, liberate the needles & wind the yarn up for using in something else.

Look forward to seeing everyone’s creations on Ravelry during July!