Recent projects

Well, I have been busy, over on Ravelry, doing all sorts of big and small projects.  I'd found a group, which has gone through a few changes in the year or so I've been there, called "Nerd Wars".  They wanted to make some changes, and changed to Nerd Wars: Geek Noosphere. Now, they are back to using Nerd Wars group, but with many changes.  And there is an off-shoot group called Nerdopolis.

In a nutshell - teams were formed for various "fandoms" or Nerd-based interests, and then challenges were posted - you could do any or all of the challenges.  The challenges basically were based around themes, and ran for one month intervals, along with a major project that could take you three months.  At the end of each month, you were awarded points based on completed projects that you could fit into the themes, as well as cross referencing them to your team's "nerdery".  At the end of three months, all points were added up, and you were awarded badges for completing projects, etc.  In other words, it was a more or less friendly competition, with little pressure to compete.  In other words, if life happened and you didn't happen to get points for your team, well, they never made you feel bad.

I enjoyed the camaraderie, finding people who shared some of my interests/obsessions, the mental challenge to match project to themes, and some incentive to finish projects.

I got a shawl and sweater done for the big projects, and I got lots of little things made.  I also managed, as always, to start a lot more projects that I didn't manage to finish on time!  So, my UFO pile grew as much as my finished piles did!!

Among the items finished - my most recent dishcloths.  I have a cloth that was from a swap many many many years ago - could have been back around '98 or so even!  It has lasted, and lasted, and lasted.  When my dishcloths develop holes, I tend to move them to the rag bag, until they are ready to fall apart, then they go to the compost.  This one, though - it just never died!!  It did fade over time, and get where it wasn't coming clean clean after laundering.  Like, yes, it was washed, and it wasn't greasy, and it didn't smell, but it looked dingy. Dark even.  So, I finally put it into the rag bag.  But, I missed it.... So, I decided to make one of my own using the same pattern.

I made (this picture is after I used it for a week, and laundered it yesterday)

The pattern I used is http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/chinese-waves-dishcloth and it mentioned making a tighter fabric by slipping stitches knitwise instead of purlwise.  The first cloth was also made on a slightly larger than I should have needle, as well.  So, I made a second, on a smaller needle and with the tighter, twisted stitches

It will be used next week, after the current cloth hits the laundry :)

I'll post more projects, ongoing and completed, in the coming days.