Classy Crafting and the Ugly Blanket

I apologize for the goofy picture, Siobhain!

I apologize for the goofy picture, Siobhain!

First off, I’ll say this: I miss my classy crafting buddy, Siobhain.  She graduated last May – but before that, whenever we were in class together, she’d knit and I’d crochet.  And it was awesome.  It made classes a little easier to pay attention in, and crafting together was better than awkwardly crocheting in the back corner of the room, like I do in Public Library Management nowadays.  (I still proudly crochet in the front of the room for Metadata, though, as the professor for that class only remembers me because I used to do yarn-craft-stuff at the front of the room with Siobhain!) I’m the only one still doing any sort of yarn craft in my classes – unless I try to encourage people to craft with me, I guess.  And that’s if they’re even interested in doing yarn stuff.  I get a little bit of a social crafting fix when I crochet with Ellie on rainy Thursdays instead of going for our weekly walk, though, so that’s good!  And this May, I’ll be graduating too, and then I won’t need a classy crafting buddy because I won’t be crafting in class! (Unless I go for the Specialist in Library/Info Science degree…)

But yes, classy crafting is in full force.  And this semester, so far, I have made a pretty blanket (which lives at my desk), and I’m working on a delicate shawl to go with my wedding dress and the focus of my post today, an ugly blanket.

An ugly blanket, but oh so soft!

An ugly blanket, but oh so soft!

This blanket came about due to having a huge mess of Mighty Stitch yarn at home left over from the corner-to-corner blankets I made for Ross and myself – it’s so soft, and I love working with it, but the mess that’s left is an odd arrangement of blues and greens with some purple, gray, pink, and white thrown in.  So, the only thing I can think of to do with all that yarn is to use two strands of it together and make a thick, snuggly, small, and ugly blanket.  It’s actually a rather sentimental ugly blanket, considering it’s a combination of the yarn I used for both mine and Ross’s blankets, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy, figuratively as well as literally, to work on it.

I haven’t done much work with two strands of yarn before – it’s a little trickier to work with, that’s for certain, but it results in a really unique look.  One of my classmates in Metadata, Samantha, said that Ugly Blanket kind of resembles some of those woven rugs you might see in specialty shops, and I think she’s right.  It doesn’t really stop it from being somewhat homely-looking, though – some of these colors don’t quite go together well, heheh.

I’ve never actually worked on a blanket in class before.  I figure at some point, it’ll get unwieldy, and I won’t be able to cart it along with me anymore. Until I get to that point, however, I’m gonna load it into Mia (or into my backpack, which I shall take on Mini-Mia, my new bike!), and drag it to Metadata and Public Library Management every week this semester, and keep adding onto this semester’s big classy crafting project: the ugly blanket.

Classy Crafting: Spring 2015

It’s been quite a while since I’ve done a Classy Crafting post – and I was particularly productive last semester when it came to crafts!  I finished two shawls and started a third, and worked on a couple of other random projects that have ended up stuffed in my “in progress” pile in the basement…  Here’s the crafts that I finished this semester, though, that I worked on during my spring classes!

Rarity’s Shawl

IMG_20150311_074717IMG_20150311_074750

 

I made this shawl as a birthday present for Ross’ mom, and draped it over Rarity (who was also part of the gift)! She absolutely loved it.  I had a great time making the shawl – it was my first knitting project in a very long time, and my first project with sock yarn.  The way the yarn striped as I worked on the pattern was awesome to see, too!

Pattern: Pretty Basic (Ravelry)

Cozy Rose Shawl

IMG_20150524_114937The idea for this shawl was born from a Knit Picks sampler pack of yarn I bought – I fell in love with the colors, and had been wanting to make this wrap for a while, and after some creative splitting up of the shawl so it could work with four colors instead of two, I got to crocheting.  It ended up coming out beautifully, and the yarn is incredibly soft.  I wore this with a matching dress to Ross’ mom’s wedding a few weeks ago, and got lots of compliments on it!

Pattern: Ocean Splash Wrap (Ravelry)

Sunset (Shimmer) Shawl

IMG_20150520_145927This one I didn’t end up finishing during class, but I did finish it up during finals week.  This was the result of another pattern lingering in my Ravelry queue matching up with a Knit Picks sampler – and I think this is my most favorite project yet.  While I wasn’t sure about the colors at first, I kept chugging through, and as it came together I fell more and more in love with it.  I originally called it the Sunset Shawl, but then jokingly ended up calling it the Sunset Shimmer Shawl, due to it having a similar color scheme to the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls character of the same name…

sunsetshimmer_twilight

 

… yeah, I do suppose I have to work some pony into everything I do, don’t I? 😀

Pattern: Perfectly Elegant Shawl (Ravelry)

I’ve got some more projects I’m working on, including some crafty nerdiness for my new car (yes, I’m finally learning how to drive) that I’ll show off when I’m done! 😀

 

 

Classy crafting

Little Lovely Shawl

I know this isn’t in the classroom, but still – made a lot of progress!

I’ve noticed a new trend in some of my Information Science classes, and I’m taking part in it as well – there are a lot of students working on knitting and crocheting projects during class!  I brought in my Little Lovely Shawl to work on during Human Computer Interaction yesterday, and while we had wonderful conversations about cognition and how the brain works in relation to computers and technology, as well as trying to assemble a mental model of how an ATM works, my shawl grew by leaps and bounds.

Another classy-craft - this one's a scarf for Bryan

Another classy-craft – this one’s a scarf for Bryan

Another of my classmates was working on a mobius cowl – I might see if I can get a picture of it on Thursday – and one of Bryan’s classmates in his Informatics class was knitting a scarf!  I’m not sure exactly how it works so well, but doing something with my hands helps keep my mind focused on what the instructor is talking about.  Not to mention I get quite a bit of knitting or crocheting done when I have something else to focus on – if it’s just me and the yarn, I tend to get bored pretty quickly.  So, it’s a win-win situation!  I’ll keep posting pictures of the awesome things I make (or work on) in class.  It definitely helped in last night’s Organizational Informatics class – not only did I soak up what was going on, I managed to knit quite a bit of scarf.  And there was the added bonus of knitting keeping me a little more alert than usual – my Tuesdays are the longest day of my week, with class going until 8:30 pm at night – so having something to do with my hands kept me a little more awake.

Speaking of projects to work on in class, I’m thinking of starting a mobius cowl of my own to work on – I’ve got some beautiful purple and brown yarn I want to use up, and I’ve found quite a few interesting patterns on Ravelry.  Ahh, Ravelry – you keep me busy finding good ways to use up all my yarn, hahaha.  Of course, it doesn’t help when yarn stores have good sales on pretty yarn – I spent entirely too much money on yarn this weekend!

To my readers – do any of you knit or crochet in class?  Tell me in the comments, and feel free to share pictures of what you’ve made!