A busy week

This week has managed to feel both quiet, and yet very, very busy at the same time. And annoyingly I can't share all I have been up to, because the main part of my week has been grading a pattern that has been submitted, so it has to stay secret until I get a yay or nay.

I do have quite a bit to share though, between spreadsheet wrangling I have been doing crafty bits to keep myself sane!

On the needles:

I have a rather neglected Touch the sky in some beautiful alpaca/silk/cashmere. I had a bit of a wobble on this, I am past the sleeves and heading down the body but then couldn't decide if I really like it. In spite of the garter stitch on the edging it rolls under and I couldn't decide if I should frog it. 

In the end I have decided to keep it, but it is having a bit of a hiatus while I work on other things.

The project taking up most of my time is a sample knit. The Let love grow pattern has been out for a while, but I have always planned to make a blanket sample to go with the cushion. The yarn has been sitting waiting for a long time so I finally got to casting on. It is well under way, five and a half squares down out of nine.

Off the needles:

Hmm, nothing really unless I can count the blanket squares, but they are project bits, so I guess not really.

Designer goodies:

I mentioned my big project above, it has finally been submitted so now I just have to wait on that. 

Much more excitingly I have a freebie released this week. Affogato is a speedy aran weight mitt pattern designed to use up leftovers.

In case you were wondering about the name, it means "drowned" in Italian, but is referring to a type of coffee that has a scoop of ice cream (or gelato) covered in a shot of espresso. I don't drink coffee, but the coffee fans in my knitting group get very excited about it. 

Other crafty pursuits:

This week I have been wet felting, trying out some colours to see how they felt together.

From this:

To this:

I also made my first attempt at a wet felted picture, inspired by the aquatic theme of the piece above I went for a fish.

A couple of details were needle felted on afterwards, overall quite pleased with how this came out.