Hello, August!

There are no complaints here from me so far with August. Typically one of our hottest months, this year has brought cool temps. I actually turned off the A/C for a day because the high was only 77 degrees! But enough about the weather. It is August which means all sorts of things have kicked off.

First up is the APQ 2017 UFO Challenge. The selected number was 5, which is my flag quilt. I made this quilt through guild with a teacher they had brought in from Tennessee or West Virginia maybe? Can't quite remember since it was back in 2014. Anyway, her name is Sandi Blackwell and her technique was called Square-agonals. It was quite cool the way we sewed up rail fence squares, then cut this way, relaid out the top, and cut and sewed again to made a beautiful rectangular quilt. Here's a picture of my finished quilt top.

Some of my fellow guild members were unsatisfied with the end result because you will notice that the outside edges get cut off. Doesn't bother me but then again, I'm pretty easy to please!

August 1st also brought the start-up of a couple of knit-a-longs for me. I joined them through two different Ravelry groups. The first group is Loopy Groupies from The Loopy Ewe, a yarn shop that started here in St. Louis but several years ago moved to Ft. Collins CO. The KAL is Summer Camp and I've been assigned to the Loopasaurus Camp. The requirements are strict: Must have bought your yarn from The Loopy Ewe no earlier than July 12th; pattern needs to be dated 2015 or later AND use 800+ yards; and you start the project no sooner than August 1 and it must be completed, photographed, and uploaded to the site by August 31. I chose Colorful Wedges Baby Blanket. I figure my Grandma Hope Chest can't get too full! Hahaha! Anyway, I cast on on Aug 1 and here's my progress so far.

Wedges 1 & 2 complete and the third one is coming right along. The bottom wedge is actually a bit redder than the picture portrays. The yarn balls above in green, orange, & purple are the three wedges after the blue. There is always the gray in between. This is such a fun project and I'm loving it!

The 2nd knit-a-long is a Mystery KAL through Very Busy Monkey, a designer that I found on Ravelry. We are all knitting her Anthology pattern. She has a shawl and a sock one and I could choose one or the other or both. I opted on the socks since it was unusual that I didn't have a pair of socks on my needles at the time. I ALWAYS have a pair of socks going! Anyway, not a lot of progress so far.

You can just make out the pattern beginning to develop after the ribbed cuff. See it? only four rows in of the pattern. Need to get going on this!

The clues to this MKAL come out on Tuesdays in August (1st, 8th, 15th, and 22nd). We have until September to complete our chosen project and get it photographed and uploaded to her site. I believe prizes may be involved! Speaking of prizes, I was hoping my beautiful stitch markers would arrive in the mail today. Really wanted to replace that generic green one with a fun one! Oh well, next week I suppose ...

Speaking of next week, have a terrific weekend! I'm going to cozy up with stitching or knitting. Not sure yet which one, but you can be sure I'll be working on something! So until next time ....