April Progress

This was a weird month, and its flow-on effects were vast (as I'm sure you can tell by the April post going up on the very last day of May).

I attended the Australian Permaculture Convergence at the end of the month, a five day conference held just outside Adelaide this year. It was far enough from home that camping there was the only sensible option. To compound the matter, the SA Medieval Faire was only two weeks after the Convergence, where I camp with my HEMA/theatrical sword fighting group for the weekend.

Both these events were a string of long, active days, in unfamiliar settings, with even worse sleep than usual. So I basically wrote off the entirety of May for recovery, and treated myself gently for the last half of April.

The earthworm at the APC was pretty cool, though.

• Words written: 14,094
• Weaving time (goal 650 min): 530.5 minutes
• WIPs finished: 2

Goal progress

1. Writing

I had a *great* month writing-wise - a new book idea demanded release from my cranium. Just over 11,000 words fell out of my head, over the span of ten days, with hardly any effort. I enjoyed it immensely while it lasted, but am under no illusions that production will continue at that rate into the future.

3. Weaving and WIPs

3.1 Weave for at least 2.5 hours (150 minutes) per week

This is the first month I didn't hit that goal. I *could* have, technically - but it would have meant adding a lot of stress on top of what was already a stressful end of the month. I chose to forgo the weaving for the sake of my sanity. I did make good progress on tying the heddles for my loom, though.

3.1 Work through “The Key to Weaving”

No progress this month, due to aforementioned heddle tying. Expect more interesting things in the May update (yes, I finally finished tying and installing the things in May).

3.2 Finish at least 12 pre-2023 WIPs (1 per month) from Area 52

One more done, bringing the total so far up to six. I also finished a project started in 2023, which was nice. (Having an Easter deadline for that one didn't hurt in the least.)

3.3 Make some clothes for me, not just for the kids (at least 2 items)

Still no progress here. I'm starting to feel the crunch of not having started on this goal yet. I suspect it won't be long before I have actual progress to report, if I keep feeling this twitchy every time I stare at it on the list.

WIPs

I finished two pairs of socks this month, one for me (started last year) and one for the younger child (started this year as an Easter present).

My socks

The ones for me are in West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 ply, in "Rum Paradise". They've been on the needles since August last year. I used "King Charles Brocade" on the legs to add a bit of interest to the rainbow stripes. It's subtle on the stripes, but lovely. Otherwise they're just my standard toe-up, short-row heel sock pattern, using 2.25mm DPNs.

I did discover during this project that while I love the *look* of King Charles Brocade, it's not a fast stitch pattern for me. The pattern repeat is twelve stitches across and twelve rows high, and while each individual row was easy enough to memorise, remembering which order they went in and keeping an accurate count of knits and purls in each row was difficult. I could only do one or two repeats at a time before I had to put things down and go do something else for a while. Still, the final effect was worth it.

Close-up of the King Charles Brocade effect on coloured yarn.

The kid's socks

The socks for the younger child are in Coop Knits Socks Yeah! sock yarn. (I forgot the name of the colourways and have long since lost the skein tags). They're nice and long so they can go in roller skates, an activity said child enjoys immensely. I knit them on 2mm DPNs since the Socks Yeah is closer to a 3 ply than a 4. They took a whopping 63 stitches around! Socks I make for me, on the 2.25mm DPNs, are usually only 62 stitches. Something about this yarn and needle combination really tightened up my gauge.

It is very hard to photograph this colour combination.

I'm actually quite happy that one of the kids likes knitted socks. They're faster to turn out than an entire jumper, and unlike jumpers, they have a chance to wear out before they're grown out of. I like the things I make to be *used*. I foresee several more pairs of socks in this kid's future. (Especially if I can find reasonably priced sock yarn in colours they like.)

Overall I'd call April a win, despite missing my monthly weaving goal by quite a bit. I exceeded said goal for January and March by a decent amount, so I'm not behind on the yearly goal (7,800 minutes or 130 hours) by terribly much. And (spoiler): I well and truly made up for in it May.