Year of Projects 2025-2026: Week 24

I’m delighted to say I have finished up my Bloom shawl this week. It’s currently blocking so I’ll do a separate post around it later this week.

With that done, here’s what I’m working on currently:

I have started back to work on my Book Club Cardigan by Sari Nordlund. I’m using Berocco Blackstone Tweed in “Steamers” from deep stash. I’ve gotten the shaping down for the back shoulders and now I’m on the “knit as set-up part of the back so it’s now just following along the chart repeats.

Next, I went through my WIP project basket and pulled out another larger WIP that’s been sitting for quite a while. I had invested in a soft gemstone inspired colorway set from Hue Loco (the Geode set) and originally thought I wanted to make a modular hexagon blanket using the colors. While this would have been beautiful, I got really bogged down on this one and I think it’s because I didn’t want to join all the small hexagons together. So I did a little Ravelry searching and found Hooked with Robin’s Granny Ripple blanket and I’ve restarted this one with an all-in-one construction. I’m going to use the colors as a sort-of fade as shown next to the first few rows. I’m not entirely sure what I will do with the hexagons I’ve finished but I have 18-20 or so of them, so perhaps a smaller baby blanket?

I’m also working on a pair of quilts for my cousin’s little girls (7 and 8). The pattern is Shimmer Sky from Modern Charm Stitchery and I’m using their requested palette of pinks and purples. The first quilt top is finished already.

And I’ve got 3 of the colors for quilt two sewn together and I’m working on the 4th of 5. I’d like to try to get the blocks done in the next week and then sew the second top together over the holidays.

I also put in about 800 stitches on A Long Winter’s Nap. I pulled a floss color that had about 2500 stitches and was fairly evenly scattered throughout the design and used that to fill in a bit at the center bottom and then worked my way around the perimeter so I have that vaguely delineated as the outside border. I’ll continue to work away on it this week.

Finally, last year I did a “Bin 11” personal project. I have 12 x 12 storage boxes that I keep my yarn in that fit into a cubbyhole set-up in my craft room. I marked chalk numbers on each of them, then used a random number generator to pick a bin and then worked through the yarn in that bin. It was pretty successful. I only have one yarn set for a sweater left from it, so I decided I would do another round for 2026.

This year the random generator picked Bin 10, so here are the options for 2026’s Bin 10 Project. This was a tricky one because it’s ALL sock yarn and a lot of it was purchased as single skeins because I liked the colors. But I’m challenging myself with this project to think about using the yarn in different ways to combine skeins for larger projects. Here’s what I’ve got to work with:

My “rules” for this are pretty flexible. I’d like to use all the yarn in this bin in some way in 2026. I do not have to use the entire skein for it to count as “used”. I’m not restricted to just these yarns to make a project. If I’ve got something in stash that I could combine with something in this batch to make a larger projects, that’s completely fine (and actually very good).

I matched up several patterns to get me started and I’ve cast on Faded Stripes a free pattern from Hedgehog Fibres. This was originally written for an 12-miniskein advent box + a single full skein, but I’ll be using 2 full skeins for mine. Here’s my start:

That’s it for me this week YOP’ers. I’ll be back with a summary post about the Bloom shawl AND I think my Birds and Bees quilt will be here this week from the longarm quilter, so if I can get the binding on, I may have that to share too!

14 responses to “Year of Projects 2025-2026: Week 24”

  1. ruthspory Avatar
    ruthspory

    Oh I am intrigued by the Bin 11 idea. I might have to try that! I love the start of what you have on the Faded Stripes. Will it be a shawl?

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    1. Would love the company if you decide on your own Bin 11 project!

      Yes – kind of a curved crescent shape but deeper than the usual crescent

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  2. What a beautiful shawl the 2 yarns you are using for the Faded Stripes shawl will make. What an interesting challenge your Bin system creates. I look forward to seeing the projects you make in ’26.

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    1. Thanks so much! I love a good random challenge 😉

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  3. I love your pick a bin to work your way through idea, are you aloud to peak into other bins as well and swap any out if there is a perfect skein in another bin to make a great combo? Love the striped project at the bottom of your post, very cheery blue shade to go with the mixed coloured yarn.

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    1. Yes, absolutely! Nothing is off-limits. I’m just trying to focus on using the things I have!

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  4. Some beautiful projects you have going!

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  5. I have been going through my yarn bins so I might join you for that project too.

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    1. I would love to have you along for the journey!

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  6. The bin idea is a fun one. Not one I could ever do as my bins are bigger. Even bigger than they used to be as I wanted to steal the bins I had for other craft supplies and put my yarn into giant ones to make it look like I had less 😆.
    I’ll look forward to seeing how you decide to use these skeins.

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    1. I used to have that size bin but I found them hard to find things inside so I “downsized” into these smaller ones. But then again, having a bunch to look thru ALSO makes it hard to find things, so… here we are. 🤷‍♀️

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      1. I do kind of miss the tubs used to have. I knew which ones to go to for weight and type of yarn I was after

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  7. The Fading Stripes shawl looks like a great color combination! I love the idea of using yarn from one bin for your projects. It sounds like a way to enforce getting creative with your knitting project picks!

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