I spent the long weekend in Perth at a science fiction convention.

Before leaving, I considered two things very carefully: which wips to take and if I would attempt to visit a yarn store. Eventually I decided against shopping. I didn’t expect to venture far beyond the hotel the con was held in, and I really don’t need more yarn. As for what to take… I’m very good at taking enough knitting and/or crochet to last me for ten weekends away, or projects that require too much concentration. This time I restrained myself. I took the crochet blanket and the collar of the Ribbed Wrap Jacket.

I managed to add a ‘latte’ border to nearly all the granny squares, finishing them yesterday.

Now I’m sewing in ends, as they were going to get in the way when crocheting the squares together. I’m thinking of adding a border around the blanket made up of the six original colours, then a final one in the ‘latte’.

That’ll make it the right size for a baby blanket. And I have at least three pregnant friends. Hmm.

There was a little knitting going on at the con. And something called ‘hardanger’? Listening to panels and guest speeches required an easy knit – definitely a knit rather than crochet as I can knit without looking at what I’m doing – so I worked on the jacket collar.

I got it to halfway along the decreases. Last night I picked it up again and found myself thinking this was only marginally less boring than knitting a plain ribbed scarf. But then I started watching tv and every now and then looked down and found it had grown a few more cm. This wip will definitely stay by the couch.

But I do feel the need for something more challenging. I should work on the Tilty Socks (Rainbow Socks pattern from Magknits) but I’m feeling an uncharacteristic disinterest in socks right now. It’s like Sockless Summer broke a sock trance I was in. Or maybe Sockless Summer was the first symptom of growing sock fed-up-ness.

Instead I’m wanting to crochet. I rescued nine balls of the Bluebell from the op shop bag last week (the crinkly Cottontop that was so unfun to knit replaced it) after I realised it was the same colour and gauge as the yarn required for a project in the Cool Crochet book.

Well, I think it’s the same gauge. There’s a chart at the start of the book that tells you which yarn weight crochets up to which gauge. But when I had a look again later, I realised the gauge specified for each project relates to the stitch pattern used. An 8ply/dk, for example, could be crocheted at a range of gauges, depending on the stitch used. This took all the usefulness out of the chart. Fortunately the project I want to use the Bluebell does reveal that the specified yarn is ‘sport weight’, which should be close to 5ply. I’ll have to crochet a swatch.

But then there’s investigating the Shadow Tweed’s Snapping Turtle Skirt possibilities. Definitely got to try out a hexagon for that.

And I want to crochet a big blanket. And try weaving with roving. Darn it! There are just too many projects I want to start at the moment.