Tour de France KAL

After all the fun I had last year, I decided to join this year's Tour de France Knit-Along (Go Team CSC!) and was fortunate to get in before all the spots were taken. I'm competing for the Polka Dot Jersey aka King of the Mountain. The goal is to choose a challenging project to work on during the tour - and that can include challenging yourself to finish an FO or two.

Goal #1 - completing the 'Craving for Cables' sweater, aka Dusty Miller, by the July 18 deadline to enter it in the Fair. The back and both front panels are done; I just need to crochet the sleeves and put the whole thing together.

Goal #2 - ply the Gotland singles I spun and crochet a shawl. To make it more challenging, I'll probably Navajo ply these. I love the technique but I'm not all that comfortable with it. By the time I'm through plying a pound of Gotland, I'll either be comfortable or suicidal. Not sure what pattern I'll use for the shawl. The Perfect Spring Shawl would be fast but been there, done that (a bunch of times.) I'd like to find something more challenging, but with the same deadline as the sweater, I may go with fast and pretty rather than challenging and 'not sure how it will look'.

Goal #3 - since the Tour will still be running after the Fair deadline, I'm hoping to make a knit sweater for Matt and Chris's baby girl (current top name choice - Leia Kalisa. Kalisa is a combination of the grandma's names - Kathy and Elisa. I love it.) Baby's not due until August 20, but the shower is July 27 . . . I'm not betting I'll have it finished by then, but hopefully by August.

And before all that, I need to finish the next three squares for the crochet block-a-month class I'm teaching. July is entrelac - August is a starburst stitch - and September? Probably using math to determine stripes from the class I took at TNNA. I'm mathaphobic, but that was interesting and fun.

The squares will go together in an afghan for Dick. Maybe a contender for next year's fair??