A Year in Review

I got most of my Christmas knitting accomplished and then some. I added an extra scarf because a little birdie told me my mom was really hoping for a scarf really close to the last minute...eek. But mission accomplished and the scarf was well received.

It's been a very yarny Christmas, for which I am very grateful. I plan on cutting back on my yarn buying this coming year a little bit. Which brings me to reviewing my new years resolutions of 2009:

1) Knit a hat that fits without adding elastic - DONE! x several more. There were several Christmas hats knit this year, all of which fit and some were hats that were double thick!

2) Knit a pair of socks - DONE! I love knitting socks...socks are beautiful.

3) Acquire more bamboo needles - DONE! Love the bamboo needles. I use them for every project I can. I really only switch to plastic when I need to use my circular needle set.

4) Start attempting to knit a sweater (if not finish one) - DONE! Vivian turned out beautifully and I managed to make a sweater for my husband very secretly.

5) Fix a mistake vertically (if a problem presents itself) - DONE! ...thanks to Vivian but still she turned out beautifully.

6) Increase my stash - increase the amount of wool I have - DONE...and oh boy have I ever.


My new years resolutions for 2010 (yarn related again of course and in no particular order):
1) Learn to crochet...turn out at least 1 crochet item. I'm already on my way. My nana showed me on Christmas so maybe it would be better to say I want to teach myself more about crochet a to crochet a few items.
2) Fill my sock drawer with hand-knit socks or, to be more specific, have at least one pair of hand-knit socks for each day of the week.
3) Now that my stash has grown quite larger than I expected - use what is in the stash and only buy at special knitting events (needle emporium tent sale, knitter's frolic, knitter's fair). Disclaimer: yarn bought with gift cards doesn't count :D
4) Knit another sweater for myself

No judgement here

First off I have 4 pairs of socks on the needles (3 for me, 1 for dh) and I have my eye on another pair of socks that I really feel I must start making immediately! Hold your judgement! To be fair one of the current ones and the one I have my eye on are sort of mystery socks... so I have to wait for the clues to go up and there's plenty of knitting time in between to work on the other socks and knitted gifty items. Speaking of which....

I'm modifying my items to knit for Christmas list. All the items in red are probably not going to happen...oops. I think I got in a little over my head!

Christmas
- Socks for Omi(-in-law) - (see below)

- Socks for Opi(-in-law)- I don't think I'm going to have the time... and am selfishly hoarding all knitted socks for myself. How else am I going to realize my dream of having a sock drawer with only hand-knit socks? If I keep knitting for others, the demands are going to keep growing and growing. I think a nice hat or scarf would be a lovely substitute.

- Super Secret Sunset Sweater #2 - super secret sunset sweater #1 took a tad longer than I thought and super secret knitting is a little exhausting... add to that the companion sweater that MUST go with super secret sweater #2 probably won't be knit by the companion knitter in time either and we have a sweater plan that is being put off for a while.

- Hat for dad - double-thick wool hat!

- Scarf for mom - this item is in grave danger of being taken off the list! she's just so hard to buy for, let alone knit for! I knit her a pair of socks and those accidentally got put in the dryer...I knit her a scarf before that to a length that I thought she would like. She always says she wants shorter scarves....apparently it was too short. Along side that, I just don't have the patients for most scarves anymore (minus the buffy scarf which is coming along nicely...it made a nice tv companion for a few nights and I love the colours...so maybe if I make it colourful...)

- Hermione Hat for brother's gf + one for myself

- Socks for SIL - well I started them...and there was this thing where I had to make 5 stitches out of 1 (four times)...I kept knitting and am falling in love with how awesome they are. Maybe slightly less complex socks would be a better gift... i don't thing I'll be able to bring myself to part with them. Besides we have lots of gifts stockpiled for her...and I can always make them another time! Maybe for her birthday!

- Hat for FIL - finally I added to the list! Well he said that he had this hat knit by Omi out of shetland that smelled, and got worse when the hat was wet so he was convinced that all wool knit hats would do that. aha! a challenge. Then he told me the story of his favourite Montreal Canadians hat he accidentally left in store once. Well I still have quite a bit of yarn left over from the sweater, more than enough for a hat!

- Hat for DH - probably will be more of a just-because gift since I sort of promised him the hat a while ago but it will be around Christmas so I'm including it in this list.

- Felted bag for friend of the in-law family - her brother is getting this giant awesome gift... draagon realized she's a little left out in the big gifts so draagon is knitting her a present and I'm probably knitting this as a companion present. I hope she appreciates knitted items! But it will be fun to work on some felting anyways :)

- I think there was something else that I'm not thinking of at the moment...but maybe that's good. The modified list is already too long :P At least there are less socks.

How its coming along...

Last time I talked about how excited I was for baby knits. I managed to finish 2 very cute baby sweaters and then that idea was kinda abandoned temporarily while I got excited for many other knits and yarns. So I've been working on other things...

Well the super secret sunset sweater is coming along though I did come across a set back. I missed one very important instruction at the bottom of the first page of the pattern in the Son of a Stitch n' Bitch book which I think should have been on the top of the other page or bolded, highlighted and with big arrows pointing to it. *sigh* I did not cast off 7 stitches on either side of the back before going ahead with the raglan shaping (instructions for which begin at the top of the second page....why these weren't with the rest of the raglan shaping or right above it on the second page I don't know). I realized this when I was about to do the shaping for the front. The front has been done correctly...I started the first sleeve today, hopefully I'll finish that tomorrow and then I will rip out the back to the start of the shaping and re-do it properly. I'm coming up to when I can do the duplicate stitch on the front (very exciting!).

OH and also exciting is I got a birthday present from my parents today (not my birthday but its the first time I'm seeing them since my birthday). I got one of the kits that I really really wanted since laying eyes on it ... Cleopatra sock kit. I can't start it right now because I'm at their house without the proper needles but I'm very exciting. Its also probably good that I don't have the needles because I would have just jumped right into it and lost my super secret knitting time tomorrow haha. Very excited to start this on Thursday :D

New upcoming projects

So at knit night we were discussing baby knits and then I realized I actually have people I can knit baby things for! One in Kitchener and one in Australia, both expecting later this year. I started thinking small... maybe a hat, and then I started thinking maybe some booties as well, no problem. Now I'm thinking big, maybe I'll knit a sweater or two in there as well. No doubt with birthdays and Christmas coming up they will become smaller ideas again but we'll see how it goes. I definitely have the yarn in the stash for all this.
I've noticed a lot of cute baby knits in ravelry's recently added patterns and have been really tempted to add almost all to my queue but have resisted most until I had a reason.

So right now for Kitchener baby I'm thinking a hat, something in the fruit shaped variety, with a hooded sweatshirt and booties. For Australia baby I'm thinking a hat, probably also fruit or leaf shape and booties. I'm not really sure how cold it gets, if a tiny sweater would be appropriate, I'll have to do some research. There is a "5 hour sweater" for new borns that is a bit lacy that might work.

Other projects are going well. The super secret sunset sweater now has a back and the front has been started. I'm slowly working away at the candle shawl when I'm not working on socks. Oh, and a BIG thanks to maybaby at Sip N' Stitch for the circular needles! I now have needles small enough that I can do the 2 at a time socks (YAY!) which should be perfect for upcoming Christmas knits, there are a couple socks in that queue.

Now time for bed. I think tomorrow I'm going to make some baby booties!

It's been too long!

Wow...so I haven't posted in forever (I plan wedding planning and post-wedding crap but we won't talk about that) I want to update my knitting stuff.

I've started a bunch of projects, finished a couple of them and my list of birthday and Christmas presents to knit is ever-growing.
- I started the lace project "Wings of Horus". After have to restart it a billion times I'm finally on the right track but its slow going. The first couple false starts killed my lace confidence so its a little frightening when knitting it, thinking I could screw up any minute and have to try to knit back, possibly eventually ripping back again *cry* But I have made it to the middle of the second chart, YAY! Only 4 more charts after that. I'd like to finish it soon so I can wear it to at least one of the many upcoming weddings.
- I knit a pair of socks for my mom out of some beautiful alpaca. Apparently she should only get superwash because she threw them in the dryer. I'm told they are fine, one is just shorter than the other now. I thought it would be fine, I thought she had some stuff that didn't go in the dryer. Oh well, now I know.
- I made myself some Kristi socks from Sock Innovation. I freakin love that book and plan to knit more from it very soon!
- I'm making a pair of socks for Zac. Just plain stockinette with ribbing at the top. I'm using the tip section at the front of the Sock Innovation book for heel and toe instructions.
- I also have a super secret sweater on the go, shhhhhh :P No details till recipient has got it. Some people are in the loop, you know who you are. Don't say anything! There will be a second super secret sweater afterwards.
- My MIL asked for a shawl so that is in the works for her birthday. She loves candles so I'm knitting her the 'Candle Flame Shawl'. She doesn't know the pattern or when she is getting it but she requested black and shiny. Unfortunately I didn't find anything black and shiny that was in my budget so I have a dark blue, shiny sock yarn that I think she will love anyways. She crochets so she has an appreciation for hand-crafted items.

List of Birthday items:
- Candle Flame Shawl for MIL
- Super Secret Sweater #1

Christmas
- Socks for Omi(-in-law)
- Socks for Opi(-in-law)
- Super Secret Sweater #2
- Hat for dad
- Scarf for mom
- Hermione Hat for brother's gf
- Socks for SIL (from Sock Innovation...can't remember the name right now...)
- Probably some other secret knitted items :)

And then there's the queue of items that I really want for myself... like more socks! Heavenlyevil made me some fantastic Monkey socks (can't thank you enough!). I wear them around the apartment a lot. Yesterday I wore them to knitting night and they are so much more comfortable than any of my bought socks. I need to knit me a whole new replacement sock drawer. The Kristi socks took me a while, I think the next ones (whichever pattern I choose) are going to have to be quicker. Lots to do!

First big lace project???

I was checking out the new patterns on Ravelry today and one caught my eye: The Wings of Horus. For those who know me, this will not come as a great shock :P Its a knit-a-long for a shawl but I won't know what the final product looks like until it is done. It didn't take long before I decided to go for it and sign up for this secret KAL. I have e-mailed my request to be part of it, hopefully I will receive a confirmation e-mail soon. It starts April 17th and comes in 6 parts.

I was going to hold out and wait till I went to the Needle Emporium before looking for yarn but Knit Picks has some cheap lace weight yarn (also where I got the yarn for my sweater) and since I will need 1500 yards of it ...I purchased it there (shadow lace yarn jewels heather 100% Merino). I requested that a signature be required for delivery so hopefully Canada Post will not leave it in front of my building like they did the last time *le sigh*

New Years Knitting Resolutions Update and General Update

I've accomplished a couple things on my list and working towards some more... and I figure if I come back to this every so often and do an update it will increase my motivation to do them.

Item 1 is to knit a hat that fits and doesn't require elastic - update: not done yet. The hat I was hoping would complete that didn't need elastic but it didn't fit either. Still working towards this one.

Item 2 is to knit a pair of socks. Not yet, I'm hoping to get some sock yarn soon. Also I have my eye on the new Cookie A book. I love her socks. And I have book that will teach me to knit 2 socks at once with some very nice patterns in it.

Item 3 was to acquire more bamboo knitting needles. COMPLETED! :) I think I could use another set of the double pointed ones since they're only 5inches long but they do work well for what I've needed them for thus far so I'm happy with them. I also have a set of 15 straight needles that are excellent. Now I only use plastic needles when doing circular knitting with my Denise interchangable needles kit, which I love.

Item 4 was to start attempting to knit a sweater, if not actually finish one. COMPLETED! :) My Vivian took 2 months but was totally worth it. I have a couple other more simple patterns I'd like to do at some point.

Item 5 was to fix a mistake vertically. COMPLETED! :) Vivan sure helped with that. I corrected knits that were supposed to be purls, purls that were supposed to be knits and several cables that were twisted the wrong way. My Knit Fix book helped a lot with that.

And Item 6 was to increase my stash. IN PROGRESS. I have increased my stash by quite a bit but I still would love to get some sock yarn and there are a lot of other fibers I want to try. I have cotton, bamboo mixed with silk, alpaca and peruvian wool covered. Thus far I'm not a huge fan of cotton but I'd like to try it mixed with other fibers or maybe a different type of cotton would help.

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General Knitting Update

I have knit myself a garter for the big day. Its not completely done, I still need some elastic or ribbon to thread through and make it wearable. I started knitting a ring pillow with my cotton but then we ran across the problem of who would carry it because we don't actually have a ring bearer so its stuck as just a cloth for the moment.

And I am getting a head start on Christmas gifts. I have started a scarf that will be for my mom. one of my resolutions should have been to start knitting patterns out of my books. I realized I hadn't really used any of them (though I have some patterns bookmarked that I'd like to do) so I picked a nice herringbone scarf from Odd Ball Knitting. I hope she likes it. I knit her a nice scarf at the beginning of Winter that was quite short because she doesn't like long scarves and apparently it is too short (hmph!). So I don't know how long I will make this one. I'll probably be able to keep going until I run out of the yarn. The yarn (DK Brushed) was giving me problems at first because it likes to tangle and stick to itself but since I took the time to roll it into a ball its been fine.

I'm going to start the Owl Cowl soon as well. I think that it would be perfect for my alpaca yarn. Its a bit late in the year but it will (probably) be fun and quick to make :). My mom has a ton of buttons lying around, I can probably steal some of those for the eyes.

Meet Vivian!

This is Vivian. The product of 2 months worth of work but it was totally worth it! As of Friday morning I was finished the shoulders and then I moved on to the hood, which felt like it took forever. I knit the rest of the day Friday, Saturday and the majority of Sunday until I was done. Today I sewed in the zipper (and badly). I harvested the zipper from a sweater that I don't wear anymore. There weren't any places near me that sold zippers, not within walking distance anyway.

The pattern was great. Only two mistakes but I believe those are fixed in the newer version of the pattern and the Vivian KAL really helped (THANKS GUYS!)! My only complaint would be that once I got to the hood it got kind of confusing because the odd rows became the right side and even rows became the wrong side. I missed a row of cables at one point and had to rip back two rows :(

Next project: something small... no more sweaters for a while

Vivian WIP - Time for sleeves!!!!

Behold I turned this: 
Into all of this: 

So thats one ball down (two more). I'm feeling more confident that I will have quite a bit left over (I did do the calculations before I bought the yarn but my math is not that great so I was still a little nervous). I have now moved onto the sleeves. I'm using a set of  my delightful newly purchased bamboo double pointed-s which are on the short side but they're working. I'm finally found my needle cap things to give me a little more assurance that all the stitches will stay on needle 2. Last week we had our windows replaced and I had to pack up everything on my desk to get it out of the way. Of course I did the "I'll put them here, I'll remember where they are" (someone should smack me whenever I think that). 

Anywhos, so close!!! I've set a deadline of March 31st for myself - should be doable. Not much left to knit :) 

Vivian in progress

Vivan has been going well, a little slow because of other craziness at home but now its picking up again. I'm nearing the 50th row. Still messed up a few parts but nothing my trusty crochet hook can't handle. I wish I could knit faster! 

I love Vivian

My new project is Vivian. I was looking at the pattern for a while and decided I had to make it. It shall be my first sweater :) I checked all the current projects to see what kind of yarn everyone was using, and keeping that in mind I searched the internets for deals on some yarn. I ended up settling on Cascade Eco+ from Kit Knit. I was really lucky I got it. Stupid Canada Post left it in the front door of the apartment building by the buzzer, blarg. 

Rolling the hanks into balls was interesting. At some point I'd really like to get a ball winder and swift. I did 2/3 swatches, which were exactly the gauge I needed so I didn't do the third one (but hey, at least I swatched :P). 

I just finished row 22 and things are going well for the most part. It is certainly giving me lots of practice correcting mistakes vertically with a crochet hook. There's been a couple of times purls have shown up where knits should be, and one instance where I missed crossing a cable and only noticed 3 rows later *sigh*! The Knit Fix book my mom got me for Christmas has really come in handy. I've been focusing all my knitting attention on this sweater, so really it's my fault for not having something easy for tv-watching or Sip n' Stitch nights. Ah well, I am a sucker for punishment. 

Been getting lots of knitting done. Today I completed mittens for future sister-in-law's muppet Olive. I just wanted a simple mitten pattern so I used a christmas ornament mitten pattern and upped the needle size to my largest double points bamboo needles. They turned out really well. Unfortunately the muppet and owner were not in town this weekend as I previously thought so they are currently being cared for by Beaker :) Hopefully I'll have pictures soon of Olive decked out in her cool scarf and mitts 

My hat/headband (Calorimetry) is finished, as is my scarf that I've had stashed under my bed for a couple months. 

I've started working on a lace and cable scarf for my mom. She liked the last one but now that she has a short scarf she wants to wear it like one of her long scarves. She has asked for another one in any pattern I want to try out. This is my first adventure into lace. It has a rocky start but I think it will look really nice when its done. 

I have pretty bamboo sticks!

I got double-pointed and straight bamboo needle sets :) I received 12 sizes of each, under $20 for  the 12 double-pointed needles and under $20 for the 12 straight needle sets including shipping. Ebay is a wonderful thing. I'm also really glad to finally have sets of double-pointed needles with 5 needles instead of only 4. 

I also started swatching (i'm trying to be a better knitter :P). 

I started a new project with a set of the double points - dragonscale wristwarmers :) and changed from the metal straights to bamboo straights for the needle case I'm making. Its made quite a difference. The metal ones hurt my hands after a few lines, I've been able to knit more with the new ones. 

Awesome Cable Hat finished

Just returned from my first Sip n' Stitch. It was fun! I definitely plan on going to more :)

While I was there I finished the cable hat I was working on, which turned out to not be too enough for me so I've decided its for my future kid(s). Sure its several years away from being worn but until then it shall be worn by various stuffed animals around our apartment. At the moment Orlando, my koala from Build-a-Bear is wearing it :)

Now to decide on the next project....I probably should finish something else but I'm itching for something new as an alternative. As soon as my double pointed bamboo needles arrive I'm planning on swatching and then casting on dragonscale wristwarmers, and probably a sock. Recently while at chapters I found and bought a book (30% off) that shows how to knit two socks on one circular needle, which I'd like to try. 

Knitting New Year Resolutions

Some knitting-related things I want to accomplish this year:

1) Knit a hat that fits without adding elastic (just started a new hat that I'm already really excited about)

2) Knit a pair of socks

3) Acquire more bamboo needles (in addition to the lovely 15 double pointed sets soon to be on their way to me) *excited* I keep finding patterns I want to do that recommend having a set with 5...and all the ones I have are sets of 4. 

4) Start attempting to knit a sweater (if not finish one)

5) Fix a mistake vertically (if a problem presents itself)

6) Increase my stash - increase the amount of wool I have

Bunch of Projects - Update

Christmas was good to me. I got a bunch of knitting tools - two sets of straight bamboo needles, one size circular bamboo needle, stitch markers, some cable needles, needle holders, a knitting magazine and 'Knit Fix Problem Solving for Knitters' book. I already made a small scarf for a muppet belonging to my soon-to-be sister-in-law. It turned out really well, I even put some fringe on it. I made it with one set of new bamboo knitting needles. I love them so much I found 15 sets of 5 double pointed bamboo knitting needles on ebay, hopefully those will arrive in the next couple weeks. Eventually I'd like to have a set of straights but I should probably get a job first :P (current project is a needle holder for my new double pointed needles). 

I gave my mom an early Christmas gift, a cabled scarf. Its my first cabled knitted something. I also made some toy mice and a toy bumble bee for my cat. She loved the bumble bee even though I didn't fill it with catnip. 

I made myself a Jayne Cobb hat. I've been wanting to make it for a while. There was talk for a while of it being a stitch n' bitch project but I guess we were all too busy. It practically knit itself - it only took 2 days. I'm planning on re-doing the pom. It was my first one and turned out a little thin. 

New techniques learned:

- cabling

- cable cast on

- making a pom