Collage

Collage

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Satisfaction

You will notice a project is missing from my progress bars over there --->

That would be because I finished my mini sock garland. I love how it turned out!


And here's a photo of just the socks:


The yarn is Classic Sock from Sunshine Yarns. If you would like to know the colorways (all Harry Potter, of course!) you can see my project page here.

The last thing I am working to finish up before the end of the month is the blanket of doom. Here's a picture as of this weekend:


Cat added for scale. This thing is as wide as my couch and was taller than me. Last night hubby held it up and it was taller than him, and he proclaimed that after two more stripes it would be finished. Thank goodness!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Real fast

No pictures in this post- its a quick one! I am working on my last mini sock, only half of that and the string to hang them on. The epic blanket of doom is also nearing completion. I've started something new as well. Stay tuned for pictures and explanations!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Belated Birthday

My birthday was Monday, but the celebration was spread out over the weekend as well, hence the silence here on the blog. It was wonderful and I got to spend it with people I really care about, which I think its the best kind of gift. Hubby gave me the most wonderful gift in the world! He made me a swift! This is a terrible photo, but it was Monday night when I got it so the lighting was terrible.


The stain is beautiful and I've already wound 2 balls from it. If only I had this back in September!

I'm at 90% of my OWL with the end in sight! I hope to finish by this weekend, but definitely by the end of the month. Here are photos of the most recently finished mini socks:




I am still loving the mini socks, but will be glad to be knitting something else after I finish up the last three. Eventually I will add to this garland with more of the HP Sunshine colors as I get them, but I think once its done its going to be hung up and stay there until January, at least. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

A Good Yarn

First, a picture of an FO, my Bonnie's Shawl that I made for my mother in law.


Yes, the dog sneaked into the photo when I wasn't paying attention. And its not a great photo because its been very rainy and overcast here, so I have to use a flash. Nevertheless, its done and I hope to give it to her this week.


I also have a book review for you! I've been working hard to do more fun reading in my free time, and the most recent book I finished was A Good Yarn by Debbie Macomber. I was hesitant to start this series because I'm not a romance novel fan and I think many of Debbie Macomber's books are romance-y. But this had ot do with knitting, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I had read the first book in the series last year sometime, and I reread it before starting this one to refresh my memory. The series so far has a nice story line; not too predictable or crazy, with characters that are easy to relate to and likeable. Its definitely not heavy reading, but its nice to sit down and read when you feel like a nice story. I enjoyed that she brought back some of the main characters from the last book and integrated them into the story. The only comment that might be considered negative that I have is that the story always ends nicely tied up. Almost everyone gets their happy ending, and while that is nice for the story it does leave me feeling a little cheated. Overall I'd give it 4 starts out of 5.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

My math skills fail me

So for the past week I've been thinking about how I was so far behind on my mini socks. I made myself a little schedule on my calendar of when I needed to finish each one in order to finish on time. Its been really helpful! However, the past few days I got very discouraged because I was about a week behind. Last night pretty much all I did was knit on mini socks and wind mini socks while watching knitting video casts (The Knit Girls and 90% Knitting) Today it was finally nice enough to get some decent pictures, so I was uploading to Ravelry when I made a discovery... I actually have 22 socks done, not the 20 I was thinking! This makes me only one day behind on my self imposed schedule, which I can totally catch up with.Without further adieu, here are the recently finished mini socks:





I also have finished a mittens ornament! The big deal about this is that is is crocheted, and if you know me at all you know that crochet and I have a love hate relationship. Mostly that I love to hate it when I can;t do it. Here are the mittens, which are on their way to California!


The last thing I have to show (I know, its very photo heavy today) is another crochet project. I have a small amount of mystery worsted-ish weight acrylic yarn that was given to me, so when the mood strikes me I make squares. Here's the second one (and it only took 2 tries!):





Monday, November 14, 2011

Knit Picks Love

If you haven't noticed from my projects, I knit with a lot of Knit Picks yarn. For me they're a great option because I don't have a ton of money to spend, so I get more bang for my buck. Also I enjoy working with them much more than the big box store yarns. They're running a contest to win $50 worth of items from your wish list, so I'm posting mine to enter myself to win!

Wish List

Go on over there and enter yourself!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Getting a handle on things

I've felt like my knitting life has been very rushed lately. I feel like I'm always down to a deadline and having to neglect projects to finish others, only to end up rushing on those neglected projects. I think part of this is due to bad planning, part of it due to me not managing my time well. I realized that this is starting to change. My mindset is changing and instead of casting on new things and making plans for who I can knit for next, I'm focused on finishing projects I've already started. I'm not knitting personalized Christmas gifts this year (though I may knit several of the same SMALL thing for a few people, undecided on that yet). I'm only knitting for people who I know will appreciate it and use what I am knitting for them.

I know a lot of this seems like common sense, but its taken me a while to get here. That said, here's what my knitting will look like through the end of the year. By this weekend I'll finish and gift a shawl to my Mother in Law (Bonnie's Shawl). That leaves me to finish my OWL (30 mini socks) and Zach's blanket by the end of the month, which I think I can do. I'll also be casting on and finishing a small baby item in that time (probably this) for a baby shower for my cousin in early December. As I finish these items I'll work on (in this order): my small Christmas items if I decide to do them, my brother's vest, a cowl for my brother's girlfriend (this I will have to start and finish, but its for her birthday in January), and the ever neglected invisibility scarf. If you're paying attention, that finishes all my current WIPs.

Its a big task, but I think I'm up for the challenge. All of these WIPs are at 20% or more, and I'm the type of knitter who needs to have a few things going at the same time, so I think its going to work!

Speaking of planning, I'm already making big plans for 2012. Stay tuned!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Odd Tuesday

Its been one of those days where you can't classify it as bad or good, just odd. Thankfully I've been knitting away and have some new progress to show for it.



Mini socks aren't the only thing I've been knitting. I'm working away on the shawl for my Mother in Law and I'm up to the lace portion. I'm really hoping to have it done by this weekend to give to her on her birthday, but she'll be ok if I have to show it to her and actually gift it a week later. Not too much else to report knitting wise. Hopefully i can knit like the wind for the rest of the week.

I'm still debating Christmas knitting plans... not sure what I'm going to do yet. More on that later :)

Monday, November 7, 2011

It has been a while

So long, in fact, that this is my first post in November. I don't have anything much to share knitting wise because I haven;t taken pictures lately. I can tell you that I'm still working on my mini socks, still working on the shawl for my mother in law, and that the only new thing I have done is crochet another unholey granny square. We had the Marine Corps birthday ball this weekend, which was pretty fun. Its a formal event, so we got all decked out. Hopefully I'll have a picture to share (but I might have to cut hubby out of it. He's funny about that).

Anyway, that's what's up. Hopefully later in the week I'll have pics and more interesting things to tell!