Knitting Auld Lang Syne

Should auld knitting projects be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

In some cases they should be forgot,

And others are fun to find.

For Auld knitting projects my dear,

The knit and purl!

We'll take a final shop my dear

For this, your knitting girl.

Ack!  I really wanted to get more than one ore blog post out before the New Year, but here we are, Dec 31st and I'm just squeaking out a final entry.  There's a bit left to tell you about this year and so I thought I'd cram it into a jumble of a post.

Firstly- the bunnies Christmas sweaters are done and OH MAN are they cute.

Pattern: Dress: Seasonal Dresses Pattern & Sweater: Nordic Style Sweater by Julie Williams.
Yarn: Mission Hills 136 Merino Superwash
Needles: 2.75 mm
Notes: I cannot stress to you enough how well Julie Williams writes patterns.  SHE IS AWESOME.  Her patterns are so thorough and so detailed it's impossible to screw it up.  If you ever want to cut our teeth on a little knitted toy, I cannot stress enough how great these patterns are.  THEY. ARE. AWESOME.

Confession- as I was weaving in a bazillion ends on these lovely little outfits I broke some personal rules.

I was painstakingly weaving each end beautifully in and then I realized... THE BUNNIES DON'T CARE if it's perfect and so, dear gentle reader who has come to expect much more from me, I knotted a lot of ends, tucked them less than perfectly in, put these sweaters on and called it a day.

I DON'T EVEN FEEL BADLY ABOUT IT.*

I also managed to squeak out my last outstanding section on the charity blankets- and got it out the door.

I love the look of the scrappy striped blankets and I hope to do a few more of these this year.

There were a couple of knitterly treasures under the tree this year, a much needed new swift, a Pudding gift card and the husband was brave and gave me a "Qiviut" shopping spree.  (Although he made me promise not to make a sweater.  {don't get it?  Just take a peek at those prices and you'll get it then...})

And- as it's now a TIME HONORED tradition... MiL and I hit the yarn sales on Boxing Day.  I basically shocked everyone, (but not more than I shocked myself) and came home with a bag full of acrylic.  WHAT?!?!??

For a long time now I've had an idea for a charity blanket in rainbow colors.  And I don't know why, but I've decided that I'm just going to do it.  January is cold, and tends to be colorless and I can't think of a better way than to knit brightly.  And so, that is what I'm planning to do.  January is going to be for rainbow knitting- I'm thinking I should be able to squeak 1, maybe 2 blankets out of this shameful stash acquisition and donate it away.  (Likely to WCOBBS)  A 6" section on a charity blanket usually takes me no more than about 2 days to knit, so I figure I can quickly knit 2 of these blankets.  Think I can do it!?

I also hit a surprise yarn sale shopping for MiL's gift this year and managed to score some more Berrocco Ultra Alpaca fine (40% off!!) which will make a yummy pair of socks or mittens at some point.

So there you have it- knitwise how I've finished my year.  I managed to knit my giant ball of hats and I managed to get some stash out the door.  Sadly I've also opened the door to a lot more stash, so it will be more knitting that out this year.  It was a good year for me- and I look forward to 2015 and the hopes that it's going to be even more productive.  (And if these recent yarn purchases are any indication, it's also going to be a year that's BRIGHTLY colored.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS- wishing you the best in 2015.  Let's see what projects I can squeak out!

*Okay maybe a little...**

**It's totally eating away at me.

Warm Hearted

WHEW- Christmas is MADNESS!  MADNESS I say!  And while my "party season" will be winding up today- I thought I'd try and sneak out a post and let you know that the Warm Hearted mittens are finito!

Pattern: Warm Hearted Mittens by Rose Hiver (FREE PATTERN!)

Yarn: Red: Little Knits Sockulent in colorway 11 Navy: Lang Yarns Bebe in Navy Blue (OMG this yarn has been in my stash FOREVER.)

Needles: US 2

Notes: You'll note FOUR successful attempts at a Latvian braid!  

This is the first mitten I've ever knit that was just a breeze.  No stops and starts- just straight forward knitting and perfection.  Warm hearted left ME warm hearted and it was a great pattern to knit.  I'm going to be  Rose Hiver knitting junky I think!

The pattern is just lovely and I'm so pleased that they knit quickly and beautifully.

     

These were finished on Sunday and a quick block later they were ready for Miss Esther.  Unfortunately she wasn't in class when I planned to gift them to her, so I'm hoping that the school will be able to forward them on to her.  I will miss her.

Also- in the mind set of being warm hearted, I have completed my most recent sections of the Butterflies charity blanket for WCOBB.  They're bright and colorful, and sadly STILL haven't eaten up all the extra spare green and yellow acrylic yarn I've got in my stash!

And NOW- now I can indulge in a little frivolous knitting..... what to knit now?!

Start Celebrating

Shoot!  I wanted to get one more post out in November and here it is Dec 1 and I'm just getting to it now.  Oh well- on the upside I have much progress to share.

Firstly- let us celebrate the END OF THE POLARIS MITTEN DISASTER!  (Or at least, near the end, as I technically have to knit the smaller mitten too- but I can at least GIVE this pair to it's intended recipient.)

Pattern: Polaris by Rebecca Blair
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine  (so soft!) in colorway 1285 and Little Knits Sockulent in colorway 1
Needles: US 1.5 (2.5 mm)
Notes: My issues with these have been well documented on this blog, this is ENTIRELY my issue and not the fault of the pattern.  I didn't do the extra  folded over inside area that the mitten calls for, and I probably regret that, given that despite powerful blocking the cuffs still don't lie perfectly flat.

 

I will be honest- there's 2 errors.  1 is on the thumb and essentially invisible, so it won't eat at me but if you look closely at the cuffs, you'll see I got a bit hasty on my fourth go at it, and I skipped knitting 2 rows.  (At the very bottom- you'll see it.)  I am letting it go, (as much as I am able to),  but man I'm just so relieved I got these done.

 

Going up a needle size improved the sizing, but I knit these tight.  I relied heavily on the blocking to add some additional space in the mitten and I think, thankfully, that worked out pretty well.  All I need to do now is wrap these puppies and give them to one of Parker's teachers for Christmas.

I'm was so relieved that I immediately cast on the next mitten I wanted to knit.  Meet Warm Hearted by Rose Hiver.  (free pattern!)

 

The pattern is perfectly named for it's intended recipient, and unlike Polaris, these have actually been a breeze to knit so far.  In fact, I'm well into mitten #2 already.  (That's a good thing- I need to gift these on Dec 11!!!!)  I'm really glad this has been relatively pain free as Polaris nearly put me off mittens for good!

Since Warm Hearted is going SO well, there's this stupid voice in the back of my head that says "why don't you just knit a plain pair of mittens for Parker's music teacher too? "  But, I'm hoping I'll regain my senses and stop listening to the voices in my head and instead pay attention to the more rational side of me that says "QUIT WHILE YOU ARE AHEAD!"

And I suppose we can also celebrate that I've made as much progress as I have on my plain Jane self striping socks- because it means my son has been content to play and let me knit in his class.  (Now if only I could leave... baby steps!)

I'm going to try and squeeze as much progress as I can in the next few weeks, and I'll do my best to blog the progress, but now starts our Christmas season, which is insanely hectic at the best of times.  At least I don't have any Dec 24/25 deadlines this year!  Let's celebrate the progress I've made and be excited to know that there's more to come!