Closing Out the Year

It's the last day of 2015 and I need to finish out the year on blog posts.  As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't get around to discussing the Christmas gifts this year.

I got the 3rd edition to Barbara Walker's Charted knitted treasury.  (All I need is #1 now!)  There's a great mosaic in there that I might use for the twin blankets I have to make in the new year.  I also got a much beloved Pudding Yarn gift card.  Pudding is far and away my favorite yarn shop in town and I always ALWAYS find a way to use these.  (Keep 'em comin' family!!)  I showed a lot of restraint this year when it came to the Pudding sale, and walked away EMPTY handed.  I still love and appreciate a good yarn sale, but I'm a lot more discerning now about what I actually buy on sale.

I also got a fancy pencil crayon set and markers to expand my "coloring ability" and I've already opened them up and started trying them out.  (I love the way that it lays down the color and the pigment is really rich!)  It's likely something you'll see more of in the new year.  I really quite enjoy the adult coloring so I'm glad that I got some new materials to work with.

Not to worry- there are has been some knitting too.  You'll notice that on my "to do" list, that I had hoped to finish by the end of January there is still one item outstanding.  I need to make a nice pair of comfy, reading socks in soft worsted yarn.  While I'm disappointed that I'm not going to say "finito" to these on Jan 1, I am close and should hopefully finish them up in the first week.  So, not too far off the schedule.

These are a nice change from my regular knitting.  The yarn is incredibly soft (llama and silk!), it's worsted so it knits up quickly and I'm doing toe up- which is a nice change in pace.  The above photo is what I knit in a day, (mind you my child was at grandma's so I had more time than usual), and so I'm hopeful that I can have them out the door early on.

I've also started in on more baby hats and booties, since I have a lot of them to hand out in the new year.  The first two need to go to mom's the second week of January so I really need to sit down and grind out some booties!

I've found that I don't really like to set a full year's worth of resolutions because it's hard to stay committed to something a year from now- but I do like "short term" goals that I'd like to reach.  And so, in the short term, I'd like to have the following completed by the end of March this year:

1) 5 Baby Hats and Bootie Sets
2) 2 Baby Blankets
3) Make some progress on the sweater that I started and abandoned for Christmas knitting.

Hoping you are feeling as blessed as I do in 2016.  Happy New Year! (Just look at all the handsome boys I'm surrounded by EVERY DAY.)

 

Holly Jolly Christmas

Whelp.... the gifts are unwrapped and all are aware of what I've been working on- so I suppose it's time to reveal them to you.

The Shark Blanket!

 

Pattern: Shark Attack Blanket by Kari Provencher (I went to high school with Kari and I still think of her with her maiden name... I do this to all my friends I knew before they were married.  So, apologies to Kari and her husband whom I'm sure is lovely, but this was made by Kari Dennis in my mind!)
Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky Solids in White, Red and True Grey
Needles: US 11 and US 13
Notes: I modified the teeth in this pattern to be garter stitch vs. lacey and my mods were:

CO 5 sts

Row 1: K1, M1, K4
Row 2 (and all even rows): Knit
Row 3: K5, M1, K1
Row 5: K1, M1, K6
Row 7: K7, M1, K1
Row 9: Bind off 5 stitches, leave one stitch on the right needle, knit 2, M1, K1

Repeat until necessary.  (I needed 12 teeth also)

As we learned previously, I am terrible at reading patterns but had I read through the pattern initially, I would have known how simple this pattern was.  I will admit that the 35 inches of stocking stitch nearly killed me.  Like DEAD.  God I hate stocking stitch.  But otherwise this project was very simple to "whip up".  Which is probably good since Parker is now requesting his own shark blanket... but that's not going to happen for a while yet.  (sorry kid)

As predicted my sister loved it.  She totally didn't see it coming and there have already been various stuffed animals and her dog "being eated by a shark".  (Apologies to Etta who will probably endure many "shark attack" photos.)

The socks came down to the wire this year, BUT, on Christmas eve I managed to weave in the final end and wrap up the socks for my dad on Christmas morning.  (Unblocked... GASP)

Pattern: Globe Trotter Socks by Jodie St. Clair
Yarn: Lang Yarns Super Soxx in colorway 630.0427 (sexy name!  Sorry can't find a link for these) and Lang Yarns Bebe in Navy blue (discontinued so no link- this is possibly one of the oldest yarns in my stash so yay for it being done!)
Needles: US 1
Notes: I find whenever I knit a men's sock yardage is usually a problem.  That would have been the case here, but I decided to do contrasting cuffs, heels and toes and that stretched my yarn enough so that I had enough for the very end.  As usual, I went to great pains to line up the stripes to match, which was hard in this yarn because the color transitions very gradually and you had to look really closely.

Dad loved his socks- and promptly wore them on our cold Christmas day.  He frequently takes his dog Jennie for a walk and these socks will hopefully keep his toes toasty warm.

The week leading up to Christmas was challenging- I had intended to blog and finish those socks waaaaaay before Christmas Eve but distractions got in the way.  Both of our kittens got quite ill and didn't eat for several days.  Our best guess is that the bag of food was tainted.  Anyways, a couple of visits to the vet later and an immediate change in food, both of our kittens are back to themselves.  (THANK GOD.)

My child celebrated the cats getting better by coming down with a very nasty and snotty cold.  :-(

He's a trooper but poor kid would love to have a break from having his nose blown.

On top of that Christmas baking needed to be done and I couldn't help myself... I made Christmas gingerbread kittens!

Now that the Christmas knitting is done I've had to dive head first into the next couple of challenges.  Tomorrow is the annual boxing day sale at Pudding so I will save the next blog post to tell you what's coming up next and what I got for Christmas this year.

Merry (belated) Christmas to those who celebrate and I'm looking forward to cutting my teeth on some new projects in the new year!

Second Sock Suckies

The shark is finished.  I'm not posting photos of it in case the intended recipient gets spoiled.  However, those of you on Ravelry can enjoy many photos that I took of the finished project.  I'll post the details once the gift is unwrapped.  I am so relieved it's done.  That was a lot of stocking stitch to knit!

As I mentioned before- I just had a sock set to finish.

On the upside the leg knit fast.  In fact, delightfully fast.  But now- I'm deep DEEEEP in throes of second sock syndrome.  I could not want to knit anything less than the half a sock I have to knit.  I didn't like where I ended up on the heel and so ended up ripped out the entire heel after I knit the whole thing last night.  It seems whenever I make a mistake my "mojo" just evaporates.  *POOF* this project made me think hard/made me feel dumb... I don't want to knit you.

It also appears that *someone* would prefer it if they were his socks....

[In general the cats are proving to be handknit fans... they love the blanket MiL knit for my son.  (His beloved "cold blankey".)]

I will finish the sock.  I will.  No.  REALLY.  I will.  I WILL FINISH THESE.  But I wonder if part of my distraction comes from the fact that I'm looking at a busy knitting year coming up.  I won't add them to the list now- but I have FIVE baby hat/bootie sets to knit by the end of spring.  FIVE.  Plus there are 3 baby blankets that are also going to need to be done.  In general- I'm going to be BUSY BUSY. *

Anyways- enough whining about the socks... back to the grind.  To leave you on a happier note- I give you Parker's return to skating this past weekend.  ("I'm making ice angels mommy!")

* do you like how I'm complaining about things I'm making myself do?  I must like to torment myself...

Into the Belly of the Whale...

Let's cut to the chase... progress on the shark is going swimmingly.

I just did a little color fastness test on the various colors to make sure when it comes time to washing this puppy I won't run into a sea of regret.  (I have learned the hard way too often that NOT checking this in advance can be a painful lesson.)

Now that I have read the whole pattern I was able to take off and really get running on it.

The main body is knit and now I'm adding the details.  I'm really REALLY impressed with Kari's pattern here.  It's so clever!  Plus, knitting with bulky yarn is super fun because you can actually see your progress.

This is the last picture of this project now until I gift it- but I'm hoping that it will be in the finished pile soon so all I need to do is knit a sock.  I can knit a sock fairly quickly.  As long as I have 7 or so days I think I can get it cased and so far I'm tracking to be on that pace.  (SO. FAR.)

I might be a little slower these days because the coloring thing also seems to be happening frequently.

   

It's just so SATISTFYING to fill a whole page and see the outcome.  I've been knitting more than I've been coloring but sneaking in a few coloring moments here and there too.

Other than that- we're just prepping for Christmas here and gettting excited about a certain someone's potential visit.

Now.... BACK TO WORK.