Color Affection progress and a new Cast On

Good news, making a schedule for weekly progress on a large project has really been working for me. I've reached my goal of 30% complete for this week (which I know thanks to the nifty spreadhseet a kind person on Ravelry made to track one's progress). I have just 2 more pink stripes to go before I add in the green! 

Kind of an awkward picture, but hey I didn't feel like getting up from the couch and re-arranging haha. And you can see one of my favorite project bags poking out on the left next to my leg, My Super Mario Bros bag from Slipped Stitch Studios. 

And since I am sticking to my plan of making my 10% weekly shawl goal and then moving on to something else to prevent boredom I cast on a new pair of socks. Say hello to the cuff of my Peeta socks.

I'm excited to be working on these for a couple of reasons. Firstly this pair is inspired by Hunger games and is by Yavanna Reynolds. I've knit 2 of her other patterns already (Effie and Prim) and I really enjoyed them! Fun to knit and fun to wear. 

Secondly, these have been in my queue since the pattern came out back in March 2012. I even saw the design take shape when Yavanna posted about them in the sock knitter's anonymous Ravelry goup and said to myself, "Wow, I really want to make a pair of those."

 So, back in the spring of 2012 I went and ordered the yarn to make these. When it arrived I wound it up with the best intentions to start right away. I can't really tell what happened after that other than me being distracted easily, but this yarn has been sitting patiently, waiting to be made into socks. 

I'm proud to say I'm sticking to my 2014 stash down efforts, and am still choosing to prioritize using yarn and a pattern I've had in my stash for far too long. Can't wait to really get going on these and see the wheat pattern take shape!

2 more projects finished and it's still Jan.!

Well, I'm pleased to say that this was a very good weekend for knitting. The long drive to and from VT really does facilitate getting in a lot of knitting in a relatively short amount of time since there's really not much else to do in the car besides knitting or napping. 

So, what did I finish you ask?
Firstly, I finished up those lace anklets from my last post. I really like how these turned out! And even though I keep saying I want to make more anklets, I never seem to get around to it, so I'm really glad I got these ones done so quickly. Now I just have to wait for it to warm up so I can wear these (they're definitely more of a spring sock than a winter one!)

The second thing I finished was a striped slouchy hat. I ended up knitting the entire thing on Sunday. I started it in the morning and finished it up before we got home from VT. This pattern was quick and easy and I love the fit of the hat!

I usually wouldn't have dropped everything to work on something so last minute, but since the Harry Potter house cup group was giving special points if you could knit a full project (with 4 patterns to choose from) in a day, I just had to go for it. I'm glad I did! I wore it all afternoon once it was finished and I usually can't stand wearing hats for too long!

I'm also glad I'm participating in a knit-along that gives points for all the things you can complete in a month. It really helps me keep my momentum up, and will hopefully help in my resolution to decrease my yarn stash this year! 

It's 2014!

Another year has started and yet again I find myself having gone a long time without posting. Sigh, this always happens, I get pumped up to do updates, get a few posted and then let them just slide to the side as I get busy with other things... I don't really have a good excuse other than just wanting to lay around and not do much after I get home from work... so maybe if I get started now that it's the start of a new year (yeah yeah I know it's been a couple weeks already) I can try and keep up with it for real! (I won't believe this for myself until I see it though)

Ok, sorry to those of you who read my posts but don't get regular knitting updates, because there's definitely gaps in things I finish but don't get posted...But if I try and go back and  capture everything since my last post, I'll never be able to catch up/keep moving. 

There is one major 2013 project I do want to post about before I move on to my 2014 projects though, and that project is the Aran sweater I FINALLY finished for my dad! Only took a year and a half after I promised to have it finished for him... but let me tell you I am no less proud of being finished. And it fit! 

Once I finished seaming that sweater together, it was like a knitting weight was lifted from my shoulders! Finally my WIP section on my Ravelry page didn't have this giant cabled sweater staring me down, making me feel guilty for working on other projects.

Now that the weight is gone, I've made quick progress through a couple projects already in the new year (and I bet you thought the January update would be short and boring *wink*)

Right after finished my dad's sweater I finished up these socks on New Year's Eve:

Then, to keep up the momentum I went right into my next pair and cast on the morning of the Jan 1st. Wanted to start the new year off with a bang. So I whipped these up in under a week! Finished on January 6th. 

So once I finished up those I decided to cast on a bigger project, and started my color affection shawl. I've decided to set a weekly checkpoint of completing 10% of the shawl and that once I meet that goal I can work on other things for the rest of the week. Here's my progress so far:

Just started on the second color. Once finished the shawl will be blue, pink and lime green. 

So, I know what you are thinking: Well Bri, that's one week of January and a shawl, but what else? I'll tell you what else! The remainder of the second week of this month after I reached my 10% shawl goal was spent on this soft blue hat with cute buttons:

I really enjoyed this pattern, called the Fractured Light hat, that's free from knitty.com. And what I'm really excited about is that there is a matching fingerless mitt pattern that I plan to make as well. And if I'm quick enough I can fit those into this month as well (they are my week 4 plan if I can keep up this pace!)

I initially planned to start right up with the mitts, but decided that if I did too much with the same pattern in a row I might get bored before I finish. To avoid that I decided to cast on a pair of ankle socks with a skein of yarn that's been in my stash since 2011 (2011!) I used the first skein to make some lacy anklets right after I got it and apparently this one just got abandoned. But better late than never! The yarn is stretchy so provides some fun variety. Hopefully these will get done this week!

So far it's been a great new year knitting-wise and I'm hoping I can keep it up!