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! 

Finished Socks! And a new project OTN

Well, I got distracted yesterday and didn't end up doing a second post about what's on the needles. But, in my defense it's because I was finishing up a project, and thus, by the end of the day it was no longer OTN, but in fact a new finished project. 

I've finished the FINAL pair of socks from the socktopus book! This pattern is called 2luvcrew, and you can check out the Ravelry Pattern page HERE.

I knit these in Cephalopod yarns Skinny Bugga yarn in "Purple Soldier Fly". I really love this yarn and hope to get some more fun colored skeins this year at Rhinebeck. 

Sometime in the next few days I'm going to try to compile a little collection of my pictures of all the Socktopus socks and will hopefully get that posted here. 

So! Now that I've finished the lovely purple socks picture above, I bet you're wondering "what now?"  Well! I decided to cast on another pair of socks. After going on a break from socks since May, I'm really excited to get back into making them. I've had the yarn and this pattern picked out for a long time and I'm excited to finally get them knit up. I chose this pair to cast on because the pattern is easier and so should be good for bringing along when Lane and I go out and about during the long weekend. The yarn is Nalani yarns sparkle sock in Cheshire Cat, and I picked what I think is an appropriate pattern to go along with this Alice in Wonderland themed yarn: Down the Rabbit Hole. 

Here's my progress so far (not much since I just started) but I'm excited to see how these turn out! I already tried on the tiny piece I knit up and they should fit nicely.

I'm hoping to make quick progress on these socks and get my sweater for Rhinebeck cast on ASAP. I plan to get a swatch knit up for that by this weekend. (so there may be more pictures to post soon!)

Finished Project - Gemini Top

I've finished the purple Gemini top I posted about last Wednesday! I was hoping to get better pictures to post, but the weather hasn't been cooperating... so I'm going to post what I have now, and then maybe later put up some pictures of me wearing it.

This is pre-wash so it's a bit crinkly looking...

 And here's a close up of the neckline lace pattern:

I did give this top a nice soak and once it dried it was quite a bit softer (and I'm under the impression every time I wash it the linen will soften up a bit more). The sleeves are a bit floppy...but once I went back and looked at the pattern page again, it seems that's how they are supposed to fit. I'm not sure I really like how wide the sleeves are, so if I were to make this top again I think i'd work in some decreases to the sleeves, and also perhaps make them a bit shorter. 

Other than the fit of the sleeves I'm quite pleased with this top and how it came out! 

Now just to finish up my purple socks (which I'm aiming to finish by the end of this week) and I can cast on something new! (most likely more socks! And also a sweater I'd like to get finished for the NY Sheep and wool festival which is in October)

I'll probably do a post this evening with a picture of my socks in progress...after all it is what's on the needles Wednesday...

Wednesday - What's on the Needles

Well, in the hopes of trying to keep this regularly updated... I'm going to try to instate "What's on the needles Wednesdays!" I'm pretty sure I've seen other knitting bloggers do updates like this and I think it's a cute idea (sometimes they are also called Work In Progress Wed's), plus then I'll have an excuse to post and update even if I haven't finished anything since my last post!

So! Here goes. This week I've been working on my purple cotton/linen top. The pattern is called "Gemini Top" and can be found at knitty.com. I've made it to the start of the hip section (at least I did an increase row so I'm guessing that's for my hips). I think I have about 3 inches left to knit and then the bottom ribbing section and the sleeves. 

I've really been enjoying the simplicity of this pattern, especially since I was working on the Celtic knots shawl when I started. But, now that I'm getting towards the end the plain stockinette is feeling  a tad bit boring and I've been slowing down with progress...I think the best solution is to try and power through and finish up  by the end of the week. Then, I can work on finishing my one pair of in progress socks (they've been hibernating since May) and start something new! I won't post a picture of the socks just now since I really haven't been working on them, so even though they are "on the needles" they are being ignored until after this top is finished.

Time to bring this blog back to life!

Well... it's been more than a year since my last update, and I think it's because I try to pack too much update into each post. I think from now on I'll stick to little blurb updates and pictures. Easier for me to post, and more eye candy for looking at!

So! Now for a quick summary of the highlights of my knitting for 2013:

In January I finished up 4 pairs of socks for a Harry Potter themed knitting group I participate in on Ravelry:

I made it to round 5 (of 7) of Sock Madness (a speed sock knitting competition that starts at the same time as March Madness)

I also knit this cute little blue bubble baby blanket for my friend Molly's baby, isn't he just the cutest??

I then transitioned into warm weather knitting and finished this cute laceweight top with warm weather left to wear it! (I'm super extra proud of this one!)

And to round off the highlights, I just finished up this shawl for a baptism in Sept! Here's my awesome sister modelling it:

Other than these completed projects I have a pair of socks in progress and a purple cotton t-shirt that I'm hoping to finish soon, but I'll save those pictures so there will be something in the next update!

Blog Struggle

        Well, again I have let my blogging fall to the wayside... It seems I've been too busy trying to fit in everything I want to get done during the day that I haven't had time (or made time) to stop, sit down and write about all of my activities. Now, in my defense, it was tough to blog after my last post since I started knitting Christmas presents for my family, and I didn't want to post in case they saw. However between the end of December and know...I've had no excuse! I've been doing a lot of working, wedding planning, and of course knitting.
Right now it's looking like 2012 is the year of the sock. I'm hoping to eventually have enough hand knit socks that I can wear a different pair every day, using store bought socks for exercise only.
I'm currently participating in three Knit A Longs that contribute to my goal of more hand knit socks. (however my ultimate goal to wear all my own socks is going to take a bit longer since I've started giving some socks away...it's selfish to keep them all for myself!)
The first KAL is the Socktopus book KAL. I bought this book for two reasons:
1. The quite obvious reason that the name Socktopus, is quite frankly AWESOME! and while they say don't judge a book by its cover... I judged this one by its name.
2. When I looked through the book at the store I immediately thought to myself "Wow, I could actually see myself knitting ALL of these patterns" This doesn't usually happen, so I took it as a sign that I should buy the book.
Naturally I wanted to start knitting through the book as soon as possible, but I didn't really want to tackle this gigantic task alone..so I searched the great place that is Ravelry.com and low and behold....a group, dedicated to knitting through the entire book! And it started the very next month! (December/January). I had to hop on this bandwagon. Now.. I did get a late start, since I couldn't start socks for myself before finishing Christmas gifts for my family. Luckily the schedule allows 2 months to complete each sock, with one month of overlap so if you finish early you don't have to wait too long to start the next pair. So, right after Christmas I kicked off my mission to get through the book. So far I've made it through 3 pairs:
Kwalla:

Spring Shoots:

 

Vorticity:

3 down, 13 to go! I'm feeling pretty good with my results so far, and can't wait to see how the rest of the patterns work up in my yarn choices. 

Now, since my eyes keep seeing patterns I want to make, and because in my mind I'm a much faster knitter than in real life I decided that just working through socktopus wasn't enough! 

I discovered in my search for the socktopus group Sock Knitters Anonymous. And let me tell you, this is the beginning of the end, I'm now definitely addicted to sock knitting. The idea of this group is that each month there is a challenge that has one or more themes or techniques your pattern must fit into to qualify. They also host a Mystery sock KAL every odd month of the year. Lucky for me January's theme was flora and fauna, so my socktopus spring shoots also counted! Then once I finished those up (they were a quick knit) I decided to hop on the Mock bandwagon and knit some Blathnat socks. Ceara was recipient of this labor and she says she loves them! It was fun to knit the socks as each clue came out. I've never done a mystery knit before this and I think this experience made me more likely to try Mystery KAL's in the future:

Then, because two pairs for the Januarychallenge didn't seem like enough I also decided to conquer my first pair of man sized socks. Since Lane had been asking for a pair for a while this seemed like a good time to go for it. (Like I said, I'm a faster knitter in my mind)... And so I cast on a pair of "Snape's Stockings" from the January designer of the month. And here's what I ended up with:

I actually ended up finishing all the projects I started in January and only overlapping a few days into February...so maybe my hands are catching up with my imagined speed..(only slightly). 

And on to the Feb. challenge! Slipped stitches. I love slipped stitch patterns and found what I like to think is my best yarn/pattern combination to date: Chopstick socks made in Ella Rae Lace merino:

The colors came out super cool with the slipped stitches and these socks are super soft!

As for the march challenge, I thought I wouldn't be able to juggle socktopus, SKA and my third sock activity Sock Madness! The ladies from Taunton encouraged me to join and so begins my first SM experience. It's a sock speed knitting competition. And the first round sock had cables in it, which made it conveniently fit into this month's SKA theme! The first round of SM is the qualifying round where people get put into groups based on finishing time. Then it works kind of like march madness (get it, get it?) and each round narrows down the amount of people that move on until 4 people are left at the end competing for honor and glory. Unfortunately this competion won't contribute to my personal sock collection as I have to make socks that fit a minimum of US women's size 7, as a person with size 6.5 feet, all of these socks will be too big. Looks like I'm making some socks for gifting! I finished my pair a little slower than I wanted, but at least I finished! 

My toes only make it as far as the cables on these socks... the toe part is completely empty :P

The pattern of these socks is called Dicey, and the idea is you roll dice to decide whether or not to cable each time a cable row comes around. It's a pretty neat concept. However, I was a little bummed with the amount of confusing wordings and inconsistent use of punctuation in the pattern itself. It made it harder to follow and I felt like I've never had to rip back and redo on a project as much as I had to do with these socks...But now they are done and I can move on to the second round! 

Alright along with my massive amounts of knitting I've also had to tackle a lot of wedding planning. 2 weekends ago was my bridal shower, it was so much fun! But quite overwhelming. I wish I could have had more time to catch up with each person who came rather than trying to talk to everyone at once! 

Lane and I also sent out our invitations, so I'm feeling relieved to know that the main things are covered: A place, my dress, food, and the guests! It's fun to see all of the details coming together. All we really have left to plan is music for the ceremony and a cake. I'm going to have to take more pictures of my planning process so that I can make a series of blog posts on my thoughts on wedding planning and what I've learned to pass on to people who are getting married in the future. 

Alrighty well I think this is a good enough update for now. I'm using up all too precious knitting time to write this. So much I want to knit, and so little time! Hoping to have at least weekly updates from here on out, but no guarantees! Work is going to get really busy really fast, along with my wedding planning...