Next Year Will Be Better (Hopefully)

So this year has been pretty pathetic from a knitting production perspective. I had hoped to join in the 12 sweaters in 12 months. Hah! I finished one sweater, and it was one I had started the year before. I only finished 7 projects this year.

I'm setting a somewhat more modest knitting goal for next year. I want to finish 12 projects. Finishing WIPs would be awesome and they'll count, no matter how close to done they are at the end of this year. The only project I'm requiring of myself (and the only deadline I'm taking on) are Octarine socks for Sir Terry Pratchett to be delivered at the North American Discworld Convention in July. Everything else is optional.

I would like to finish up my current WIPs (Flaming Flamingo Empire, Daybreak Shawl, Granite Haruni, Firestarters and Hederas) which shouldn't be overly difficult as the sweater and shawls are all almost done. I'd also really like to finish my Swan Lake shawl, which is over 3 years old.

We'll see how I do this year.

Progress

So I haven't been finishing too much lately, but I have been making lots of progress on various projects. Including my Skinny Empire which has been hanging around forever! I had be going along at a good clip and then had to rip back to before the bust darts due to some weird puffiness issues. Once I got through the hip increases I was unsure how long to make it, so it just sat for a while. But last week I finished off the torso with a hem that I absolutely adore. Here it is. Ignore my face. Focus on the hem. It's prettier.



Now I just have to finish off the cap sleeves (and decide whether to hem those too) and make the neck ruffle and I'm done!

I'm also almost done with my Daybreak Shawl and my Haruni in Silk Lace. I can't wait to finish those off and block them!

Central Park

This morning it was finally cool enough for me to walk to work. I had a lovely walk, and then another walk back in the afternoon. I took my camera with me and snapped shots as I walked.

Morning light through the trees



Macro!



Late afternoon - awesome trees

Comfort Elephant

So my mom's had a pretty tough...year. And work is sort of insane, which means I can't visit. So I decided to sew her a comfort elephant (seeing as what she'd love, an afghan, would take at least a year, and this took two days). It's not her colors (I already had the fabric cut out from two years ago) but I hope she'll love it anyway. And boy, it's not exactly beautifully made. But, it's made with love.

Central Park

A photo from my walk home last night. It was so nice to walk, yesterday was the first day it was cool enough to walk in weeks and weeks.


Twilight is pretty.

Haruni

So this week has turned into the week to block long-done shawls. Here's my Haruni. It's a present for my Aunt. It's a great pattern (I'm making it again in silk lace) but I was amazed that it turned out huge. It hangs below my tush. I was expecting it to be a small shawl. Now I'm glad I didn't add any repeats, especially since my Aunt is several inches shorter than me.




Pattern: Haruni by Emily Ross
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% in Brombeere

Streaming Stole

I finally blocked my second pooling stole! I cast-off months ago, but I just had the time (and inclination) to block. And it looks great.



I love the feel of lace just after its been blocked, it's so lovely and crisp.



Pattern: Pooling Streams Stole by Gladys We
Yarn: Wollmeise 100% in Blue Suzanne

Fourth of July

Fireworks as seen from my office:

My Livingroom

Here is my picture for the day. It also functions as proof that at one point in time my apartment was neat! Sure I moved in September 1st and it's now July 3rd and this is the first time it's been clean. You wanna make something of it?


Yes, that is a bookshelf full of yarn. In case you were wondering.

New Camera

I got a new camera today. It is tiny and blue and unlike my old camera actually works (it recently threw in the towel). I'd like to be one of those people who takes pictures every day, but I don't really see that happening. Hopefully I will be able to take and post some pictures though - and not all of yarn and knitting (lots of yarn and knitting though, no worries).

Here is my inaugural picture - it's of a bit of lake in Central Park. I had to wait for the gondola (steered by a dude in a red and white striped shirt - v. authentic) to get out of the frame before I took the pic. And I had to adjust the contrast a bit - it was washed out by the sunlight. I think it came out pretty nicely. If I do say so myself.

OMG - I actually finished something!

Ok, so it's not that insane that I finished something, I've actually finished a couple of things since my stripey socks, they just haven't been blocked and photographed yet. But the baby blanket didn't need to be blocked, so when I finally got the last skein of yarn I finished up, bound-off, wove in (I had mostly done this already, I am brilliant!) and was done!



As per my tradition, this blanket will be getting to said baby around his 1st birthday. :)

Progress - somewhat

So I'd really like to finish up some of my projects, but work is seriously getting in the way. Ah well, I finally finished my stripey socks (KnitPicks Felici) that I cast-on during my bar trip in August 2008 (yes, a year an a half ago, really).



And I'm making some progress on my Sundara Sweater - which is taking forever. I know it's largely so slow due to the fact that I got to the waist and then had to rip back to before the bust-darts, but it's still bugging me. Ah well. I'm through 2/3rds of my hip increases, so the end for this one is actually in sight!


Pattern: Skinny Empire from Custom Knits
Yarn: Sundara Fingering Silky Merino in Flaming Flamingo

Epic Fail...But look! Lace!

So...I must admit my Knitting Olympics projectw as an epic fail. I got maybe 6 inches into the back. It's gorgeous, but I had no knitting mojo during the Olympics. We'll see if I manage to get back to it, now that it's all warm out.

But, in better news - look! I cast one some lace. Here's the start of my Haruni in Wollmeise 100% in Brombeere.



And mittens! Finished mittens! Finished Colorwork Mittens!

Knitting Olympics

I am participating in the Knitting Olympics, which start tomorrow, and in their honor I'm going to try to go back to blogging my knitting. (In fact, I'm going to go post my big projects from 2009 tonight, since I haven't posted in a year.)

For the Olympics I am planning on making Veronik Avery's Military Cardigan from her book Classic Knits. I'm going to swatch tonight with my intended yarn - MadelineTosh Vintage in Tart. This is going to be one big, red, cabley sweater.