Win some, Lose some

I finished the baby blanket!! Yay!! I love how it turned out (even if at the end it did feel as though it was sucking all the life out of me). Paul had an appointment yesterday with Chelsea to get his hair cut, and I have an appointment to get mine done tomorrow. Good thing I finished this blanket up. Chelsea told Paul that they are inducing her on Friday. Wow, talk about getting something done just in the nick of time.



My friend Amanda and I are both creating our own Sock of the Month clubs. Our stash's are chock full of sock yarn, and we have tons of patterns. We will be putting yarn and patterns into bags and picking one out the first of each month. Hopefully I'll have 12 pair of new hand knit socks come year end instead of 12 more WIPs taking up space LOL.

I know it's not quite February yet, but I went ahead and started my February sock anyway. It would have made too much sense to continue working on the January cast on sock until January was over you know. The Olympics are gearing up to start too, and with that comes Ravelympics. I've joined a team that will work exclusively on WIPs so my only event will be WIP Dancing. I am hoping to finish the Ravenna Satchel and Mary Tudor Cardigan during the games.

Of course, this means that at the end of February, I will have two pair of socks on the needles and neither pair finished! Looks like March might be sock month for me.



Also finished up a face cloth about a week ago. I used Knit Picks' CotLin yarn. Rather like it and plan to buy more to make towels for the bathroom with.



As for the "lose some" portion of this post title .....

Remember the Orchid top I was crocheting that was so close to being finished? Well, I bought the buttons for it finally this weekend and finished the edging on it. Tried it on before finishing the sleeves ..... and the bottom looked awful! Too much flare in the back. It looked like a giant ruffle on a giant butt! Uggggg to the frog pond it went. I had to frog it back to the beginning of the flared portion. Four skeins of yarn! Half of the sweater! I was hoping to have that sweater done this weekend, but looks like it might not be done before the Olympics start :-(

Today was cooking day. Last weekend, Paul bought me the Julia Childs Cookbook set. Couldn't wait to make Boeuf Bourguignon. I cannot possibly describe just how wonderful my house has smelled all day. This very well might be the best thing I've ever eaten in my entire life. And, I can't believe I made it myself (well, with Paul's help!)



Doppler sure wanted some!



And, what better desert to top off Boeuf Bourguignon than Creme Brulee?



Yum!

Losing All Will To Live

I checked out the projects page for the blanket I am making Chelsea (my hair stylist) and found a woman who posted in her notes that if she had actually knitted the borders on all the blocks she would lose all will to live. She chose to do a crocheted border around her blocks and it really looked cute. I wish I had read those notes before I started my blanket. It is such a chore now to work on those borders. I should finish the last one tonight thank goodness!

I've started the seaming since I was about to pull my hair out working on those last few border rows. Hoping to have all the strips made by tomorrow night and the strips sewn together by Thursday night. That will give me all weekend to put the final border on the blanket and hopefully put a big dent in the weaving in of ends. I am cutting it close to the deadline on this one. Chelsea is due in February.



I did a bit of work on the Apres Surf Hoodie during my blankie breaks. Can't wait to get to work on this one full time. The yarn is a dream to work with and is so soft and drapey. It is going to make a great sweater.



Also, started a new project this past weekend. This is a scarf for Paul made with Buckingham (Alpaca/Silk blend) and Ecco Cashmere. So soft and dreamy! There is a cashmere scarf for me on the horizon too!



I've signed up for Ravelympics and joined a WIP team (go figure!). Hoping to finish up the Ravenna Satchel and Mary Tudor Cardigan during the games. It will be nice to have a couple of the long standing WIPs finished up and no longer staring so accusingly at me from their knitting bags!

Lots of Progress

No photos of the baby blanket because they would just be more of what I posted last week, but I have made a lot of progress and should have all of the blocks (including the borders) done next weekend.

I'm really liking the Bacchus socks and can't wait til the baby blanket is done so I can devote more time to them. Should be turning the heel of the first one next weekend if all goes as planned.



I'm hoping the bobbles on the foot aren't uncomfortable inside shoes.



The Orchid Top should be complete pretty soon too. A few more rows on the body, a bit of lengthening of the sleeves, and the border is all that is left.



Even though I have quite a few projects in progress, I decided to start a new one this weekend. This is the beginnings of the Apres Surf Hoodie from Interweave Knits Summer 2008. I am using lavender Lyndon Hill cotton/silk that has been in my stash for over a year. Really like working on this so far.



Another new project started is a block a month afghan crochet along I joined on Ravelry. Below is the 12" square for January. I'll be using this as a destash project to use up a bunch of Patons Classic Wool I have.



I've finished four of the blocks for the Yarn Forward Mystery Blanket I started last summer. Haven't done much work on it lately, but maybe that project will come out of hibernation once the baby blanket is finished.












Lastly, I finished up the first dishcloth knitalong projects for 2010.

First FOs of the Year!

The first of the Mini Mochi socks will be finished later this evening. No way will I be able to make the second match. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the stripe pattern. They will be delightfully color matched but stripe mismatched socks.



Last night I put the finishing touches on the Lace Tee. I absolutely love this top! I added a crochet scalloped edging to keep the lace on the edges from rolling. I really like how it looks. Can't wait til it's warm enough to wear a short sleeved top.



The first project started in 2010 was this cute hat. Finished it up in just a few hours. It is very very warm.



More work this week on Chelsea's baby blanket. Need to get that finished up soon. Really starting to get tired of the colors and the pattern ..... uggggg. I hate when I lose interest in a gift!

Long Time No Knit

Well, not really, but there's been precious little of it for someone who's as obsessed with the craft as I am. Let's just say that the last quarter of 2009 was bad for me and quite frankly, I'm glad I don't have a bunch of dreary posts in my blog to attest to it. Here's hoping 2010 turns out to be a much better year!

I still have a ton of WIPs sitting in various stages of completion in my craft room. I'm hopeless it seems. I'm not even going to attempt trying to finish them all this year. Not going to make some resolution not to buy yarn this year. Not going to do much except enjoy the projects that I decide to knit/crochet at any given time. I've decided life is much to short to stress yourself out over a hobby.

I currently have 3 projects in my room that are being worked on. The first is a baby blanket for my hair stylist. She will be having a little girl in February, so I need to work on this regularly so it gets completed in time. I am almost done with all of the base blocks (have 2 more of the shooting star ones to finish). Need to put borders on 11 more of them, then sew them together and put a border around the blanket.












I have been spending quite a bit of time decluttering my craft room and getting rid of some things that I've been keeping just for the sake of keeping. I gave 3 tall kitchen size trash bags full of yarn to my sister, and have a 4th started that I'll pass on to her when she's here to go through the piles of books and magazines I've decided to part with.

While going through all the patterns in those books and magazines, I came across a pair of socks that I am in love with. Dug around in the yarn I decided to keep and found the perfect yarn for them and cast on. This is the beginning of the Bacchus Socks for Interweave Knits Fall 2008 and it is the second of the projects in my room. Nothing like waiting a year to cast on a project huh?



I found several pair of socks on the needles and decided to put a pair in each car for traveling knitting. Amazing how much I get done while riding in the car. Below is a pair of girly camo looking socks made with Panda Silk prints I started several months ago then forgot about when they got buried in the craft room. They will now live in the Caddy waiting for Paul to drive me somewhere.



I will need to bring the pair that lives in the Lincoln in sometime this week to get a photo of them. They are made with Mini Mochi and I love the colors and feel of the yarn.

The third project currently getting some quality time with me recently is a crocheted top. I am making this with Gloss Sock yarn and so far I'm really liking the way it looks and feels. I don't think this one will take much more time to get finished up if it keeps my attention for awhile.



Got two projects finished up during this holiday weekend. An adorable hat and a lacy cami tee shirt. Will get photos of them later this week.