2007 - A Look back

Well, 2007 has been my first full year knitting! I have knit previous to '07, but it was only 2 small-ish garter stitch projects ( a baby blanket and a scarf in '06, and I think I made part of a scarf back in 1990 *when I first learned the knit stitch - lol*), but it's only this year that I have seriously started knitting and made some actual progress.

Planning ahead for 2008 has made me think about the different techniques that I have learned this past year, and I have to say, I'm at least a little impressed!

In 2007, I learned:

  1. How to purl
  2. Ribbing
  3. Short rows (learned for Calorimetry)
  4. Knitting in the round
  5. Simple lace (started when trying to knit a blanket for my not-yet-born at the time son *turned into a cabbage patch doll blanket for my daughter*, and later picked up again to make 2 Tuscany shawls)
  6. Cables (did a small swatch, just to see if I could, then started a blanket for my sister)
  7. Basic sock construction (slip-stitch heels, turning a heel, gussets)
  8. Kitchener stitch/grafting
  9. Drop stitch (for a drop-stitch scarf I made my sister)
  10. Basic hat construction
  11. Mitten/fingerless mitten Construction
  12. Some sweater construction (for Daisy - a baby sweater)
It also looks like I crated approx.25 FO's this year (28 if you count the 3 lonely socks that are looking for their mates - lol!). Not too shabby!

Oops!

Looks like life (and deadline knitting - remind me not to do that next year!) got away with me and I haven't managed to post in quite some time! Hope everyone had a very happy holiday season!

Santa was quite good to me - on the knitting front, I received some yummy Fleece Artist sock yarn (a skein of 2/6 merino and a skein of Sea Wool - which I've been dying to try!), a needle keeper for my sock WIPs (I need more of these - you'll see why below!) and a gift certificate for my favorite LYS (Wool n' Things in Orleans) - which I will use to buy some Fleece Artist Casbah (cashmere - yummy!). I also am getting a ball winder (MIL forgot it at her house - she'll be mailing it to me), and I have a copy of Cat Bordhi's Socks Soar on Two Circs on the way to me!

As for the gifted knits:

I did manage to get the Ruby Tuscany done - at 3 am the day we left for the holidays! I'm not overly happy with it (too short IMO, and the 2 ends blocked funny - BOO!), but Hubby's Gramma loved it - so that makes me happy!

Hubby's socks - well, the first sock has yet to have it's mate. I tried working on them on the car ride to the GIL's, but apparently, although I can knit (lace even) while watching tv, my mind cannot process plain ol' stockinette in the round in a dark car. Oh, and apparently the tote I chose to carry the sock-in-progress in likes to pull multiple stitches off of needles.... Needless to say, I ended up frogging the sock (too many problems to fix for my patience level). I'll get that second sock done one of these days!

My Dad liked his socks - and one of his friends even commented that they looked "store-bought" - which I take as a compliment (to me it just says I did an excellent job). I don't know how well they fit him yet, as there's no need for wool socks on a beach in Jamaica (where he is now) - hopefully I'll find out when he gets back :)

Hubby's Aunt really liked her scarf - as did everyone else! It actually ended up as quite the conversation piece that evening!

My MIL loved her shawl. Seriously LOVED it. She raved and raved about it. Comments such as "I can't believe how intricate it is" and "It's hard to believe you've only been knitting for just over a year" and "WHAT!? You knit this while watching TV?!?" were heard (from her) multiple times.

Anyways...I'm a little sleep deprived at the moment (teething baby = 3hrs of sleep last night = not my idea of fun) so I'll post photos of everything later on (maybe after a nap)!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that all handmade gifts were appreciated!

Ummm...


Looks like I forgot to mention - I finished my Dad's socks. Days ago. Possibly even a week ago (actually, come to think of it - it has to have been at least a week ago!). Anyways, here they are - I hope he likes them!

Progressing along nicely on the Ruby Tuscany as well - on the 5th set of 9 (possibly 9 1/2 - 10) sets of repeats. Oh, how I hope it's done by the end of this week!

Oh, and I asked hubby if he'd mind if his present was late (his socks) - looks like I'll be trying to fit in and finish his second sock this week as well! Worst case - Tuscany will be finished the following week instead :/

2008 Knitting Goals

As I've been working on my Christmas Gift Knitting, I've been thinking about what I'd like to accomplish for 2008.

First off - "general" goals:

  1. One pair of socks per month (or at least one pair every second month if it's a "patterned" pair ie.pomotamus)
  2. At least one intarsia/stranded/fair isle project
  3. At least one sweater for myself
  4. All Christmas knitting to be completed by Dec.1st 2008 - if it's not done by then, it's not going to be gifted! December will be reserved for knitting for myself!
  5. New Stockings for the 4 of us (well, at least 2/4)
Pattern goals/Knit List
  1. Endpaper Mitts (Eunny Jang)
  2. Toasty Topper (Winter '07 Knitty)
  3. Wicked (Zephyr Girls) *Have yarn & pattern
  4. Monkey (socks)
  5. Shedir *have yarn, need proper needles
  6. A Pair of Selbuvotter Mitts
  7. We Call Them Pirates Hat
  8. Scoop Du Jour *Have Yarn
  9. Fetching
  10. Hannah
  11. Jaywalker
  12. Drive-Thru
  13. Embossed Leaves
  14. Pomatomus
  15. Entrelac socks
That's all for now - it may change if a new pattern catches my eye ;)

A little bit of progress is better than no progress at all...


Well, not a ton of new stuff to report, but I have managed to make some progress on the Ruby Tuscany - I'll be starting the 4th set of repeats after I'm done writing this post. I'm happy with how it's progressing, and am hoping to somehow be over the half-way point by the end of the week (this was seeming to be a logical goal before hubby came down with a throat infection, and now both the Goof and myself are starting to feel not so great). Anyways, I'm hopeful that this will be done before the December 20th deadline I set for it. I'm thinking that I might actually be liking this Tuscany better than the first one I knit.


The one thing that still gets me is how I can do multiple sets of repeats out of the first ball, but after that first ball, it goes to one set of repeats per ball. I suppose it really does make sense, but the ends start to get annoying after a few balls (not at that point yet - still on the first ball, but working on it again brought back this thought).

Another thing that I have noticed while working on this Tuscany, is that I made a few mistakes on the first one. First of all, in the second half of the chart, where the k3tog changes, (in the first Tuscany) I never changed to the other stitch sequence, but I am in this one. Second, the very last stitch on the WS before the YO, I never knit it on the first one, but am on this one. Lemme just say - the sides look much nicer on this one (but I do still love the first one I knit), and things make a lot more sense....

As for my Dad's socks, well....They're sitting on my bedside table, an inch away from the toe decreases on the second sock. I know! Soooooo CLOSE to being finished, but the lack of work I had done on Tuscany, I was starting to get overly anxious about getting it done in time, so I decided to set aside the sock for a bit in order to get something done on Tuscany. I'm not concerned though - an evening of tv knitting should get the sock finished. In fact, I may try to finish it up tonight!