It's Friday, Friday, Finally!

This week for whatever reasons has seemed to be one L  -  O  -  N  -  G drawn out week.  Not alot of knitting progress made this week, sadly, just a whirlwind of life's little presents.

Although, there have a been a few highlights to look forward too, received some new squishy lovelies to play with.

The two green skeins, from corner left are Shibui yarn in Staccato, and Silk Cloud.  These lovely skeins are were destined to be a pair of fingerless gloves; sample knit for the Knitting Ranch. 

Pattern: Jane Kristin Spurkland
Yarn: Shibui Staccato & Silk Cloud
Started: 2/2/12
Finished: 2/2/12
Mods: None

I offered to knit these for Suzi, who also hosts a wonderful virutal kal!  Yes! That means I get to sit and knit from home and connect virtually with my other knitterly friends.   I part taked in my first session last Saturday morning.  The current virtual kal is for the Lacy Prairie shawl, for which the two other purple skeins in the picture above are destined for.  The skeins are A Verb for Keeping Warm in Hyacynth.   I'll share my progress on the shawl once I get to take some pictures.  A special thank you to my dearest friend Marisol for sharing this virtual kal.

For now I'll leave you with a very soon to be FO of the SusannaIC Mystery Shawl.  Almost done with this shawl, one clue left for this weekend.

12 in 2012

All the rage in the fiber universe is making 12 items in 2012.  So, my fun and competitve spirit has decided to jump on board the madness, oh and fun too!

I'll be doing 12 pairs of socks, 12 shawls, 12 sweaters, and 12 hats, and possibly throw in any other 12 crafting things I can think of, because it's fun to challenge myself, fun to create, and just darn crazy!

Here's my first pair of socks, this is 1 of 12, all done.  Love them.

Pattern is from the Through The Loops, Mystery Sock KAL 2012, no name yet, but soon there will be.  I've submitted my choices for the name of these socks, will see if I win!  These were knit up in 4 Clues, each released during each week of January.  Now I'll have to choose my next pair to knit.

For my 12 of hats of 2012, 1 of 12 is Piece Out.

For the 12 shawls, this is 1 of 12, still in progress, it is a Mystery KAL, I'm awaiting the next Clue 5.

For the 12 sweaters, this is 1 of 12, still in progress, almost done!

And I'm thinking about 12 Crochet projects possibly, if I do, than this would be 1 of 12.  I'm working on my building my crochet skills.  

My fortune has been written, good luck shall come to me this year, though I guess I did cheat and make my fortune come true, but hey, us "go getters" must always make our own luck 8) 

Time..Cute Knits..New Knits

It's been a pretty active start to this 2012 year for knitting.  While other things are in disarray, knitting is coming along to a nice start. 

It is surprising that this month is almost over, how fast these days have been going by.  So other than knitting, what am I doing? 

Well, I'm working, just as I'm sure many of you are, I'm trying, trying to keep things going.  Much harder these days, wish things would get easier, but they never do.

It's nice to have knitting, its a nice break from all the stress.  

I've been finishing up a number of projects, which should I start with?  I'll start with the cute and fun ones, although I must say, cute and fun ones sometimes take more work than full projects, like sweaters, cardigans, etc. 

I made this cute Memento Owlet, such a cute little thing, I named it Halcon, and gave it to Lil' Nenelle.  This cute lil' owl, is all crochet, and somewhat free form crochet.  There was a pattern to follow, but alot of it was, create a flat round to the size you want, crochet round until  the base measures up, fill, seal closed, stitch some ears, and so on.  That's it, so I was on my own, the tricky part was really for me the ears and learning to use what I've learned this far in crocheting.  I'm pretty proud of this lil' guy, it was a small milestone in my limited crochet experience.

Next up a Balloon Tie Sock Monkey!  Such a cool pattern, basically its built off of the premise of actual balloon tying.  You knit a number of tubes, different sizes, all continuous, and stuff along the way.

This is what you get when your done.

Then, that's where the magic begins!  You learn to tie the monkey, and voila!  Your sock monkey is born...

I'll admit, it took awhile for me to figure out how to tie this thing, and yes, the pattern does come with instructions, but once I fully understood how to do the tying, it was easy!   I really want to make more, the design book I have for these has patterns for a tiger, tiara, you name it. 

One last fun knit, this Pin Cushion! Love it! So super fast to make.

For all these, used nothing but stash yarn, no extra purchasing, even better!

I also was able to finish a quick lovely cowl, it is Tweed Burberry Cowl.

This one is fast too, and so warm, again I pulled yarn from my stash, love the tweed black yarn.

I have alot of other projects going on, I'll share a couple:

New SusannaIC Mystery shawl - Clue 1

New Through The Loops - Sock Mystery  - Clue 4

Much more going on and more to share, as always, hope all of you are enjoying this first month of the New Year!

What's in a year? 2011...

What's in a year?  For me, as a knitter, I always feel like I haven't done enough knitting, not enough projects, or techniques, etc., but then I have to remind myself, that its a hobby, and I work full time, and sometimes more than full time with other jobs, and then, oh yah, life.  So I'm not as dissappointed when I see what I've accomplished. 

If I factor in actual knitting hours per week, I'd say I get probably 10 hours at best combined, and at least 5 hours.  That's not all at once, it's an hour here, 30 minutes in the car (not driving), etc.  I also try to take it easy on my hands and wrists too, so I do tend to limit my knitting at times, more say lately since I injured my wrists months ago working out. 8( 

So, without further adieu, here's pictures of my 2011 Knitting Year.  I'm missing at least 5 - 10 projects that never made it to a photo shoot.

Just a little knitting

My mini-Christmas vacay was nice, and always too short. I made lots of tamales, and did a good amount of baking. I also squeezed in some knitting, primarily for Christmas. There were still a few things I couldn't get done or even start, but there's never enough hours in the day for us knitters, is there?

I wish I could just spend my days knitting all the beautiful patterns out there and then enjoy wafting though the many FOs...heaven 8) But reality always hits and I find myself always squeezing in some knitting, even if only a few rows, or even a few stitches.

I'm at the tail end of a few projects, and have a few news ones I need to get started, alas my New Year's knitting.

First on the needles will be a pair of socks, for the Through the Loops Mystery Kal 2012!

and then at least 3-4 more projects I'll be rotating.

I'll leave you some Christmas knitting...

The Mixt Cowl, on the top, wrapped twice, on the bottom, wrapped four times.

Knit with Cascade Ultra Pima, 1 skein.

1 pair of Knucks = 1 skein of Cascade Ultra Pima.

Mixt Cowl knit with 1 skein of Cotton Supreme.