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!