January 2013 round-up

I managed to get quite a few things knitted up or finished over the month of January! Unfortunately I didn't really get any blogging done but hey the end of the month is better than nothing isn't it?

FO's

1. Angelus I finally managed to finish this up! No pictures yet but I should be able to remedy that this weekend.
2. Raituli I love this hat pattern. I added in the hearts myself. It's really not in my colours so if ever someone I know really falls in love with it, it will be gifted.
  
3. Honey Cowl I dyed the yarn for this and it came out SO fantastic! I wasn't too sure about while knitting but it looks so great when worn! I still have to get some action pics for it.


4. Monkey Socks! I've signed up for the Cookie A sock club and I wanted to try out a Cookie A pattern before the first shipment so I chose the Monkeys. I LOVED knitting these, I knit them in 6 days!



5. Felicity I hate the pictures for this, it's SO much prettier on a real head! I knit this for my tattoo artist but I'll be knitting myself one very soon!



6. Antler hat I knit this for J, he really likes it and I find it suits him perfectly!




7. Brick Road I LOVE this cowl! So versatile, so many ways to wear it! I don't have any pictures yet since I finished at night and I haven't had any sunlight in which to take pics yet. So in the meantime you get to see the cute buttons I used.


Seven projects in one month, I'm pretty happy with myself :)

W.I.P.'s

1. Hitchiker This is my purse knitting, which is always a project with no urgent finish time. I always like to keep something simple in my purse to knit on the bus or whenever I have to wait around with nothing to do. I have about 10 "teeth" left to knit.


2. Alostratus This is finally back on the needles after getting lots of other projects out of the way. I can't wait to finish my first garment!

3. Dragonfly wings I signed up for the booknits Valentine's MKAL so I'm knitting one of her other shawls as practice. I'm loving the cashmere yarn for this!

4. Gradient This is my current knit night project, sooooo soft and cloudy!

February Plans

1. Cookie A sock club! The first shipment is coming! I plan to knit one sock a month, so February should result in one pair of socks :P I'm SO excited for this!

2. Boo Knits Valentine's MKAL I can't wait to get all frustrated with my first full lace shawl lol, plus beads!

3. Snowbird I'd really like to cast this sweater on in Feb, it's so beautiful and I'd like to maybe get a bit of use out of it before the warmer months come along! I'm sure I won't be done in one month but I can hope :P

4. Zuzu's Petals Love this pattern and I have yarn for it!

I'm also thinking of joining the Virago knit along but I would like to stay away from buying patterns for a while. I have so many that I have already purchased or were gifted to me I can't quite justify buying another pattern. However I do have the yarn all ready for it so we will see. If I don't buy the pattern I may cast on another Lisa Mutch pattern Nightlock which was gifted to me.

New year!

It has been nearly a year now since I have started knitting! I've progressed in leaps and bounds and my love of knitting has only grown! In the new year I would like to keep better track on here of all the things I am working on. I would also like to add other things like my fitness journey, recipe reviews, book reviews, other craftiness, basically what my life consists of :) I'd also like to take more pictures!

January is a clear off the needles and start anew month for me. I wish I could have done this in December but there was Giftmas knitting to be done :) First thing that needs to be done is my grandmothers shawl, she is turning 85 on Jan. 13 and we are celebrating it on the 5th so this weekend is dedicated to finishing this shawl.

Knits to finish in January:

Gran's shawl - I want you shawl
Geysir Stretch
Angelus - This one has been languishing for a while, the cable edging is taking me FOREVER to finish.
Alostratus - I'm really enjoying this knit!

I would also like to knit a vanilla sock with a sweet tomato heel in January to get myselfback in the sock knitting groove and ready for my first shipment of the COOKIE A SOCK CLUB in February! I am SO excited for this club! My goal is to knit at least one pair of socks from each shipment, of course ideally I would knit both, but realistically I will aim for one.

EatSleepKnit.com

I made my first order from them today and so far I am impressed! I love that free shipping with orders over 75$ applies to Canada also and not just the US. Most online shops located in the US tend to ignore their Northern cousins. What impressed me even more is that my order was marked as shipped 4 hours after it was placed, that is quick!

Here is what I ordered:
Yarn:
2 skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Tern and Smokestack (2 of 5 skeins that I need to knit the All the Shades of Truth shawl

Also a bunch of random notions that I needed:
Tapestry needles, cable needles, stitch holder, emergency fix keychain, Interchangeable cables in 47" and 60", circular harmony wood needles in size 2/3mm, circular nickle-plated needles in size 3/3.25mm, Zephyr interchangeable tip in size 15

I'll take a picture of everything, and give a full review when I receive my package.

Woops! + Challenges

Woops kind of forgot about this blog didn't I?! I'm keeping records of everything I knit on Ravelry so I forgot to post in my blog!

Anyways I've been knitting away since I started in January and I've been learning very quickly! I've decided to set myself some little challenges for the next few months, here they are:

August: Finish all the WIP's in my Ravelry project list besides my ongoing projects (Hexipuffs, SPCA blankets, & Spiral cat bed) and my sweater, I'll give myself a bit more time on that one! 3 weeks to finish 5 projects.

September: Knit all the acrylic! I have a lot of acrylic left from when I crocheted more than knit and it needs to be used up! I've been using some to knit the cat blankets but I have some slightly nicer acrylic that I want to use up. So I'm challenging myself to knit up at least 3 things in acrylic yarn (yick!) in September.

October: Any project I start in October must be from a pattern I have previously bought and not yet used. I have a bunch that I prebought and didn't CO right away. I hope to get at least 3 projects done, depending how big they are.

50 projects in 2012

50 projects in 2012

I have a list of things I plan to do in the year but it's such a pain to transfer it from Word to Blogger I just decided to make a page that I update when I'm done each project.

1. Psychedelic crab mitten. The first thing I ever knit! Full of mistakes, weird looking, and unwearable but I knit it :)

 2. Mini Rag Quilt for kitties. I have a lot of leftover squares from when I did my giant rag quilt a couple years ago so I decided to use a few to make the cats a cozy rug to sleep on. It currently lives in an old shoe box that Sita loves to lay in and destroy lol.

3. First socks! I knit my first ever socks! The first one has quite a few mistakes in it but the second one was much better, they are wearable and very comfy :)

4. Hexipuffs! This is more of a huge Work In Progress (WIP) but I am happy I started it, these little cuties are so much fun to knit.

5. Crochet Purse. This wasn't really a complete project, I just finished it. However I'm so happy I finally finished it! Now I have no idea what to do with it LOL.

 

6. Ruba'iyat Mittens. I took a class to make these and I am SO happy with the result.

7. Seraphina Shawlette. I ran out of yarn so I decided to make this into a shawlette, that was a great idea I love wearing this.

8. Cat blanket for SPCA. I'm trying to make a few blankets to donate to the SPCA. While waiting for my needles I decided to use some old granny squares I had laying around and make them into a blanket.

 9. Musica Gloves. Made these for my friend Michelle who is studying music at University.

New blog :)

Yay a crafting blog :3

I thought I might start a blog since in the new year I have taken on a couple of crafting challenges and I wanted a place to keep it all together.

From Craftster I decided to take on the 50 projects in a year challenge. I have decided on a few of them already but mostly I'll just go with the flow. There will be some crossover with my knitting challenge too.

From Ravelry I joined a group to get 12 socks done in 2012. My first pair is done, and I am waiting for my yarn and needles to arrive to star on my February socks :)