I'm back though I don't have plans of posting a ton right now. I'm mostly posting now because I am bored out of my mind. We are in Houston right now and my knitting isn't co-operating. I've frogged a few items (that were supposed to be for Christmas), didn't bring everything needed for other projects, and added more to my list.
My sister and I were talking the other day and I had an idea. Every year we ended up scrambling at the last minute to finish gifts (we tend to make most of ours) mostly due to a lack of well thought out early planning. Things llike lack of funds can stop any plan in it's tracks. :) So this year we are doing this a different way. We both have written up our lists of people and are going to do some math to split them up by 12 (cause there are 12 months a year) and work on that many gifts a month. Now her list will be a lot less than mine (for instance her husbands side has 6 people including newphews and neices....mine has 11 NOT counting neices and nephews....there are currently 21 grandkids...yeah...theres a lot) so that will be discouraging but that's ok. We can keep each other motivated and hopefully this will make the gifting season a lot less stressful. we're going to add in birthdays and what not as well. Hopefully this will make me a more focused, efficient knitter. I'm needing some structure in that regard lately. I'm tired of just flipping back and forth between projects.
I've also decided to pick, at the most, 4 projects (outside of my holiday stuff) to work on a month. I always have these grandiose ideas of whipping out a million projects a day and then get frustrated and irritated that that plan isn't working. Maybe this way I can tame the continuous "to knit" list floating about in my head and focus more on the item and the technique rather than getting it on and off the needles as soon as I possibly can. It's about quality, not quantity right?
While here in Houston I have gone to a yarn shop. Just one though. I came out with a skein of Lorna's Lace's Shepard worsted in the Vera colorway and some Regia Design Line (2 skeins) in some red colorway. I haven't broken into that yet. I have been using the LL though. I made an earwarmer cap for my MIL who (crazy I tell ya'!) is still walking to work despite it being freezing there (it's currently 34 and that's the warmest it's been in 2 weeks). She mentioned she likes beanie style hats but wants something to cover her ears and neck. After I bought the LL I had plans of making me some socks but the colorway was not sock friendly so onto the hat I went. After a trial and error in the adult/large size I frogged it and went down a size which was fine since it fits better than the adult/large anyhow. It turned out gorgeous I think. I want to keep it but I'm not about to go outside walking and have no need for it. I hope she likes it. I can't wait to give it to her.
This was pre-blocking. I did manage to add a little length but not as much as I wanted. I had added extra rows while knitting but I think my gauge was off cause it was just barely touching the bottom of my earlobes here. I need to remember to tell her the farther back she was the front of hat the more it'll cover her ears. It should fit her well though. She doesn't have as much hair as I do and I want to say her head may be a tad shorter in length. I don't know why I bothered doing the texture band since you can hardly see it but it's the tree one. And this is the first one (I've done three now) where my decreases worked out and didn't leave me slightly pointy up top. Not sure why but I'm very pleased.
The rest of the skein (cause it was massive) is being used to make Danica from knitty for my mom. I am LOVING entrelac. First time doing it and am flying through. I'm almost tempted to the do the entrelac socks in my IK. We shall see.
First up is a very basic beanie style hat. This began as the Gobble Gobble Turkey thanksgiving hat from Beadwhore but once I got to the feathers and decided I liked it as is. It fits S perfectly.
This is the Reverse Bloom flower washcloth from Weekend Knitting. I used some of the Lorna's Laces I had eft over from the MIL hat to do it. I started doing Danica but my mom is not a scarf gal. She is a luxury bather though and this seemed perfect for her. I do realize wool for a washcloth is odd but it's about the squishiness and luxury of the item...not whether she can scrub off mud. I didn't bind off, I just broke the yarn and pulled through the 8 stitches. It kind of puckers but I figure once it gets used everything will even itself out.
This is an Earwarmer for my dad. This baby is awesome! Nice and thick. I used Paton's Classic Merino (navy blue) and Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Purple splendor. The band has two strands of that and one of the Paton's. The body has one of each. The blue band has 2 of the paton's. I added extra short rows and extra body rows (4 or 5). I wanted it super long and since I can't seem to get that (MIL's hat is not long enough for my liking) I made sure to add lots. Better safe than sorry. Size medium/child (the one with 88 stitches). Zigzag texture. I know it'll be late but that's my fault for starting late. I hope he likes it. It's in his two favorite colors so he may just by default. :)
