ADVENTure!

Have you seen Kristyn’s posts about her ADVENTures? I only read about it yesterday over at ‘Stitching Under Oaks’, but I love the concept.

As I mentioned before I have already made a start on my Christmas gift knitting for this year, but it’s great to see I’m not alone and that there are others committed to doing this. It will be so motivating as I move through the year (because I’m bound to ease up on the gifts as the warmer weather arrives and memories of winter months and Christmas start to fade!). On the 25th of each month Kristyn will be posting about her ADVENTure happenings, showing completed projects, projects in progress, and sharing tips for success and encouragement along the way. She’ll also be putting up a Mr. Linky so we can join in  - which I hope to do.

The Juliet Scarf I just finished is to be gifted this year, I also have a couple of projects that I completed last year that now have someone’s name attached to them ;-)  As I post about the projects I’ve just completed I won’t mention who they are for incase any recipient happens to read this!

I’m busy working on McCafferty…. not sure yet if this is for me or if it will be a gift! I’ll try to take wip pics soon.

(above pics are past projects that were gifted a couple of years ago)

Hmmm… what to knit?

I finished the Juliet Scarf I started a couple of weeks ago – another 2011 Christmas gift, but shhhhh! I won’t say who it’s for!

I took some pictures today but it still needs blocking.  The yarn is Sublime Angora Merino in a kind of taupe color. One skein wasn’t enough to make this thing look like a ‘scarfette let alone a scarf, so I broke in to the second skein and used about a 1/4 of it. I didn’t want it too long, just enough to cross over and pin the little flower to it (which still needs a button or something in the center of it).

First picture was taken without the flash, the above and below pictures were taken with flash. Huge difference in colors but I think the ‘flash’ pics are more accurate to the color.  I doubt I’d knit another of these. The pattern wasn’t easy to memorize (except for the wrong side rows) and I kept forgetting a YO every now and then, resulting in knitting backwards a couple of rows!

So, once that was cast off yesterday, I cast on and made a beaded cuff! I’ll finish the other one off tonight. Knit with Knit Picks Merino DK. Not sure who these will be for yet, I just felt like trying them. Rather cute looking I think.

     So, what to knit next? I have a ton of ‘wips’ in my closet that I don’t even want to think about yet! I would like to sort out all my stash and craft stuff then maybe I’ll feel more in the mood to finish some old projects off. But for now I feel more in the mood for casting on another Christmas gift  . . . .  I just don’t know what yet?

Nearly New Year

We are enjoying another relaxing week at home, after hubby decided to take this week off work too!

‘Santa’ brought me lots of fab knitting books last week that I’ve been browsing through each night. . . . (I’ll take pics of the other ones later), here’s me on Christmas day with one of them.

I’ve been knitting lots,  I’m half way through the Juliet Scarf  and I knit one of these mittens this week (shown on the front of this book I got last year)

but it’s TOO BIG!!!!  I’m surprised too because I went down a needle size. I know I should check gauge but I didn’t on the Bella Mittens and they turned out perfect. I shall probably pull this one out and start the smaller size on yet a smaller needle? I thought perhaps it would shrink if I hand washed it in hot water? but then I thought better not, just frog and reuse the yarn to start again.

So what is everyone up to for New Years Eve? Do you set any resolutions? My resolution is to knit as many Christmas gifts as I can for next year and to use a lot of yarn I have in stash for the projects :-)

Finished Bellas

These were a great knit. The pattern was really well written, no errors, and such a fast knit. I’m really happy with them. You can see my Rav details HERE.

(it’s not really snowing here, I’ve just been playing around with Picnik.com!)

As usual I found it hard to get good pictures! These used less than one ball of Malabrigo Merino Worsted. I would definitely make them again.  So that’s another gift ready for 2011! I’m on a roll. I cast on tonight for the Juliet Scarf ;-)

All In A Day’s Knitting!

I knit this yesterday . . . .

I told you I wanted to make a start on my 2011 Christmas knitting, and I wasn’t kidding ;-) You probably recognize the pattern, it’s the ever popular Bella’s Mittens (found here on Ravelry). What a great pattern, and it knits up so quickly too. Not sure if I’ll get the second mitten knit as quickly mind you, but by this week I should be finished. I have already cast on for it and knit 6 rounds.

  Yarn I’m using is Malabrigo Merino Worsted from my stash. Not sure what the color is called. I’d say grey but it also has a little fleck of mauve/pink/purple running through it. The picture above that I took with the flash on shows that a little more (if you click to enlarge).

Now, I’m not going to say who these will be gifted to (the recipient might wander in here and read?) and as I get to knitting more things I may not even mention that it’s a Christmas gift at all?  I’m super happy that I’ve made a start though. I think the best time to knit for Christmas is right now, no doubt by the time March or April rolls around I’ll be wanting to knit spring and summer stuff and won’t be in the mood for Christmas/winter knitting! So hopefully I can get a lot done before then.

Christmas Knitting

Well I did say I wasn’t knitting gifts this year but this is a little hat I just made for a friend’s daughter :-)  It’s just a simple beanie pattern and I stitched on buttons and knit the eyes and nose.

Kristen is modeling it for me, isn’t it cute (and she is too of course)

  I still have that feeling that I wish I’d knit a lot of Christmas gifts this year. Oh well, there’s always next year, and I hope I can stay true to my goals and knit a lot of gifts for Christmas 2011.

Tis The Season

Wow, December already! I’ve been knitting but just not organized enough to blog about it. I’m not knitting gifts this year, but usually around this time I always wish I had :-(  And I always start getting the urge to plan for next years knitted gifts – do any of you feel like that?  I had great intentions of starting Christmas knitting last January too I think, but I didn’t get very far. I am going to try harder this year.  I think the best plan of action is to get the ‘winter knits’ made in the first 3 months of the year (those will be the gifts I send home where the weather gets really cold), and the other ‘not so wintery gifts (for those of my friends who live in warmer climates) could be knit throughout the spring and summer.

Well, that’s my plan at least.  I’m already searching Ravelry for ideas and making a list of who I’d knit for and what I think they would like . . . or more to the point what I think I would LIKE to knit them ;-)

This is already in my ‘gift box’  . . . .

Another ‘Just Enough Ruffles’ scarf.  The yarn was just Hobby Lobby’s ‘I love this Yarn’ which I find super soft. The black edging happened by accident because I ran out of grey yarn (having started with not quite a full skein) but I like how it turned out. I think I might gift this to my nephew’s wife for next Christmas. . . . so, that’s one down, about 20 more to go!!

I need to sort my yarn out and see what I have in stash. Mittens and cowls are always good gifts and I’m sure I already have plenty of yarn to get started on a few.  Hopefully I can post and keep track of what I knit here. I feel pretty motivated, but who knows how long that will last.  I hope to be back soon. In the mean time I’m off to catch up with some knitting blogs ;-)