Even More Cristmas Knitting!

While Lolo was playing with baby lambs downstate, I've been busy trying to finish up the last of my now seriously overdue Christmas projects and get some of my WIP's off the needles. 

You'd think this would be the last one, but no, I actually have one more Christmas gift I haven't even started knitting yet!  By the time I finish this one, Christmas will be here again!  :)  But I did finish a pair of socks for my sister:

Look familiar?  That's because Lolo and I made the same pattern! 
I also crocheted (yes, crocheted!) an amiguri octopus for my niece Blueberry

Now, I just need to find time to get to the post office to mail them.

I alos finished a project I started in the fall.  My Hogwarts Express Shawlette. 

I left it blocking on the floor when I left the house Friday night.  I'm sure I'll get home to find my cat lying on it.  What is it about cats and wet wool? 

I have NOT been doing a good job cold sheeping so far this year as I've recently bought two sweaters worth of yarn.  But I justify these purchases because they are patterns I've been wanting to make for a very long time.  and the yarn was really pretty.  :) But I can't start either until I finish a few more WIP's. 

We'll be at the Foundry on the 9th, so I know we're both working on some Valentine's themed knits to bring.  Stay tuned for an update on that!

Till then,

SereKnitty

Hello everyone! Lolo here. I'm back for a short jaunt downstate and I had some lovely adventures. This year has been my year to cold sheep, as I have 80,000 yards of yarn and I think my husband has started looking at me a little screwy. ;) Today is the 23rd day of no new yarn and I'm not missing it yet. My mom threw me a big curveball though - as part of my trip down, we went to a lovely farm shop in Gardiner NY. It's called White Barn Farm - here's the site: http://whitebarnsheepandwool.com/

I resisted all of the gorgeous yarn but I did buy some lovely buttons for the new sweater I'm making, a new Stephen West pattern and a great project tote. The best part of the trip was that there was a newborn lamb at the farm! She was born the night before and was just having her first meal. She's a Cormo lamb and has yet to be named.....I'll try to find an update on that later. :)

Isn't she cute! The shop itself has a great sign to welcome you and some beautiful views:

Before I left, my mom and I set aside some time for some crafting that she's been meaning to do for a long time - needle felting!

 

This is her first try, a little hedgehog! It's so funny that she was so nervous to try it because not only is she a former art teacher, she's one of the most creative people with a great "eye"!

Even though I brought 10 tons of projects to make, I really only managed to finish two -

 

Socks for my sister-in-law

 

an octopus (with pipe cleaners to make the arms bendy)

 

 

My ravelry queue is busting with things to knit....I'm trying to get a good mix of new things and UFOs that have been lying around. I'm on a toy making kick, some bunnies and a robot coming up. For at least the rest of the night, I'll be working on Levenwick by Gudrun Johnson in kelly green. :)

 

levenwick

 

May the yarn be with you......

 

 





More Christmas Knits! And Tinking. :(

I thought I had finished the Cloudy Day hat I'm making, but it turns out I need to add another pattern repeat to it to make it bigger so I had to tink back quite a bit.  This is what happens when you make changes to a pattern.  In this case, I'm knitting it in fingering weight yarn instead of sport because I have a tiny head and it'd be too big if I did it in sport.  As is, it's more like a beanie than a beret, but it'll soon be fixed.  And once I block it out on a dinner plate I think it'll be just right.  I had hoped to get it done today, but I guess it'll wait.  BTW, I'm knitting it using Mad Tosh Light in Silver Fox that I overdyed to make more silver grey.  It's the same yarn I used for my Cladonia shawlette that I adore and get so many compliments on. I think they'll look great together! 

So, to console myself for all my wasted knitting time, here is a picture of the Pint Sized Pine Trees I made for a Christmas gift for my boyfriend's father, who makes his own wines.  They're quick and adorable knits that can go over a wine stopper or cork to add a bit of festivity to a bottle of wine, or they can stand alone. I loved them so much I want to make a whole forest of mini tree ornaments for Christmas next year!

(They are also a great way to use up bits of yarn in your stash, those wine bottle corks that inevitably find their ways into kitchen drawers and beads.  I have lots of random beads.) 

Happy Knitting,

SereKnitty

Christmas Knitting

I know it's mid-January, but I'm finally posting pictures of some of my Christmas knitting.  I made snowmen ornaments for my co-workers.  They were fun to make and I enjoyed dressing them up using bits of yarn from my stash.

They were big hits in the office.  Aren't they adorable?  The pattern is called Lumpy, Rosy and Slim, found for free on the KnitPicks website.  It's easy to adapt and make your own. 

Did I just give you an idea for next year?  :)

Happy Knitting! 
SereKnitty

Knitting New Year's Resolutions!

Happy New Year!  It's SereKnitty here! :)

I don't know about you, but I always make resolutions.  They're usually positive changes I want to incorporate into my life, like giving myself a weekly facial (which I am somewhat consistent with), doing yoga three times a week (which has become habit) or this year's resolution to pay my rent on time each month.  (My landlord is very patient with forgetful me! ) As a knitter, I always make knitting resolutions.  Last year I wanted to knit 12 pairs of socks in 2012 and I know I did it if you count all the baby socks I knit.  But what I didn't do was knit up all the sock yarn in my stash like I wanted and knit lots of socks for ME.  So that is one goal this year. There are so many sock patterns in my queue that I have yarn for and have been waiting years to knit and I want to work on those this year. Another is to finish some UFO's that have been on the needles for WAY TO LONG.  To that end, I intend to reinstate Finish Fridays, where I spend an hour or two working on one of my UFO's to try to get them off the needle. Expect lots of blogs about this.

I also want to get AND KEEP my stash below 30,000 yards.  It might not seem like much to most knitters (Lolo's is WAY bigger than that), but it's way more yarn than I need to have on hand at any one time and it's about as much as my yarn bin will hold. I can't really get the lid shut at the moment!  I know it's unusual, but I actually don't like having lots of yarn on hand. It makes me feel pressured to knit it all up!  I would prefer to buy (or dye!) yarn as I need it and only have a small stash of odds and ends on hand.  It's weird, but it's how I am and that's ok!  :)

Then, I want to knit a hexapuff a day for the entire year.  364 hexapuffs!  I have 6 as of this morning so I'm ahead of the game already.  My Beekeepers Quilt has been slowly building, but I really want to make progress on it this year. I'll post pictures soon!

I also want to FINALLY card and spin the alpaca fleece that's been sitting in my closet for a year and a half.  If I slowly work on it throughout the year, certainly I can get it done!  I haven't had much time for spinning lately, so this will be a good excuse to get back to my wheel.  

I think those are reasonable goals and I think I can do well this year focusing on them and not getting distracted by new patterns and yarns.  Of course, I'll continue with my baby knitting. My little bunny Sera is 6 months old already and my Blueberry is over 3 months. They grow so fast! Which of course means they need new knitwear and toys!

But those are just my personal crafting resolutions.  We also have some KnitCore goals for 2013.  Look for a post about those soon!  And what are your Knitting Resolutions for this year? 

New year, new name, new everything!

Wow, we made it through the most famous doomsday! Waking up on December 22, things seemed much like they'd always been....

     Earlier in the month, J and I got married! Woo! Of course, all the usual things like it was a lovely, memorable day, I was so happy to have all of my nearest and dearest there and I love my husband like I can't explain. I knew I had to something knitterly for the ceremony so I decided to make my veil. After poking around on Ravelry, I picked Snow Peacock from tonksknits. At Rhinebeck, I'd found some pale cream-colored fingering weight yarn in a wool and mohair blend.

     With the deadline well in mind, I started knitting, and kitting, and knitting. I plowed through it pretty easily until I hit the last 10 rows. This was when it was the biggest and well deep into the lace repeats. The numbers just weren't adding up! I had too many stitches per repeat, and I couldn't see when it had started to go wrong.....the horror! I checked for errata and searched for posts about anyone else having the same kind of trouble.....no luck. I decided to soldier on, adjusting the repeats to "my" number and, thank goodness, everything turned out perfect:

 

It's blocking on our double bed, I think it's about 5' wide.

 

I plan to put it away for safe keeping as a family heirloom. :)

Our weeding day was perfect. Everything went perfectly, except when it didn't in really cute ways. It was small, close-knit and exactly what we wanted. :) Right after the ceremony, J and I zipped up to Niagara Falls (Canadian side) for two nights away in what we called our "mini-moon". We stayed on the 29th floor of the Hilton:

 

 

 

At night, they light up the falls. :) I forgot that photo. :(

I now know the joy of changing your name! My new initials are LL, which puts me in good company with Bruce Banner, Lois Lane and Peter Parker, maybe I should look into superhero-ship!

After the wedding and "mini-moon", we were thrown into the holidays! I made a couple housewarming/little gifts for the in-laws we went to:
                   
                               

A cute little felted snowman for my mother-in-law - it was first try at needle felting and it was really cool! I know I'd maligned it in the past but I think I'll be needle felting again! It does remind me a little bit of cross-stitch in that, after a while, you run out of things to needle felt (or space to put cross-stitch). It's a kit I got at Michael's by Dimensions, they also have owls and hedgehogs and bears, etc. The wine bottle cozy was another pattern from Ravelry out of some acrylic yarn, that was for father-in-law. I knit it pretty much in one night so if you need an easy project last-minute, it's a really good one!



The little turtles were for a co-worker's daughter. The one the left is Tuck by Susan B. Anderson - its arms and legs tuck inside, just like a real turtle! I found the other one on Ravelry, but I forget its name. It's amazing what comes up when you just search for "Turtle"!

     For Christmas, my husband bought me Knit Local: Celebrating America's Home Grown Yarns by Tanis Gray! I love that new book - it has beautiful projects and lovely profiles of independent spinners, dyers, and fiber artists and creators from all over the country. The first project I'm knitting from it is a pair of socks for my sister-in-law. The yarn is Knit Picks Chroma Fingering in Pegasus. The pattern is called Evergreen Ankle Socks by Faith Hale. I love this yarn! The colors are beautiful and it's some of the softest I've ever felt. It's a great option for a more affordable, luxury feeling yarn. The pattern is a standard cuff down with a simple heel flap; the lace pattern is easy enough to be fun but keeps you paying attention. Two thumbs up so far!

 

 

 

It's almost the end of the first day of 2013. I feel so lucky so far, I have a loving husband and wonderful family and friends. And, more yarn than I want to admit to. :)

 

All the best! Til next time......Lolo