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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wash Cloth Mania

Oh dear, I am feeling the urge to knit wash cloths!  It hits me about once a year and I'll do nothing but knit obsessively in kitchen cotton for a few weeks to a month before it subsides.  The problem is that I don't have time right now to give into the itch.  I am still working on Christmas gifts and I have so many WIPs it's getting a bit out of control!  This is the time of year to knit in warm wools, not cool cotton! 

I only hope this passes soon. Is there a pill for this?

Serenity

KnitCore at The Foundry! Again!

We had such a great time at the Foundry last month that we will be back this Saturday from noon till 5.  If you missed the Foundry last month, we totally recommend you try to stop by this month to shop for some unique and locally made holiday gifts.  This is such an interesting venue that gets bigger and more exciting each month.  I personally can't wait to see what vendors show up this month.  I will be shopping for sure!

KnitCore will be selling lots of hand knit or hand made goodies, per usual, but with some extra goodies for the holidays.  Ornaments, beaded garland, beautiful crocheted lace collars, warm wooly hats, felted oven mitts and pot holders, baby hats, socks and mitts and so much more!

And if this weekend doesn't work for you, we will be back NEXT Saturday, too!  The Foundry is having a SECOND Second Saturday this month! 

Black Friday Sale!!!

It's not too late to save 20% off your order at our Etsy Shop with our Black Friday Sale!  It runs through Monday.  Just use coupon code BF2012 when you check out.  Besides lots of yarns, we're also well stocked with hand knit items (we won't tell!)

Speaking of hand knits, here are a few pictures of my sister's baby, my Blueberry, in some of the things I've knit for her.  Because adorable is meant to be shared!

Viva the Foundry!

Yesterday, we were at The Foundry's Second Saturday Sale - what a great afternoon!! They had a great variety of vendors, yummy snacks and a really charming venue. Thanks to great advertising, we had lots of visitors - human and canine alike! There were many hand-crafts; from beautiful stationery to feathered hair accessories as well as up-cylced wooden frames, stools and pegboards. So many lovely shops and people. Here's a link to the Foundry for more info: http://thefoundrybuffalo.org/ Please come and visit us for the two December dates - the 8th and 15th (the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays). 298 Northampton St, Buffalo from 12-5. My new hats and loop scarves went quickly - coming soon are some wool hats from gorgeous handspun yarn and more loop scarves. I promise to post some photos here when it's all ready to go! Keep and eye on our etsy shop! We're planning on some great gift ideas for the holiday with, as usual, lovely colorways from S to fill all of your knitting desires - two of which come in sparkly! It's that time of year when what we want to knit for ourselves or loved ones clashes with what we need to knit as gifts, or in our case, for business. Ah, the eternal business v. pleasure conundrum. :) The method I'm using lately to bring balance to it all is to alternate between a "want to" piece and a "have to" piece. For me, that's a new loop scarf trading places with my wedding veil. Yes, I'm knitting my own wedding veil! I'm hoping it will take on heirloom status in the future, but for now, it's going one long lace row at a time as the big day looms closer - 12/9/12. I'm very lucky to be marrying a man who is very supportive of my knitting addiction. For the most part, he turns a blind eye to the stashing and I mostly keep it hidden in closets and under the bed. There's a bag out on the porch too....but we won't talk about that right now. :) He's also an ideal knitter's husband because he expresses appropriate oohs and aahs at my projects and is impressed by argyle socks. He's also never requested a black cabled sweater. But enough bragging about J. I just hope this veil blocks like a dream and one of my cats doesn't nap on it while it's drying. For this week, I need to make a new light box and make some more headway on the veil. I would love to knit 2 more items for the store and organize the porch-yarn. That's just the knitting to-do list, let's not talk about the wedding to-do list! Anyway, my hands are itching for some needles and I think I'll poke around on Ravelry..... May all your cables twist the right way... ~L

KnitCore at The Foundry!

We will have a table this Saturday at The Foundry. What is The Foundry? It's a place for local artists, artisans and small businesses that promotes cooperation, community and shared inspiration. And it's a once a month craft show for local artists. This month they will have live music by Sol Y Sombra, food by Three Brothers Catering and lots of artists and artisans selling their goods. It's from 12-5 at 298 Northampton Street. Come down and check it out, and maybe pick up a few gifts for the holidays!