2008 Roundup

A new year, a new start, and time to assess what got acomplished in the previous 12 months. The tally from the past year, now that I've gone through and written it down, is quite impressive actually. Here's the bare stats:

Socks - 13 pairs (Ironman Christmas, Noro, Spiraling Coriolis, Flukes, Devil socks, Turkish Walrus, Spiral boot socks, Firestarters, Rainbow socks and leftover socks, Diamond Waffle, Riverbed/Hedgerow socks, secrect project not yet blogged)
Sweaters - 5, two long sleeved, two tanks, and 1 baby
Heads/hands - 2 Christmas Hats, 1 pair of mitts
Scarfs/shawls - two shawls, one scarf
Spinning - 11 different spinning projects finished (superwash Merino from Yarn School, Cotton Candy, Hello Sheep, Maldives, Verdant, Frosted Forest, Toxic, Red Velvet, H^4 Targhee, Blueberries, Sara's Targhee)

Sheesh. Who knew? So the next question is: what's on tap for 2009?

1. Continuing the Sock a Month KAL. I started some geeky science nerd socks for me yesterday.
2. Spinning/knitting the Peacoat of Gloriousness. I've dyed part of the fiber already, but have to order/dye the other batch soonish.
3. Decreasing the stash any which way I can, including forcing my posse to take large bags of yarn home with them on Thursday nights. Because I need to make room for the Rowan that will be incoming...

There are certainly other things that will crop up here and there, like moving across the Atlantic and finding Devil a "pink cake with pink icing and pink Princesses" for her birthday, but I find it's important to keep these lists to a minimum. At least in writing that is (my mental list is much, much longer, believe me).

So what are your goals, knitting or otherwise, for 2009?

Thursday mishmash

It's grey and "cold" and I'm up to my ears in secret knitting projects, so I don't have much of interest to show you. I am in love with this pattern and am considering making them for every single person I know. I have finished the sock in my last post, and am hoping that I can cast on for the second one on the bus tonight without screwing up too badly. I am two bobbins (of three) in to the November Fiber Club offering (picture here) which is lovely, but which I seem to be chronically underspinning - I think I may have to graduate to the fast flyer for "everyday" spinning (yikes!). I have two presents left on The List 2008, plus finishing off Boo's Tomten, which still has only half an arm (and no hood). One of the last two presents has been chosen (Rav link here) and I think the other will be a bias knit Eye of Partridge stitch scarf with garter edging that I've had percolating in my brain for a while now, using the yarn I spun at Yarn School. Assuming I have enough of it that is...methinks I might have to add some plying twist to that second skein.

What else is going on...Devil is still not convinced about the necessity for clothes in December. To be fair, she wears clothes, it's coats and pants that she's not so excited about. Occasionally I can convince her that the dress-over-pants look is a good one, and hopefully on those days, her classmates' parents don't wonder about my parenting skills (Why is that girl never dressed appropriately?). Boo has embraced the joys of verbal communication: (in the car on the way to daycare) "Mama. Mama! MAMA!!!!!" "What is it Boo?" (A beatific look through the roof of the car) "Eh-plane!" She has also finally stopped using "Daddy" to refer both to Ironman and her sister. However, she only occasionally makes any really distinction between "No" and "Nyah" (which means affirmative). Grandparents, consider yourselves warned.

Thankfully, tonight is Knit Night, so tomorrow I should have something reasonable and/or entertaining to discuss. Like Tartanic. Failing that, if I get my act in gear, I have a candidate for Fiber Friday that I really should blog about. It's been spun for a month now!

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Ah! I almost forgot. Progress for November:

Knitting:
Devil's Tomten
Christmas Present #5

Other:
Dyeing 2 lbs of wool for a coat for me. With the girls. Fun times. And a purple driveway.

Ehem. Now back to your regularly scheduled knitting content.

Sorry about that (both the long blog break and the excessive political wanking). I have been knitting, even if I haven't been posting about it at all.

I finally broke down and busted out the Noro sock yarn. Say what you will about the feel of it, the thick and thin nature, the VM, but the colors are absolutely To. Die. For.

I'm moving to a new office, which I was cleaning out today, so I took advantage of a window (!) to take some pictures

Pattern: Stripey Noro Socks, by yours truly (pattern now available for download here)
Yarn: Noro Kureyon sock yarn, colorway S40
Needles: Knitpicks Harmony dpns in US 1/2.25 mm
Start/finish: 10/3-10/17/08

While harsh in the skein, the yarn feels fine on my feet. I haven't tossed these babies in the dryer yet, but I've heard that makes a grand difference in the feel. I originally meant these for a Christmas present but they ended up being too big. If they do shrink or shift around in the dryer, I will gift them. Otherwise, I'm keeping these things for me me me.

I love the striping on the heel. I kept the heel flap in stockinette so it would work out, and I managed to get everything to line up just right. Hooray!

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I guess it's now November so it's time to take stock of October's accomplishments:

Knitting
Ummm...Noro socks. That's it.

Spinning:
Cotton Candy
Superwash merino, as yet unblogged because I need to unload a cubic buttload of pictures from our camera.

Other:
Halloween costumes! (see above disclaimer on superwash merino)

What was I doing last month?

What I did in September

You know I'm busy when it takes me a week to get to the progress report for the previous month, and it's even worse when half the FO's I finished have not yet been blogged about.

Knitting:
Manly socks (blogged!) (in October - whups!)
Top-down Summertime tunic
Gathered Pullover

Spinning:
Fiber club leftovers
Hooray Sheep! at Yarn School (picture but no details here)

Dyeing:
3 lbs assorted fibers in one swoon-inducing swoop

So now my longest-standing WIPs are my doomed Ravelympics project (which has actually seen some action recently), the Sock Yarn Blanket, and the Duck Replacement, which has been hiding in the back of the stash closet because I.Hate.Intarsia. But I have new socks started!

Project Polygamy anyone?

Summertime knitting

Now that we've officially moved into "Fall" (otherwise known as the month after August), it's time to take stock of August's steamy list of FOs:

Spinning:

Hush Hush Handspun Hootenanny yarn
Last 2 oz of Maldives (not yet blogged)

Knitting:
Swallowtail
Brambler
Secret socks for Himself

Not a bad month! And now that it's fall I can plunge full force into sweaters and mittens and all sorts of wintery goodness.