Snowbunnies

Hello,

I'm sorry for my absence over the last half a week.  My Grandma had a stroke on Thursday and so things have been a bit stressful and busy the last few days.  She is doing great now, Praise the Lord!  And we are all so happy with her recovery.  She is still in the hospital, but she should be able to go back to the Rest-Home soon.

I finished my Snowbunnies Mittens over the weekend!!  I was motivated to get them done so I could take them to the hospital to show Grandma yesterday.  She really liked my Cupcake Mittens so I thought she'd enjoy seeing these as well.  She is a master knitter and my hero.  She is no longer able to knit, but she seems to like to see what projects I'm working on and to hear about my knitting.  For a long time I didn't say much regarding knitting because I didn't want to make her feel bad about not being able to knit anymore, but I have found that that's not the case at all.  I think she is very happy to see the knitting tradition being carried on in our family and I see a special spark in her eyes when she sees me knit.

I found these ones turned out to be larger than my Cupcake ones, but I think it's because my guage was off at some points.  I've been learning so much about stranding while knitting these, and it takes some practice to get it consistent, but I'm willing to keep working on it.  Now I'm trying to decide which pattern to start next....

I hope you are all having a great week!!

xoxo

The January Socks

Hello!

The January Socks are finished, and with 6 days still left in the month.  I think that's pretty good considering there were moments when I thought I wouldn't complete them in time, and I worried about how it would look so bad to the blog that I couldn't keep my goal in the first month no less.  After a very unproductive weekend, due to not feeling well and those pesky achy wrists I mentioned in the last post, I made myself buckle down and knit on these socks, and only these socks until I got them finished.  It was definitely worth it and I'm pleased as punch with how they turned out.  The pattern was easy to work, although I did have to use the chart and didn't memorize the 16 row repeat as I know others have, but nevertheless, they were an easy knit.  Here are a few details:

Pattern: Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from the book Favorite Socks. (You can also download it as an individual pattern on Ravelry.)
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in the colour GoGo Grassy.
Needles: 2.75 mm
Started: January 1, 2012
Finished: January 25, 2012
Mods: None, I followed the pattern to the T.

Now that these are done I should get back to the Snowbunnies seeing as they haven't gotten any farther since the last post.  

Be back soon,
xoxo

P.S. I have fallen down the rabbit hole and I'm now on Pinterest.  There's a link to me on my sidebar if you'd like to see my boards or follow me.  I'm just getting started but boy is it fun and inspiring.  I hope to see you there!

Set-Backs

Happy Saturday,

Okay, so things didn't go quite as I had planned, which I'm sure you noticed by the lack of a post yesterday.  What happened was; #1 - the project I picked to get my mojo back is taking me a bit longer than I had first thought.  #2 - I had achy wrists yesterday that only allowed me to crochet a little bit.  #3 - When I picked up the Snowbunnies yesterday morning to work on them, I noticed that I had done almost an entire repeat with the bunnies going in the wrong direction.  You can kind of see it in the picture below:

See the white ones up top?  Their little feet are going in the same direction as the brown ones below - that is not supposed to happen.  I had to rip back to the beginning of the repeat which sort of made me a little sad, and also made me not want to look at the bunnies for a while till I recovered.  

So after those setbacks, I really had nothing to blog about yesterday.  I'm hoping that this weekend goes better and that I can actually make some real progress on things.  But in the meantime, I'm going to bake a prune cake.  In my world, baking solves everything.

Enjoy the weekend!
xoxo

Where I'm at

Hello,

This is where I am on the first mitten at the moment:

I seem to have stalled out a bit here, so I cast on a somewhat quick project that should take care of this.  Sometimes I find I just need a little change of scenery to get me back on track.  If all goes as planned, I'll be back tomorrow with a finished project.

Till then,
xoxo

Sweet Peas

Hello,

I have an adorable little knit to share today.  Over the weekend I was gifted the pattern for the Sweet Peas Hat by Susan B. Anderson from the wonderful Julie (aka Tanknit).  I had to start almost immediately, I just couldn't help myself.  I have been admiring this pattern for quite some time, but I just never got around to purchasing it.  So thank you Julie!!  It was a cute and fast knit and turned out well if I do say so myself.


Sweet Pea Hat

I used Knit Picks Dishie in Flamingo and Honeydew.  I'm waiting to see if a baby that a friend of mine is expecting soon is a boy or a girl, and if it's a girl, then I think this little hat will be the perfect gift.

I had forgotten how much I enjoy knitting baby hats.  Now that I've been reminded, I'm planning on knitting more in the soon future.  There's always new little ones arriving around here, and I think they should each have a cute hat, don't you?

xoxo

Down the Rabbit Hole....

Hello,

As of last night, I think I've fallen down the rabbit hole:


Snowbunnies by SpillyJane

Cute though, eh?
xoxo

Sock Club

Hello!

I want to start off by saying a big thank you for all your comments on my Cupcake Mittens.   You all are so sweet.  My Knit Picks order hasn't made it here yet (due to the weather we have not been able to go pick it up, but I'm hearing Monday is going to be the day now.), so I still haven't decided which SpillyJane pattern I'm going to knit next.  I'm hoping once I see the yarn it will help me make a decision. 
Anyways, today's topic is socks, as you can see from the title of this post.  You all know how socks are right up there at the top of my 'favourite-things-to-knit' list.  (although I think colourwork mittens might have surpassed them lately, but never mind that.)  So because of this, I decided to do a Self-Imposed-Sock-of-the-Month Club this year.  I took my inspiration from the Yarn Harlot, and chose 12 sock patterns I have been wanting to knit, matched them up with 12 yarns from my stash that I have been wanting to use, printed/photocopied off the patterns and placed everything in 12 big Ziploc bags.  I will pick one at random at the beginning of each month, and will try to complete them within those 30-31 days.  I think this is a great way to use up some of my stash yarn, as well as get around to knitting those patterns I have been wanting to knit all these years.  I also really like the element of surprise that is associated with picking at random, it makes it extra exciting for me, which is always a plus. 

January's socks are Embossed Leaves by Mona Schmidt from Favorite Socks.  I'm using Dream in Color Smooshy in a fun colour called "GoGo Grassy" that I got in the Itty-Bitty Easter Swap last year from Susan.  I'm on the gusset decreases of the first sock right now:

I think these are going to be my weekend project.  My sister is coming down to stay overnight and we are planning on watching some Jane Austen movies and knitting - two of my favourite things.  I hope you have some fun and relaxing plans as well.  And speaking of relaxing, have you read the Yarn Harlot's post?  What is your take on it?  Is knitting relaxing for you?  For me, I think it all depends on the project.  If it's something I have to knit that needs to be done very fast, I find it can become quite stressful, but if it's something I want to knit and that has no real deadline, then, yes, I find knitting to be very relaxing.  I am one of those people who has to have something to do at all times, so I am very, very grateful that I learned how to knit and crochet.  It helps relieve tension and keeps me focused on the present moment.  One of my goals this year, as I mentioned before, is to learn to enjoy my projects and the actual process of my craft more, and I think reading this post, and the comments has helped me gain a new perspective on that. 

Happy Weekend,
xoxo