final FO of 2012

   Just wove in the ends on what is my final knitting finish of 2012.  These little socks were a quick and portable project I picked to test out my first pair of Knit Picks nickel plated circulars and I can now say that I'm a convert.    

Pattern: Wednesday, Knit Picks Fancy Feet Anklet Kit

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Fingering

Colorway: Planetarium

I've been feeling under the weather and think I'll celebrate tonight by picking up a WIP and having a personal Netflix marathon.  It just started snowing in the last hour, and I think this celebration plan is perfect.  Happy and safe New Year everyone!  

in my mailbox this week

   While I was gone, several packages turned up in my mailbox; none of them containing yarn!  I did however, succumb to a few new (to me) charts.  Partly in anticipation of another 4 for $1.00 sale on DMC floss so I can fill out my floss collection (which was a success).

   The second chart from the CCN Santa's Village series, Poinsettia Place arrived from my auto-ship club, so I purchased the overdyed floss I'll need to stitch the next couple of charts.

   As it turns out, my first Blackbird Designs chart, Loose Feathers 2011 - Autumn, managed to fall into my cart with the floss I needed to stitch Poinsettia Place.  So for now, I'm planning on stitching this chart individually using the DMC conversions on some 32 count linen I tea (and coffee) stained myself.

   While perusing more Blackbird Designs charts, I fell in love with Winter Wonderland.  I have a soft spot for Canada Geese and instantly knew I had to stitch this piece.  I tracked the chart down and bought the other two charts from the Blackbird Designs series (Summer and Winter) to round out my collection.  These three charts should be arriving shortly.  I'm not quite sure when I'll be getting these done since I don't want to derail any of my current stitching or knitting plans, but they are mine!

   In other news, I got a new DSLR for Christmas, so it seems I can no longer blame my ancient point and shoot camera for bad pictures... now all the blame is on the novice photographer. :)

   Happy New Year!  I've already got my new stitching start ready to go tomorrow.

refining the plan and making some rules

   Since 2012 is winding down and 2013 is setting up to be a crazy year as always, I thought I'd put my plan down in writing to keep me focused in the new year.

   For the last few days of the year, I'll continue to try and get organized.  In particular, organizing my stash storage/office area and cleaning up my knitting queue.  It's hard being away from the stash (I'm still in California) because all I want to do is start swatching so I have more concrete ideas about what I want to make from my yarn stash.  I have my eye on a few patterns that might be perfect especially for some of the sweater-quantities of yarn I have.

   My primary knitting goal is to stash down.  I'd like to get my stash to live comfortably in the four allotted storage bins in my office instead of the overflowing mess it currently is.  

   In general, I buy yarn only if I have a specific project in mind (except for sock yarn… because it doesn’t count… right?).  So in order to stash down I need to finish the projects. In October I listed all of my WIPs. There were 11, but I’ve gotten that number down to 9.  I also added 3 new WIPs since then, bringing my total up to 12 WIPs. Eventually I’d like to have no more than 4 projects on the needles at one time.

2013 Goals:

• Finish my current sweater WIPs (Cassidy and Miss BB)
• I believe Miss BB is headed for a frogging, but I have another Chic Knits pattern in mind for the yarn.
• Finish or frog all WIPs from October before buying any new yarn in 2013 (excluding finishing the 2 afghan projects)
• Finish about 1 current WIP per month so I can start 2014 “fresh” with no WIPs hanging around from 2012 or earlier.
• Knit at least 2 sweaters from my KP CM order (I bought 4 sweater quantities total)
• Knit Peerie Flooers mittens from Palette

Rule:  I am free to cast on a new project of any type from stash yarn for every 3 WIPs I finish or frog (each section of my Hue Shift Afghan will count as one WIP).

   Now that the goals and rules are public, I'll need to stick to them.  Here's hoping.

weekly WIP report

   One of these weeks I'll actually get to posting my weekly WIP report on time... but for now, I have a couple of things to show you.

   After finishing up Santa's House, I managed to put a few stitches into my April Cottage.  There is still a lot left to do, but any progress is progress.

Pattern: April Cottage, Country Cottage Needleworks

Fabric: 35 count Lambswool Linen, Wichelt (2 over 2)

Floss: DMC as charted

The color palette for this cottage is amazing!  So spring-like.  I can't wait to get a few more cottages stitched on this piece.


   At the Knit Picks Cyber Monday sale, in addition to all the yarn, I ordered a 40" inch US 1 nickel plated fixed circ which happened to fall into my cart on an earlier window shopping excursion sometime in the couple of months before the sale.  I tried to resist casting on something new before finishing another WIP or two, but I needed something portable to take with me on the plane.  After digging through my stash I pulled out some Knit Picks comfy fingering weight and cast on a quick anklet sock with my new needles.

   WHY did no one tell me how amazing the KP nickel plated circs are?  Clearly I live under a rock.  I have a few sets of Addis around and the KP circs are awesome.  The slippery finish is similar, except the KPs don't tarnish like my Addis do and the cable is of course amazing... all for about 1/3 the price.  Anyway, the point is that these anklets are a combination of perfect yarn, perfect needles, and an easy to remember and fun stitch pattern.  I took this photo yesterday morning, but after my flights yesterday the first sock and the toe of the second is already done.  Good thing I brought a second ball of comfy just in case.

Pattern: Wednesday Sock, Knit Picks Fancy Feet Anklets Kit

Yarn: Knit Picks Comfy Fingering

Colorway: Planetarium

   I'm going to try to use the last days of December to get myself organized and ready to go for the projects I want to tackle in the new year.  This includes documenting my stash down knitting plans and hopefully avoiding yarn purchases.  I also have a couple of new cross stitching projects on my mind that I need to get supplies for.   

   

stitching finish

I put the final stitches in this piece last night.  I guess all I needed to get Santa's House finished was a blizzard.

Pattern: Santa's House, Country Cottage Needleworks

Fabric: Wichelt Amber Linen, 32 count over 2

Floss: DMC and Crescent Colors as called for in the pattern

I'm so happy I got this finished.  What a bummer it would have been if this guy didn't make it in time for Christmas:

This was a really fun piece to stitch.   The houses always take the most time to finish because they are large blocks stitched solid and the color changes always take up a lot of time, but all of the other little details on the piece go really fast once you knock out the house.  At first I kind of dreaded stitching this little holly branch border at the bottom (especially as I'll have to do it 11 more times), but it turned out really cute and works up quickly.

It's a little sad that because I'm stitching these all together, I don't really have a finished piece to display yet.  But, since I finished Santa's House during December, I am on schedule to get the rest of the pieces finished before next Christmas!  Now I just need to stay on track and finish each piece on time.

While I'm waiting for Poinsettia Place to show up in my mailbox, I'm picking the knitting needles back up and will hopefully get a finish or two out before the end of 2012.

a white wednesday Christmas!

   After spending monday night wrapping Christmas presents, I managed to get Santa stitched last night.   Today I can't wait to get back home and finish stitching Santa's House.  Especially since this is today's forecast:

I don't think there is a more appropriate time to sit in and stitch a Christmas themed project than now.  I'm planning to leave work early today and will work from home tomorrow.  Anyway, I'm 100% sure that there will be a finish before the sky clears.  Then it's time to organize my knitting queue in preparation for my 2013 stashdown efforts.  For sure, I want to get my long hibernating WIPs out to see the light of day again so that, hopefully, I fall in love (lust?) with one or two of them again.  In fact, I might be tempted to do an entire stash flash... maybe.

weekly WIP report

   After all of the knitting FOs I completed this last week, I've been neglecting my cross stitching projects.  In fact, it seems like last week I just wasn't in the mood for stitching or that I just never got into a rhythm when working on Santa's House.  After finishing Peterborough, I rededicated myself to stitching on this piece so it would be done in time for Christmas (which really means done and photographed by December 22nd, the last day before I leave to visit family for Christmas).  Beginning on Friday, however, I held my own little stitch-in and stitched all weekend.  Here's what I have to show for it:

Pattern: Santa's House, CCN

Fabric: 32 count amber linen, Wichelt, over 2

Floss: DMC and Crescent Colors as specified in pattern

 Clearly, I am not a fast stitcher if it took me three days of monogamous stitching to get this far, but then I keep telling myself that Santa has a bigger house than any monthly cottage.  All that's left to stitch on this is Santa (of course), a Christmas tree, snowflakes, snow, and the holly branch border at the bottom.  Listing these of course makes it seem like I have a lot left to do, but that house is HUGE!  It really shouldn't take more than a couple of evenings for me to finish stitching the rest of this piece.

   There's been a lot of concern on the SAL blog about the lambswool linen being too light and visually losing the snowflakes and chimney smoke stitched in white DMC floss.  I purposely chose a darker colored fabric so the white snowflakes would pop.  I think the amber linen is working out great, I'm happy with my choice.

   As for knitting WIPs, I've been thinking about what I should take on my trip home for Christmas to work on.  I already know that I get next to nothing done when I travel, but hopefully after finishing Santa's House, I can get a start on the second sock of a pair to take with me.