While the colors weren't my FIRST choice, I'm actually loving it!   Even more thankful I had a top to wear with it to properly show off the colors.

Pattern: SusannaIC January Mystery Shawl by SusannaIC
 Yarn: Herron by Yarn Pirate
Started: 1/11/1
Finished: 2/13/12
Mods: None

Although, there have a been a few highlights to look forward too, received some new squishy lovelies to play with.

The two green skeins, from corner left are Shibui yarn in Staccato, and Silk Cloud.  These lovely skeins are were destined to be a pair of fingerless gloves; sample knit for the Knitting Ranch. 

Pattern: Jane Kristin Spurkland
Yarn: Shibui Staccato & Silk Cloud
Started: 2/2/12
Finished: 2/2/12
Mods: None

I offered to knit these for Suzi, who also hosts a wonderful virutal kal!  Yes! That means I get to sit and knit from home and connect virtually with my other knitterly friends.   I part taked in my first session last Saturday morning.  The current virtual kal is for the Lacy Prairie shawl, for which the two other purple skeins in the picture above are destined for.  The skeins are A Verb for Keeping Warm in Hyacynth.   I'll share my progress on the shawl once I get to take some pictures.  A special thank you to my dearest friend Marisol for sharing this virtual kal.

For now I'll leave you with a very soon to be FO of the SusannaIC Mystery Shawl.  Almost done with this shawl, one clue left for this weekend.

I'll be doing 12 pairs of socks, 12 shawls, 12 sweaters, and 12 hats, and possibly throw in any other 12 crafting things I can think of, because it's fun to challenge myself, fun to create, and just darn crazy!

Here's my first pair of socks, this is 1 of 12, all done.  Love them.

Pattern is from the Through The Loops, Mystery Sock KAL 2012, no name yet, but soon there will be.  I've submitted my choices for the name of these socks, will see if I win!  These were knit up in 4 Clues, each released during each week of January.  Now I'll have to choose my next pair to knit.

For my 12 of hats of 2012, 1 of 12 is Piece Out.

For the 12 shawls, this is 1 of 12, still in progress, it is a Mystery KAL, I'm awaiting the next Clue 5.

For the 12 sweaters, this is 1 of 12, still in progress, almost done!

And I'm thinking about 12 Crochet projects possibly, if I do, than this would be 1 of 12.  I'm working on my building my crochet skills.  

My fortune has been written, good luck shall come to me this year, though I guess I did cheat and make my fortune come true, but hey, us "go getters" must always make our own luck 8) 

It is surprising that this month is almost over, how fast these days have been going by.  So other than knitting, what am I doing? 

Well, I'm working, just as I'm sure many of you are, I'm trying, trying to keep things going.  Much harder these days, wish things would get easier, but they never do.

It's nice to have knitting, its a nice break from all the stress.  

I've been finishing up a number of projects, which should I start with?  I'll start with the cute and fun ones, although I must say, cute and fun ones sometimes take more work than full projects, like sweaters, cardigans, etc. 

I made this cute Memento Owlet, such a cute little thing, I named it Halcon, and gave it to Lil' Nenelle.  This cute lil' owl, is all crochet, and somewhat free form crochet.  There was a pattern to follow, but alot of it was, create a flat round to the size you want, crochet round until  the base measures up, fill, seal closed, stitch some ears, and so on.  That's it, so I was on my own, the tricky part was really for me the ears and learning to use what I've learned this far in crocheting.  I'm pretty proud of this lil' guy, it was a small milestone in my limited crochet experience.

Next up a Balloon Tie Sock Monkey!  Such a cool pattern, basically its built off of the premise of actual balloon tying.  You knit a number of tubes, different sizes, all continuous, and stuff along the way.

This is what you get when your done.

Then, that's where the magic begins!  You learn to tie the monkey, and voila!  Your sock monkey is born...

I'll admit, it took awhile for me to figure out how to tie this thing, and yes, the pattern does come with instructions, but once I fully understood how to do the tying, it was easy!   I really want to make more, the design book I have for these has patterns for a tiger, tiara, you name it. 

One last fun knit, this Pin Cushion! Love it! So super fast to make.

For all these, used nothing but stash yarn, no extra purchasing, even better!

I also was able to finish a quick lovely cowl, it is Tweed Burberry Cowl.

This one is fast too, and so warm, again I pulled yarn from my stash, love the tweed black yarn.

I have alot of other projects going on, I'll share a couple:

New SusannaIC Mystery shawl - Clue 1

New Through The Loops - Sock Mystery  - Clue 4

Much more going on and more to share, as always, hope all of you are enjoying this first month of the New Year!

If I factor in actual knitting hours per week, I'd say I get probably 10 hours at best combined, and at least 5 hours.  That's not all at once, it's an hour here, 30 minutes in the car (not driving), etc.  I also try to take it easy on my hands and wrists too, so I do tend to limit my knitting at times, more say lately since I injured my wrists months ago working out. 8( 

So, without further adieu, here's pictures of my 2011 Knitting Year.  I'm missing at least 5 - 10 projects that never made it to a photo shoot.

I wish I could just spend my days knitting all the beautiful patterns out there and then enjoy wafting though the many FOs...heaven 8) But reality always hits and I find myself always squeezing in some knitting, even if only a few rows, or even a few stitches.

I'm at the tail end of a few projects, and have a few news ones I need to get started, alas my New Year's knitting.

First on the needles will be a pair of socks, for the Through the Loops Mystery Kal 2012!

and then at least 3-4 more projects I'll be rotating.

I'll leave you some Christmas knitting...

The Mixt Cowl, on the top, wrapped twice, on the bottom, wrapped four times.

Knit with Cascade Ultra Pima, 1 skein.

1 pair of Knucks = 1 skein of Cascade Ultra Pima.

Mixt Cowl knit with 1 skein of Cotton Supreme.

I have long days that start very early and end late.  I should be sleeping right now, but I'm compelled to post.  Never want to go too long without posting. 

Here's whats ON and OFF the needles.

Quick Flower hair pin knit with Anzula squishy sock yarn

Mixt Cowl blocking

What's coming soon to the needles

• Owls
• Acorns
• 2 additional Mixt Cowls
• Knucks gloves
• Much more...

What's blocking and waiting for a photo shoot

• Bulky Shrug
• Vita Cardi
• Balloon Monkey
• Traveling scarf
• Cerasifera shawl
• Malabrigo scarf
• February Baby sweater
• Mystere sweater
• Elm Row scarf

What's on the needles

• 2nd Mixt Cowl
  
• Rock Island
  
• Kiwi scarf
  
• Cranked socks
  
• Homin shawl
  
• Cotton Candy Hearts blanket
  
• And many others....

In other craftiness, I made a new Christmas Wreath to hang on my door.

I like it, but I think the flowers are too big.  Oh well, it'll do.

Til next post -R

The haul was all my Mother, she got 20% off the entire purchase and got a great deal on some 100% Trauco Cashmere at 55% off.  It's such a lovely yarn, in the picture it's the 5 skeins at the bottom, in purple and wine.   From right side top, we have Ultra Pima Cotton in a gorgeous Colbalt blue, Mountain Colors sock yarn in pretty varigated purples and brown hues, Cotton Supreme in a very passionate purple, Malabrigo Rasta in gorgeous purple, gold, blacks, and lastly the 5 skeins of Trauco Cashmere in purple and wine.

So it begins, the gift knitting, I know its a late start but I always like challenges.  I'll end up with 5 long Moebius cowls and a pair of gloves and then something more.  The more is a few skeins have undecided fates, but that shall change soon. I'm actually making these items for gifts for my Mother to give, so I'm giving the gift of knitting. 8)  Although thats not considering I get to pet, squish, and knit with the yarn, always nice.

Here's one of the cowls already on the needles.

I better get going now, have alot of busy things to do, including knitting. 

Enjoy!

R

Palehouse sent me my swappy package from the Love Bites swap, a vampy themed swap.  She gave me the coolest vamp package.

Check out these goodies I received!

First the packaging, this is what I found when I opened the USPS box..

It's you standard photo storage box, but an awesome one.  With bats and a glow in the dark moon, and some cool ribbon with a steel key.  I was totally geeking out over the packaging, its the simple things that I love.

Such great gifts and beautiful yarn!  I still haven't decided what to do with the yarn, but I'm excited for when I find a pattern.

Oh, and on the outside of the wrapped Witching Hour book by Anne Rice is this totally cute black Raven!

Such a great package, loved it.  Thank you again to Palehouse 8)

My second package received, such a surprise, from Marisol.  A belated birthday present, she really knows how to spoil me and knows my tastes, well our tastes are the same, makes it even better!

I got the cutest mini lace sock kit with beads! Sheepy gift card, Decorative box with a pretty purple pendant necklace (worn this a few times already), Sheep bookmark (I'm a reader!), Fragrant soap (smells so good), black clutch purse (totally cute), Sock Summit WIP bag, Sock Summit post its, Beautifully hand-spun, hand-knit cowl by Marisol (100% BFL!), Bronze shawl pin, Socks that Rock Rare Gems.  Everything is awesome!  Absolutely loved all the gifts.  Truly thankful to Marisol 8)

I've had limited knitting during November, have some FOs to block and will share later this week.  I've also finally finalized my new free hat pattern to post later this week.  I'm also a wee bit bummed, just a teeny bit, my pattern submission to Knitty obviously didn't make it because I never heard from them, although they do say on their submissions FAQ that if your pattern didn't make the cut you'd get a Dear John letter, but I never received anything.  Don't know if its worse that I didn't receive anything or not, but oh well!  I shall keep on trying 8)

Onto December...

This is my most recent creation, I'm calling it "Chunky Slouch", because I just can't think of another name for it.   I'll be making another this weekend to make sure I document the pattern correctly and then I'll make it available on Ravelry, free!

It's truly a quick knit, you can make this baby in less than a day.  Right now, during these holiday times, anything nice you can make that fast is a good thing. 

Now I'm onto looking for 2 quick knit items to make for presents for a birthday party next weekend.  Not an easy task, but I'll prevail!  I must!

Until tomorrow.. 8)