knitting overview

lots of projects to sum up here....

birthday scarflet for mom, gifted on dec 6th:

i used this pattern and the buttons are from joanns. they are a little sparkly and fit my mom's tastes perfectly. i loved this piece and really wanted to keep it for myself. it was my first lace project that i blocked. wowee is that fun! and i'm happy to say there are NO mistakes in this project at all.

christmas scarf for heather, given dec 25th:

i used a lace patter from The Knitters Bible, it was called crest of the wave. very easy pattern to follow and i think it worked out well for a scarf. this was blocked project number two and woweeeeeeee was IT fun to block. the little wave crests/points looked great and the pattern really opened up. i did make one mistake but didn't even realize it until i had already bound off and woven in the ends... it was only a few days until christmas and there was no way that i could have fixed it without ripping back the entire piece and starting new.... so it goes.

knitted christmas balls, given dec 25th to each little family within our immediate family: my parents, chris's parents, my brother and his wife and chris's sister.


i knit four different ornaments using this pattern. they were super easy and fast to knit up and i think made nice little gifts. i wanted to knit a few for our tree but i ran out of time. one of my 2009 goals is to knit four felted stockings for our family for next christmas, i think i'll knit some of these to match.

billy's knit NYE hat, gifted dec 31st around 11:35 pm.

i used this pattern. i intended for the hat to be a solid color, the bottom orange/red color. however, i ran out of yarn. i do this TOO often.... i really need to start looking at yardage... luckily, when i purchased this yarn, i also purchased an identical skein in blue. thus the two colored hat was born. in reality, i think it was meant to be. the two colors really looked great together and i think the finished hat ended up looking better with the two colors than it would have if it was all one color. a happy mistake, i suppose.

next up, i'll be trying socks again, for me. i'll be using knitpicks Essential in grass. i'm awaiting its arrival.... not so patiently. i am planning on using the yarnharlot's sock recipe. i had attempted this a while back with no luck... i am blaming my lack of luck on the fact that i was using the wrong yarn for the job.... hopefully this will change, i really want to have some good luck with socks....

i have picked my "ugly" (thanks amanda *wink*) {ETA: don't think poorly of amanda for saying this. it really truly is an ugly blanket and to clarify, i'm pretty sure she said that the photos and colors looked ugly in my original photo... frankly that photo is worse that what it looks like in person... don't hate me for calling you out} log cabin blanket up again and have been mindlessly knitting that again. it currently just takes up way too much space in my yarn drawers so i'm doing this in an effort to make room and organize... i'm really bored with this project and i plan to only knit it between projects and until it's big enough to cover me or a kid while curled up on the couch. i don't have far to go but the garter monotony is killing what few brain cells i have....

over the holidays i received some knitting gifts. they were all items that i specifically asked for, so no surprises really. one item was a set of knit picks options. i'm totally perplexed as to how to store them though. i'm scared to take them off of their little paper thing with the elastic that they came in. i have a needle sizer hickey doo, so i'm sure that if they would come free of piece of paper, that i wouldn't be lost in a sea of unknown needles but it gives me a heart attack to think about the mess they would be if they weren't strapped all snugly into little homes with the elastic they came with..... any suggestions are WELCOME!