January 29, 2011

Sant'Angelo


Pattern: Sant'Angelo by Kirsten Jensen
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Sport in #740 'Snow, #135 'Hurricane Seas' and #N78 'Turquoise'

I loved every minute of this one and I think I'll wear it a lot. It took a bit longer than I'd hoped as other stuff got in the way, but I'm glad I'm still done in time to enjoy it while the weather is cold. That is about a 4' pile of snow in my front yard. We're a bit tired of shovelling every few days, though we're not nearly so bad off as those south of us.

I'll post the winner of the previous post's contents later tonight. Hope you're having a great weekend!

Update: The random number generator gave me comment #4, so Andrea from At Home Mommy Knits is the winner! Thanks so much to everyone for checking in and telling me what you're doing! I love hearing from you.

January 23, 2011

two

So my blog is turning two in a few days, and since I did a giveaway on my first blogiversary and-it-was-fun-but-I'm-not-necessarily-starting-a-tradition-or-anything-so-don't-count-on-it-every-year-but-you-never-know-cause-I'm-sort-of-fond-of-traditions....here's another giveaway. Enough Dale of Norway/Dalegarn 'Heilo' to make my Seeds hat pattern. I'll throw in a hardcopy of the pattern and send you the pdf, too.

So leave a comment about whatever you're doing /thinking/knitting and I'll pick one using a random number generator on the day - Saturday Jan. 29th - 9:00 pm CST.

Thanks for stopping by and hope your weekend is going great!

January 14, 2011

the weather outside is frightful

Sant'Angelo check-in. This is going to be lovely and warm once it's done and I'm looking forward to finishing, since it's rather cold right now. I've decided I want a whole closetful of stranded sweaters. Gobs and gobs of 'em.

Speaking of stranded, I'm sure you've caught the Harlot's great post about working with multiple yarns at once. I especially enjoyed #6, as it's so easy to be frustrated when learning a new skill. I also hear many many people say they consider themselves unable to even attempt stranded knitting / steeking, etc. in the first place. To you I say 'be fearless, friend!' Have the spirit of adventure. If it's something you really want to learn, then just go for it. Accept that you will suck at it for a bit. Like everything, it gets better the more you do it. Start small, but start somewhere.

I also want to mention this designer whose ingenious brain churns out amazing stranded creations: isn't Connie's dress fabulous??

Stay warm and have a happy weekend.

January 1, 2011

2010 knits


I always feel like I have about 12% of the time I wish I had to knit/design/dream about everything I want to knit. Today I've been looking over everyone's collages of their year's knitting and decided to do one myself since I've never done that before. It made me realize I knit more than I thought I did last year. If I included my many WIPs (shudder) I would have almost as many again.

I've tried to write out a knitting schedule for myself for the next several seasons to plan my projects. That 12% of time is so quickly filled by an activity that can sometimes feel so slow. Immensely enjoyable. But slow. So time is precious. Some resolutions, inspired by craftivore, are also prodding me to best organize this 12%:

1. knit more projects I design
2. knit only what I love
3. finish up that WIP backlog
4. knit down the stash
5. get the 6-yr-old knitting to help with #'s 1-4

Here's to a new year. Happy knitting!