Happy New Yarn, ahem, YEAR!

seriously amazing knitted art

so the knitting mojo is back for 2011, which has kind of inspired (along with the Ravelry thread of the same vein) a number of knitting/yarn related resolutions

- I WILL DEPLETE MY STASH (seriously, it mocks me with it's unhandleableness)

- aforementioned stash will be put on Rav so i actually plan projects without guestimating

- i will make extra things for backup presents with yarn that i'm maybe not so fond of

- there will be no more yarn purchasing until Bendigo (except for the already committed to yarn club and gifts for other people)

- i will wind all my skeins into useable cakes/balls

- colourwork will happen, at least once, even if it's fair isle only and not intarsia, i MUST conquer my fear (all the ends! all the tension issues! all the effort for a possible FAIL)

- i will knit more stuff for me!

- learn to take better photos of yarn and FO, mine SUCK BIG TIME

- knit lots of lace

- knit each project only once in 2011, no double ups (oh god, a whole year without doing a pair of Bella's Mittens, HOW will i cope?)

- start writing up patterns for things I 'make up' 

- knit more, sleep is for wusses

part of the main point for getting serious about my stash is that i absolutely, positively MUST knit the yarn I've owned for longer than 3 years, if I love it, I should use it, IS THAT NOT THE POINT? oh the insanity of 'saving' delicious yarn under my bed, all hidden away and feeling unloved i'm sure and gathering dust and dander and other less-than-delicious alliterative dirty things

somewhere in all this lot i'm also going to try and pick up my cross stitch/embroidery hoops again, although most of them are on the living room wall in my apartment right now! I really miss the simple beauty of a well designed and executed sampler. i need something for the walls in my room. As great as wearable 'art' is, I like the (relative) permanence of cloth and thread, it's like painting, only not messy (hooray!) and since i already have in my possession one of the lovely sets done up by the incomparably talented stitcher Miss Penelope Waits, i have the perfect back on the wagon project just waiting for me!

next entry will have pictures I swear! I've finished Dad's Avast sweater (except the zipper) so there will be pics of that, I've completed another Ripley (this one for me!) and i'm almost done with the semi-matching garter stitch mitts. Might also try and get Aga to send me a photo of her WIP scarf, she sadly had to rip it back as she realised that as much as she loved the idea of a super wide scarf the reality is that that is like $100 of yarn and SO FRIGGGING HEAVY so she's made it thinner and i gave her some slightly bigger than recommended needles and she's flying through. big thanks to Sharon for suggesting teaching her yarn overs so she could work in some eyelet rows, they helped keep the boredom down on her mammoth first scarf effort - no holes! hopefully when she comes to visit in a few weeks we'll be able to cast off and block it :)

so that's all for now, back to pretending i'm working. xox

whoops, time flies!

so it has been pointed out to me that i'm an absolutely atrocious blogger and that i should immediately get my act together and start blogging more frequently, but in the meantime a little catch up post!

i feel like i've been knitting heaps, but I don't seem to have all that many completed projects to show for it, but here's what i've done over the last 2 months or so...

1 head, 3 ways

left: santa hat! a pattern of my own making, using up stash white yarn held triple (yum, acrylics) and some luxury BWM Hibiscus

centre: Hermione Hearts Ron (pattern on Rav) in Morris Empire 8ply

right: Ripley by Ysolda Teague in Noro Silk Garden Chunky (a gift for a friend moving to Nepal for a year)

as I always love knitting for a theme, or a good cause, or you know, because it's a day ending in 'y', i thought it would be fun to do the Hermione Hearts Ron for the Harry Potter 7 pt 1 movie, although it was like 35 degrees that day so I wore it for like 5 minutes! but still, the thought was there. This hat has grown SIGNIFICANTLY, it went from fitting perfectly to now being like 4 inches too large around the band, thinking it needs either elastic or something like a frogging and knitting the band again on teeny needles

in a similar vein, the santa hat was for the SnB Melbourne Botanical Gardens Christmas Pic-knit, a lovely day in the sun (and coincidentally the same day I went to the HP7pt1 movie!) with great ladies, and a puppy!! look, i actually remembered to take my camera to a knitting function! woo! thanks to the delicious weather we've been having, I've been able to wear it quite a bit - last day of work, secret santa at SnB Richmond and Christmas Day! Have a little lookit at the 'tan day

i snuck in a quick cowl for Norovember, knit in the round and an eyelet row every 7 rows in stockinette

not sure that I like this one, might frog it or I might not because I'm lazy?

the Hap Blanket for Bekki and Serena, a wedding present. Another Ysolda knit, so quick and lovely, though I made it around 30% bigger than the pattern, turned out a perfect lap blanket side, or a nice portable floor rug for their little baby boy Mannix. Their house is all in neutrals with dark wood accents, so this turned out perfectly :)

so as I write this, I have 2 rows left on the front bands of my Dad's Avast sweater (Knitty pattern) and then I just need to wash, block and sew it up and add the zip (ha! so much still to do!) and i'm still plugging away on my Saroyan shawlette, I've stopped hating that again so that's a hip hip hooray moment, it's going to be quite nice and light so I need to get that finished as soon as I can so i can wear it, what with this delicious cool weather we've been having. as a summer-hater i'm like HURRAH! more coldness!

hope all your knitting is going better than mine, every project is taking forever *sigh*

hey Sonia, look I updated!! :)