2012 Wrap-Up

I can't believe it's February already! I have not had a lot of time for blogging (or much else) since August last year because I managed to land a teaching gig at GSU! So, between two jobs, needless to say there isn't much time for anything else. I was able to finish up a few more projects before the end of the year.

 Hattie and Tigerlillies were the last two big projects I was able to get done before the end of the year: Both are designs by Heather Dixon, and I really like both of the finished pieces. I'm even thinking of wearing Hattie to on my birthday, depending on the weather:

After these were done, I was able to finish up two (very easy) baby blankets, my yoga mat bag, one hat (which I forgot to take a picture of), and two sets of fingerless mittens. So, in total, I was able to finish:

1 dress
1 shrug
1 camisole
2 shawls
2 stockings
2 pillows
2 scarves
3 sweaters
3 blankets
4 mittens
13 hats

There was one project I didn't list on here yet, mostly because it isn't really finished until I can get it properly decorated -- probably with some shisha embroidery. This would be the belly dance costumes that I made for myself and my belly dance partner, Stephanie. They are black and pink, and really cute, just not completely done yet.

I'm really happy with what I finished last year, though I'm thinking this year I will not have as much time to dedicate to crafting -- We'll see though!

Wash's Sweater

Though I had planned to finish this sweater before our second anniversary, I was at least able to finish it, well, about a month late. Either way, my hubby seemed to like it -- though he'll probably like it a lot more when it's not 95 degrees outside!

I used Lion Brand Fisherman's wool in Oak Tweed - actually a color that David had picked out several years ago for something or another. I had taught him to crochet, though he's lost interest in it the past few years. If you know anything about David (and his family), you would know that they really, really enjoy their entertainment - TV shows, movies, etc. He's always been a fan of Firefly, so, when I came across the Wash's Sweater pattern by Don Yarman on Ravelry, I knew exactly what to do with that ball of yarn!

And here is a picture of the finished product, being modeled in the nice warm weather, outside, by my lovely husband. I love how it turned out, and I'm sure that come winter time, David's brother Alan - also a huge fan of the show - will be quite jealous!

Hats, hats, hats...

So, I have gotten a little busy the past few months. Apparently knitting much more than I am blogging! Anyways, I have a lot more FO's to show off now. I've finished a lot of hats over the past few months -- hats are a lot of fun to do! They can be as complicated or a simple as you like, they generally knit up pretty quickly, and since they take so little yarn, they are easy projects to carry around with you! Needless to say, I love knitting hats. Here are a few pictures of the past few I've managed to finish:

I made this hat for my friend, Lee, using Lion Brand Wool-ease in Forest Green Heather. The pattern is Irish Hiking by Jo Blackhorse. In retrospect, I should have done one more repeat of the cables -- Lee is a rather tall guy, and even makes David look kinda small in comparison, so the hat is probably just a little too small. Though he would not admit it when I gave it to him!

I made this for Katherine in her favorite color - orange! She really liked it, and I enjoyed the pattern - Hermione's Cable and Eyelet Hat by Jackie Lauseng. The yarn on the other hand, not so much. I used Caron Vicki Howell Sheep(ish) in Pumpkin(ish) and it was very splitty. I usually do not mind splitty yarns, but this one was really hard to work with.

I finally got around to making a hat I had promised Heidi - a simple ribbed beanie for the fall. I still have some leftover yarn from this project that will probably turn into some fingerless gloves for her!

This one I made just to use up some of the old Lion Brand Thick and Quick still lingering in my stash. The pattern is Chunky Slouch Cap by Melissa Hills, and it was fun to make. I alternated two colors after the ribbing - Grey and Cream -- which I think makes a pretty interesting effect. It came out a little small, and will probably be gifted during Christmas to someone - We'll see!

Sunflower Camisole

Designer: Heather Dixon (Army of Knitters)
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish DK (Lotus)

I finished this a little while ago, and now I'm finally getting around to posting about it. This was a very fun knit, and really simple pattern. After blocking, it turned out really nice and relatively comfortable, though the straps are a bit long for my taste, but they don't slip off. One thing to note about this pattern is that you should bind off relatively tightly, otherwise it will flare out at the bottom and not look so nice. It's a bit toasty, but that's fine since I'm usually cold, and it will be nice to wear in winter to look a bit dressier. Here's a picture of me in it wearing a purple tank top underneath.


Since I have found that I really enjoy knitting, I've decided to alternate between knitting projects I really want to work on with crafts that I'm much less excited to work on. This ensures that I'll get all the things that have been cluttering up my house finished and have room for what I would really like to work on, without having to be in a constant state of boredom from my current project. Well, hopefully it will work like that.

Sewing for the wedding

I did get to spend a little time sewing before Laurie's Wedding. I bought most of my outfit from my belly dance studio and from renaissance festival last year, but I needed a chemise of some sort to wear underneath the small corset, lest I show my lovely stomach the entire time. I love to belly dance, but we cover up after we dance, so wearing the corset sans chemise was not really something appealing to me. I went to Jo-ann's and bought a yard of cotton fabric, which I thought would be enough for a little shirt. Well, when it came down to it, there wouldn't be enough fabric for sleeves, so I kinda designed something sleeveless that still covered everything necessary for the event.

Basically I decided to use a tutorial I had used before for circle skirts and make the fabric square and put a circle in the middle of it:

After figuring out how wide I wanted the hole to be, I just folded the square fabric twice and laid a piece of paper with the outline of the quartered circle on top. Using some fabric chalk, I traced the circle and cut. I added a strip of leftover fabric from a previous project and some that was left over after making this fabric square to the circle to create a ruffle effect by using a simple drawstring.

I think it turned out rather nicely with the rest of the costume (which included the solomon's knot shawl -- not particularly visible in any pictures, but hey, if you were there it looked nice!)

Here's a picture of myself and the bride -- my lovely friend Laurie who I've known since high school: 

My first sweater... and a few other things

So, after finishing some of the smaller projects I have been working on, I decided a little while ago to finally get down to making an actual garment. I decided to use up my small stash of Lion Brand Thick and Quick in Claret. The sweater took about a week to complete, since the yarn was so bulky, and I really enjoyed working the horseshoe lace pattern. Here's a picture of the finished sweater:

I think I may give this to my mother if it fits her well. It's a beautiful sweater, but the color doesn't look that awesome on me seeing as I have red hair and incredibly pale skin. My mom, on the other hand, has a bit darker skin than me and brownish-blonde hair, so this dark red color would look really nice on her.

I have also managed to finish up a few more things over the past month. I finished up the Wine Pathways Hat from Once Upon a Time:

Also not the greatest color on me, but for some reason I do have a lot of red yarn in the stash. That's probably because my family looks good in red and/or likes the color -- my dad certainly does! That's the color of his truck and uniforms at the place he owns.

The Chestnut Windsor Warmer and Solomon's knot shawl also can be added to my list of FO's for the year. The little cowl will also likely be a gift for someone, though I used the shawl for part of my costume for my dear friend's renaissance themed wedding.

The Windsor warmer was done at half the length recommended in the book (125 sts instead of 244 sts), mostly because I only had a little yarn left in my stash to do the project.

The shawl was worked by chaining 42 solomon's knots, and working in a triangular pattern until, well, I ran out of yarn. This created a kind of trapezoidal shawl since there wasn't enough yarn to make a complete triangle, but it will work for a beach or belly dance wrap!

Updates

So apparently I have been knitting more than I have been blogging. So here it goes: Over the past month, I've managed to get several projects finished, so I'll probably try to spread it all out over a few posts instead of putting them all in one.

After finishing the shrug, I was able to finish up two regular guy hats, which is only half way through the hats I need to make since I gave one to my store manager, Cody, who left us to go to Cartersville during a random changing of the management that occasionally happens at work. Here's him enjoying showing off his new hat:

The other one was shipped to Travis, my brother-in-law who lives in upper New York state. I really like the hat pattern. It is very simple, and a great "brought this in my purse to work on it during lunch" project. Though, after making two of them, I'm going to move on to a different pattern. I still have to make a hat for Lee at least, thought there will be enough yarn to make probably about two more hats, so I may as well! I also LOVE the yarn -- Lion Brand Wool-ease -- very soft and springy.

I also was able to finish up my first knitted shawl, Autumn flies. I really like the color, but it did end up really small. The pattern was very simple, each like written out individually, so it was really easy to understand. I did have to bind off a few rows short, though they were just stockinette rows. Even cutting the pattern a little short, I ran out of yarn only a few stitches from the end, and used another type of yarn in a very similar color to finish up the bind off -- Yes, bask in the glory of my willpower to NOT buy more yarn to finish up the last 10 stitches of a project ;-). Huzzah!