Catching up

It's been a while again, and unfortunately I have a lot to catch up on. Suffice to say that I went on 2 weeks' vacation to see family over the holidays, and got a lot of relaxing and knitting done. I'm happy to be back in Delaware, where things are a bit more familiar now.

Gift Knitting
Now that the recipient has gotten their gift, I can show it off.


This is knitty's Norberta, reinterpreted in Red Heart Plush from my stash. It was a Christmas gift for my nephew.


Here is another view of the dragon. I don't know if it was changing the pattern from cotton to acrylic, but things were a little wonky when I went to sew it together. The spines were a little too long for the back, and the tail was a little short. Maybe I screwed up in my pattern reading, but I'm not sure. I like making stuffed animals but I probably will not make a second one, just because I hate to make the same thing twice.

Knee High Socks

These got finished very quickly one night while watching Coyote Ugly. I think that sometimes life calls for cruising along in stockinette stitch, and as much as I love a fancy lace or cable pattern, sometimes it's great to just knit mindlessly and get something done.


Here they are, all the way up to the knees!


And they are delightfully mismatched (mostly because the color pattern repeat was so long I couldn't be bothered to try and match them, and it's more fun this way anyhow).


Sometimes, as in the heel here, the yarn did very charming things. Makes me happy.

Stats:
Lion Brand Magic Stripes on #2 needles, toe-up pattern fudged from several others, calf increases and decreases my own. I liked adding heel stitch on the second half of the short row heel -- I think it makes them fit better and I hope they will wear better. Not that I know really where or when I will wear them.

Which brings me to the year in review. For me, 2006 was often about fulfilling a little knitting dream. I made a lot of things that I had been thinking about making for a long time, and I'm happy with the results.

More works in progress, cool Christmas gifts, and New Year blather soon.

Comments

reluctantMANGO said…
Hmmm. Tell us more about this heel stitch! It's very attractive :) The dragon came out wonderfully! I haven't the patience to do stuffed animals, so I really admire your abilities.
3:11 AM
Anonymous said…
Finnegan and Hannah love the dinosaur!!! Hannah slept with the dino for a few days, and Finnegan often carries him around the house. Thanks so much, Ver. You're the *best*!
6:18 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing Escargot

Image
Escargot It was June 2010 and Kel, Danielle, and I were flying down the highway coming back to Alexandria from TNNA (the yarn industry trade show) in Columbus, Ohio. Danielle may or may not have been pushing the speed limit just a smidgen, and Kel may or may not have been clinging to the Mini's door in abject terror. There was a lot of chatter and planning, interspersed with laughter and highway-induced exasperation. I was taking notes as we planned the next year in yarn for fibre space ... and I was doodling. One of the doodles turned into the Hatskarfenmitten . The other doodle became Escargot . But it took a while. Things changed and we moved to California, but I couldn't get the idea of a funky, asymmetrical, spiral-enhanced cloche out of my head. This summer, I bumped into Amy Singer, the editor of Knitty , at a couple of yarn festivals, and told her I had a really cool hat idea. She said, "send it in." Pretending we are waiting for the train. With r
Read more

"Knitting is a stupid hobby"

"Knitting is a stupid hobby." Those few words, spoken by the other member of my household, nearly drove me to inarticulate rage last night. We had sat down to dinner - enchiladas, if you want to know - and I was in the midst of talking about the new 25th Anniversary Vogue Knitting magazine. I had wanted to share it, show how it was put together, and figured we could have a laugh at the preponderance of advertising and bizarre design that filled its pages. Alas, this was not to be so. Not only was I interrupted with a complete non sequitur on his part, showing me a different magazine from another genre (hello, can you sit down and listen for a minute? you're not the only one here with interests or opinions), but the reaction I got was totally unexpected. I was shaking my head at the latest Maie Landra-Koigu design (a suit set with short tuxedo pants, modular construction to the tune of 55 skeins of KPPPM and sequins, sequins for crying out loud), hoping to get some a
Read more

Unraveling

Tonight, I sat down to knit on a sock - it doesn't matter which one - only to discover that several inches back, I'd made a mistake serious enough to warrant ripping it out. I like my pairs of socks to match one another as precisely as possible, so out it went. Two steps forward, one step back, and suddenly I'm in a place where I can start moving forward again, more perfectly. That is kind of how life is these days, both with knitting and, well, life. I think I've gotten myself somewhere only to stop, take a step back, and start again. Things aren't working out and I'm moving. In two weeks I'll be in another city, with other people. Closer to my family, closer to old friends for the holidays - but back to bad weather and, inevitably, unemployment. It's a gamble, but how can I not make the choice for happiness? For [astronomically] lower rent? For getting to see my parents and everyone else at Christmas? So I'm packing. Chicago or bust!
Read more