Busy little bees

Ideally, I would have posted the last few months, at least monthly. I feel like I haven't really completed enough items but I've got tons of pieces that I've been working on. I guess I'll just share those with you here.

First of all, in my last post, I mentioned the beautiful socks I was knitting for my choir director. I did finish them in time for the end of February and they turned out great! I gave them to my friend and he was so appreciative. He gave me two hugs! (He's a very nice flamboyant man, so no worries.) I liked them so much, I went out and bought myself the same yarns.

March's socks were some that I was very much looking forward to knitting, as they were my Christmas gift (the yarn, anyway). I wanted to knit some fun socks for when I referee volleyball in the fall, and I have to wear boring old black socks. I thought it would be fun to do neon heels, toes, and cuffs, since no one would see them under my pant legs and with my shoes on, so I found a neat pattern and ordered some yarn. I got the black from Knit Picks (Stroll yarn) and the bright colors are not only neon, but black-light reactive! I found them on this amazing shop on Etsy. I want to buy a full skein of it, but it's coming from the U.K. and I need to justify the shipping. Alice, the shop owner, is very generous. She sent me a DK set of minis instead of fingering, and instead of paying shipping to return them, she let me keep them! This is not the last of this yarn! I also have enough for my blanket. The pattern is called Candyman and I think they turned out just perfect.

I'll just keep going with socks while I'm on a roll. April's socks were another pair I was looking forward to. I love the Coffee Talk socks from one of the Grocery Girls. I've been wanting to make a pair for a while. I bought this yarn around Christmas last year as well, from lolodidit, when I bought the yarn for my mom's birthday hat. I don't think I got a photo of the hat up here yet. I have one somewhere. The socks are sparkle, but they weren't that soft. I'm not in love with sparkle yarn, although I have more for July from lolodidit.

I am not a fan of cuff-down socks, and this just reminded me why. I have really big feet and after I knit the cuff and leg for ages, I didn’t have any of the hard stuff done, and I couldn’t try them on until they were about 80% done to make sure they were going to fit. I love the pattern, the striping and the reverse stockinette, but next time I will knit these toe-up. They are still waiting to be blocked, so I still don't have a great photo of them. 

 

I just had to share these photos. My little Blessing insisted on wearing these socks as soon as I had them off the needles. He would not take them off! So cute.

May socks were some quick and easy striped socks for my hubby, using Knit Picks Felici. I have heard great things about this yarn, and while I wanted to try it, I didn't have the budget to spend a lot. I bought this yarn on clearance and wasn't wild about it. The yarn itself is very soft, but the colors just aren't me. My hubby likes them, so they are for him. The stripes are a little flip-flopped, which is fine, and they happened to work out to be within a row of the color changes.

I worked on these during our looooong drive to the Grand Canyon, but the snow (yes, in late May!) was so beautiful, I didn't get a lot of knitting done on them. Toe-up, afterthought heel, taat. I used a pattern, but did not like the fiddly-ness of the cables after the third or fourth repeat. I asked my hubby if he minded that there were only a few cables and he honestly did not even notice.

June's socks are another pair I'm really looking forward to having. The pattern is by Joji Locatelli and it's beautiful. I have some yarn I've been holding on to for years and they are supposed to be fraternal twins, so I am flip-flopping the colors on the 2nd sock. It's been a long time since I've knit just one sock at a time, so I wanted to knit the 2nd one right away, so I don't procrastinate. I'm so close to finishing, and the first sock fits so great!

I guess that's all the socks I've made this year so far. I'm still going strong on the 12 pair goal, although I've fallen behind on my hats. I'm up to 14 now, but I should be at 20-something by this week. I've got to play catch-up this summer in between all my socks and other projects.

Another FO is my Grandma's sweater. I wanted it done before Mothers' Day, which it was. I finished the front and back in March, but I didn't sew it together and knit the sleeve ribbing until the weekend before. At least I got it done. It turned out cute and she loved it. It fit like a glove, and it's very stretchy, so it will fit if she loses weight or gains.

I love the look of the ribbing around the waist, which would be very flattering for boxy shapes. It was quick and easy, but I don't know if I would ever knit it again.

I fell in love with a shawl as soon as I saw it. The colors are what drew me, and it was an obsession for a short time. I bought the pattern and found yarn in my stash that I thought would make a good fade. I settled on these 5, which is going to make this thing massive!

I started with the light yellow and went to the left. It was a sparkle yarn and used all but about 5g. I'm on the third color, and it's like knitting 3 pairs of socks! It is on hold until I finish these current socks and get caught up on hats, and then I'm all over it. It is much larger than this photo by now, but this shows the detail well.

I also participated in the Mystery Knit-a-Long that I mentioned in the last post, and it turned out so beautiful. I *love* how it feels, but I haven't worn it yet. It still needs to be blocked. I had fun waiting each week to find out what each clue would look like.

I also had an order for a baby viking hat and baby beard from my Etsy shop. It used up some of my excess beard yarn and got me some more yarn funds.

I've been wanting to make a colorwork sweater for a while. I know I need to get some practice with making my floats loose enough, so I pulled out this cowl I've had yarn for for a while. I love the little sheep and alpacas! It turned out pretty well, but tons of ends to weave in, and it still is a little tight in parts. I have enough yarn leftover to make something else, whether it be little mitts for one of the boys or something else fun.

As I mentioned above, we went on a trip to the southwest U.S., so I knew we *should* have warm weather. I wanted to make a new swimsuit cover-up for my new swimsuit, and I had some Mandala yarn that I hadn't slated for anything else. I found a great easy pattern that would use up two skeins, which are all I had of that color, which is called Chimera.

The last big project I've started recently was another knit-a-long, for a sweater. I watched a podcast with the pattern author and was riveted. I need another sweater quantity like a hole in my head, but I just wanted to be able to knit the pattern for all the amazing tips. I am convinced that I need to do as many of Patty Lyons' classes as possible, as well as take her course on Bluprint, "Improve Your Knitting."

The current (well, was current) project is the Roselle Tee, which is a short-sleeve tee with a bit of lace on the torso and the sleeves. It is cute, and will be my first summery project. I started it, but made a few mistakes. I also wanted to watch her class and do a good job of knitting well. I am also in the process of losing weight, so I don't want to spend weeks knitting (and purling) a sweater that won't fit great by the time I get it done. I've bought the navy to start with, but I also bought a very pretty teal green.

I really hate ripping things out, especially since half of it is purling, but I already made mistakes, and I think I'll be able to knit a smaller size if I wait.

Well, that does it for all my projects. You're all caught up now. I hope to make several hats over the the summer to stay on track, keep going on all my socks, and finish a couple more shawls this summer, and then start on Christmas gift knitting. Homeschool will start within that time as well, so we'll see how that affects my knitting time. Until next time, keep on crafting!

New Year, New Goals

It’s been a little while, and I still haven’t gotten around to making my post about all the projects I finished in the last year. I will have to do that in another post, so I can sort everything a little better.

So far for 2019, I have completed an entire sweater, a pair of socks, and 3 hats! I’m pretty impressed with myself, and pleased with how the projects are turning out. One of the podcasts I watch was running a “Knit your behind off” sweater KAL from January 1 through 31, so I gave myself the deadline of 2 weeks, and made it! I knit an entire worsted weight, size 2X sweater for myself in only 11 days! I had it washed and blocked and was wearing it before my deadline. I couldn’t believe how quickly it went.

I knit the Weekender by Andrea Mowry. I bought the yarn for this sweater back in August, after the same podcast ladies were talking about it in detail, so I thought it would be a good one to try for myself. I used cheap(er) wool from JoAnn’s, Paton’s Classic Wool Worsted in a gray color. It was really the only one they had 8 skeins of the same dye lot that day, or else I would probably have picked a different color. I started on the sweater and knit about 2/3 of one ball the first couple of days, and thought I might be cutting it close on the yardage, so I bought 1 more skein, from a different dye lot. I added a couple of inches to the body (I have a long torso and didn’t want my belly to show), and I worked the stitch count for the 3X sleeves, since my arms were larger than the 2X schematic.

The sweater turned out huge, and I didn’t even use a full 7 skeins! I don’t know how my gauge got so far off. I did actually swatch (I didn’t want to knit for hours on a sweater and not have it fit!), but somehow my gauge was a little bigger, and I didn’t use nearly as much yarn as I should have. The sweater is supposed to have quite a bit of positive ease, but mine has so much. It is very slouchy, and I don’t think I’ll be wearing it out as much as I would like. I do wear it all the time at home, though. It is incredibly warm! I went out in 20 degree weather the other night, and didn’t realize I wasn’t wearing my coat until we left the venue after the sun went down! It fits like a very oversized sweatshirt, which is nice, because none of mine really fit anymore. I’m just proud to have something that I made to wear. If I end up losing some weight, I might even steek it under the arms to make it a little less boxy, but I’m not worried about it right now. I don’t mind the scratchiness of the less expensive wool, and I’m planning another sweater in the same wool later. I even took back the 2 skeins and exchanged them for two of the other colors I would like. I posted more details about the sweater here.

So, I get to check “make a sweater for myself” off the list, finally! I’m so happy. I have yarn to make several more, of varying weights: 4 fingering weight, 1 sport, 3 DK weight, 3 more worsted. I would like to lose weight before I make something more fitted for myself, but for the first project, I’m okay with this boxy one. I wouldn’t even mind knitting another Weekender in the future. It was a very enjoyable knit. Maybe I’ll buy some softer, more colorful yarn next time.

The sweater was all I knit for the first 2 weeks of 2019. I have set a new goal for myself to knit 52 hats for charity this year. My Grandma has been doing this for years, along with several ladies from her church. I would love to start creating for other people as well, as I’ve never done anything like that. I did look into the NICU octopus project, but their guidelines are so stringent, I didn’t see myself being successful at that. So I am going to make at least 52 hats, one per week, to donate to Grandma’s church’s clothes closet. Since I only worked on the sweater the first 2 weeks, I had some catching up to do. I pulled out some Red Heart from my stash (this is also going to be a great stashbuster for me!), and on the label was a neat crochet pattern. I have been knitting so much lately, I was relieved to find something to crochet, for once. I crocheted that hat in 2 hours! One hat down, 51 to go!

I had some red and yellow in a bag from last Christmas (2017) from an abandoned project, so I planned to make a couple of Chiefs hats, since they were doing so well in the post-season. Then, I saw that one of the podcasts was having a colorwork KAL, so I found a nice pattern that I could knit and enter another hat. This one took a little longer, but turned out nice as well.

My third hat for the year is also colorwork, but it is crocheted instead of knitted. I have never done anything like this with crochet, and it was a little more work than I bargained for. The yarn kept getting so twisted up, it took a lot longer because I had to keep untwisting it. I thought it would make an adult size hat, but this one barely fits my 2-year-old. Someone will be able to wear it, though. More stashbusting!

My last finished project this year is a pair of socks!! I feel like a knitting machine. I have never completed a pair of socks so quickly, not even the size 6 short summer socks I made for my sister-in-law. The Grocery Girls podcast is running a monthly "sock bash" where each month has a different theme. They have posted all the themes for the year, so I carefully planned out every pair of socks I am making this year to hopefully match the themes, as well as take care of some of my own desires. I have been collecting sock yarn for over a year now, and I figured it was time to start doing something with it. I have enough yarn to make at least 16 pair, and I thought a pair a month would be good, plus all of my other dream projects.

January's theme was "local to me" and I just happened to have 1 skein of yarn from a dyer a few towns over. I purchased it when I was on my way home from a volleyball tournament in the same town this fall, and I didn't plan to do anything with it right away. I bought it because I didn't have anything like it in my stash, and I was collecting bright colors to add some variety to my sock yarn blanket.Since it was the only yarn I had that would fit the theme, I went ahead and added it to the queue (after my sweater, of course!). I was hoping that I could complete the sweater in 2 weeks, and then spend the other 2 weeks of the month on the socks, but the socks only took me 8 days to finish! I posted about them here.

I love these socks more than I probably should, and even my hubby is super impressed with how neat the colors play together. I used the Blueberry Waffles pattern, with Sockmatician's Toe-up Recipe. I made a similar pair last year, but I made these a little shorter in the foot and the leg, so maybe they'll wear a little more snugly. I wore the other pair today, though, and they are really nice, if not a little baggy!

I started 2 other projects that I will be working on over the next few months. Well, one is an ongoing project that will probably never be "finished"--a cozy memories sock yarn blanket that I have tons of fingering weight yarn to add to. I have been buying mini skeins and random bright colors with the intention of making it more diverse. I like blues and purples and teals, so that's what I pick out. So I have been purchasing bright neon yarns, oranges, yellows, reds, and bright greens to give my blanket some variety. I haven't taken a photo of it yet, but I only have 3 tiny squares done. I hope to add a square a day once I finish my next project. They are about 2-3" square, so I will need lots and lots of them to make it at all usable. And I need to weave in ends as I go. Like every other day! I hate weaving ends...

The last project I am currently working on is a sweater I mentioned, for my Grandma. Someone donated a lot of yarn to her knitting group for the charity hats and twiddle muffs, and there was an unopened package of this cotton yarn in the mix. It was enough for a small sweater, not my size, so I asked Grandma to pick out a pattern from a few I had researched. She chose this one, made with the same yarn, so I knew it would look good.

So far, it is coming right along. It is about half and half knit and purl, and I feel like I purl so slowly. I knit continental, and the way I hold my yarn (the same way Grandma taught me, and how I hold it to crochet) makes it difficult to purl the way I've seen some other continental knitters do. I am exploring ways to make it faster or easier, but this sweater is a size small, it is an interesting yet very memorizable pattern, and it's worsted weight, so it is going very quickly. I just started on the front sleeves this evening, and I just started it Wednesday.

I guess I also started on a shawl the other day as well. I couldn't work on my socks during the last Chiefs' game because I knew I would be so tense it would throw my tension off, so I started a new project. I got this yarn from Grandma last year, as it was a donation to her that she said she wouldn't use. It's a beautiful fingering weight merino/mohair/nylon blend, and I only have 1 extra-large skein of it, so I decided to make a Spindrift shawl. I wanted to learn a new way to purl, and since this is in stockinette (knit one side, purl the other), I decided to try to knit the whole piece with the yarn in my right hand and "flick" it. I made it about 8 stitches before I gave up. I need to have lots of time to practice, and to be able to go slow, and not be worried about my home team not going to the Super Bowl again. I might work on this some more once I finish Grandma's sweater.

The only other thing I need to do right away is make another hat. I still have lots of the red and yellow Red Heart, so I might make another ombre knit hat, or I might try a different colorwork pattern. Once the colorwork KAL is over, I will be exclusively crocheting hats unless I find a ridiculously easy and fast knit pattern. Crocheting them is so much faster...

I will try to catch up with last year's projects in the near future. There were far too many projects finished between my last post and the end of the year to include them all in this post, but I'll try to get a post up soon of them. And the boys' newly decorated rooms. Sheesh, it's a lot to keep up with. Wish me luck.

Happy crafting and happy New Year!

Branching out

Sorry to have been so long in writing. As you’ll see, I’ve been quite busy with my craft projects lately, and decided to be creating instead of writing about what I’m creating. I would like to blog more often and make my posts shorter, so I’ll try to get caught up as of today and hopefully be able to keep up better after that. As I stated in my last post, this has truly been the “Year of Buying,” and now I need to be proactive in my making so that none of my fun and beautiful projects gets lost in the mix.

To start, I’m enamored with knit-alongs right now, so I am actively participating in several this year. The one that started it all was the Yarnhoarder (Amber Lindemann on Ravelry) podcast, as she is doing a year-long dishcloth challenge.

I had a decent amount of solid-colored cotton in my stash from projects over the years, so I thought it would be fun to use that up. I probably had enough to make a few, but I went to Hobby Lobby and found some of their beautiful variegated I Love This Cotton and bought a few colors of that. I also went to JoAnn and found some great prices on colorful variegated balls. I almost bought a whole cone (14 oz. or so) of Lily Sugar ‘n Cream in Christmas colors, but I found individual red, white, and green colors in the inexpensive cotton that I will try first. I might end up buying the cone anyway, as I really want some Christmas towels and dishcloths for my kitchen.

Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton

More I Love This Cotton

Premier Home from JoAnn

I have knitted several (my goal is one a week) and am on track for the year, but I don’t have ends woven in on most of them, so I will post a photo of them as I complete them. I am able to get 3-4 from each set of colors, so I think I will gift them as sets for Mothers’ Day, Christmas, etc. I considered using different stitches for each one, but found the Gramma’s Favorite pattern to be pretty easy and mindless, for when I’m watching a show or need to put it down to help little people at a moment’s notice. I’ve paired together almost all of my cotton yarns, so when I finish a batch, I just need to reach in my bag and pick the next set and get started.

Pairings of different colors of cotton yarn

My first finished dishcloth, in linen stitch

I had the tiniest ball of cotton left from making kitchen towels, hot pads, and dish cloths years ago, so I used that and this pattern to make a cover for my cast iron skillet. It works great!

I’ve started watching other podcasts, namely Hey Sister and Grocery Girls, and they both like to do knit-alongs as well. The Grocery Girls were doing a shawl knit-along for the Joji Locatelli shawls with their names, and I thought the Jodi shawl looked easy, interesting, and different than anything I’ve done, so I completed it with 3 days left in the knit-along. I spent about 5 days completing it (except for the ends—so many ends!) and used stash yarn from last summer to complete it. I enjoyed it so much, after I get this one blocked, I might even make it again in another fun Mandala yarn. I already bought the pattern, and I have plenty of yarn, so I might as well. I’ve never knit a lace chart before, and once I figured it out, this one was very easy to memorize and work up.

Nearly every podcast I have seen is doing a sock knit-along. YarnGasm, Grocery Girls, and Yarnhoarder are all doing one, and YarnGasm is initiating a pair a month knit-along (KAL), called Box o’ Sox. I definitely have enough yarn to knit 12 pairs this year, although I don’t know if I’ll have the time. I have been working on my first pair (I’m a little behind due to the shawl, dishcloths, and blankets I did earlier this year), and have made great progress, just this week. I’m almost ready to turn the heels, and the rest is just knit in a crazy spiral until the ribbed cuff. They are boring vanilla socks for my hubby, but I bought some beautiful Cascade Heritage Prints sock yarn, which is making it much more interesting. I’m trying the Fish Lips Kiss heel, and have the cardboard cutouts for both his foot and mine. I'll post a photo when they're finished.

I have bought quite a bit of sock yarn this year, trying to get to the 12 pair in fingering weight (required for Box o’ Sox entries), but I also have some merino wool left over from Blessing’s sweater, Fishermen’s Wool left over from my cousin’s sweater, and some sport weight that I bought when I first started knitting and had no idea what I was buying.

Sport weight yarn for a hat and fingerless mitts

The thing that set me off on my next adventure was a prize that I won from Amber for all my sweaters last year! I submitted my 5 sweaters in her Rhinebeck sweater KAL, and she drew my number for a prize around Christmas, so I won a beautiful skein of Fire Opal Fibers fingering weight variegated yarn, and the day it arrived in the mail, I knew I needed to find something to go with it. It is too pretty for socks! So I went to the local yarn shop and found 2 skeins that match it perfectly. Now all I need is the perfect pattern, which I think I’ve found. I already bought it, when it was first released and on sale, and it looks interesting and beautiful. I’m excited to try it with my new yarns!

Cascade Silk (gray); Fire Opal Fibers (variegated); Cascade Heritage (purple)

I also decided that, like the wonderful podcasters, I deserved to try some beautiful hand-dyed indie yarns, so I have purchased several skeins recently from Hedgehog Fibres, Sweet Georgia yarns, and Lolodidit. They are all sock weight, but I don’t know if I’ll make socks or a sock weight hat out of them. I know the lolodidit yarns will be socks. I bought a matching mini skein to make heels with, that matches both skeins. One skein will be my Christmas socks this year (I plan to have them completed around Thanksgiving), and the other is sparkly! The Sweet Georgia is so pretty, and colors I wouldn’t normally have bought for myself, but if they’re in a sock, it won’t matter what I’m wearing with them too much. The Hedgehog Fibres is probably going to be a hat, but I don’t know for sure. It’ll make beautiful socks too.

Hedgehog Fibres (left); Sweet Georgia (right)

Lolodidit: Hippo for Christmas, Lucky mini, What I Want (sparkle!)

I am itching to knit myself a sweater, and one of the Hey Sister podcasts highlighted this beautiful Malabrigo Rios yarn in a deep red, perfect for fall. I have a top that I think looks very good on me in a similar color, so I thought that a sweater made out of this would be perfect. I bought 8 skeins on sale, and I finally found the perfect pattern, based closely on a sweater I have that I absolutely love, which I have outgrown. I am hoping I can knit it in a smaller size, but I have enough yarn to make the largest size. I would love to make a matching hat or fingerless mitts out of any leftovers.

Malabrigo Rios in Cumparsita

I follow Madeline Tosh on instagram, and a couple of weeks ago, she was posting some of her new colors. This one caught my eye, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I immediately added it to my cart, then proceeded to look and wait for several more days before I finally bought it. I also found a sale on some Tosh Mohair yarn, and it was less expensive than some of the other yarns, so I bought a sweater’s quantity of it and am planning to knit this cardigan this fall. The mini skein is just a beautiful color I couldn’t justify buying a whole skein of, but loved.

Last but not least, I was looking into Brooklyn Tweed, per the Hey Sister podcast’s recommendation. I found that a yarn store about an hour away carries it, so instead of ordering it and possibly not liking it, I drove out there this week to feel it and see it in person. The owner was a very sweet lady and was very gracious about the raucous 3 little people I trapped in a car for an hour and dragged around a yarn store.

Let me start by saying Brooklyn Tweed is not at all what I expected. I have felt worsted wool before (Fishermen’s Wool is a perfect example), but this yarn felt light as air. I literally felt like I was holding nothing when I picked up a full skein of it. It is not as soft as I had hoped, but the lightness of it makes up for that. I was originally looking for a purplish color (seems to be my color lately), but after seeing it in person, I fell in love with two darker colors, and with the help of my little people, I picked this darker color that I will definitely be making a hat with. I can’t wait to try it on, it’ll be so light! The process is called woolen spun, which means that it has more loft to it, and stays warmer.

After finding the Brooklyn Tweed, I asked her what the softest yarn she’s ever worked with was, and she pointed me in the direction of this a.m.a.z.i.n.g. yarn. It is truly the softest fiber I’ve ever touched. It’s called Road to China from the Fibre Co. and it’s made from alpaca, silk, camel, and cashmere, and I believe it was spun by angels. I can’t even begin to describe how much I enjoy it. I bought 5 different colors (and would have bought more!) but I thought I should be able to make a shawl with that much and wear it close to my face all the time. I think I will take my time knitting this and will wear it every chance I have. It is just gorgeous! It will also be the most expensive article of clothing I own...

Blessing kept picking up green skeins of yarn, so I looked for some more affordable yarn to make him a hat with, and I found this chunky soft alpaca in green, red, and blue. I figured I could either make all 3 boys hats, or make sweaters for the Chipmunks! It is soft as well, although nothing will ever compare to the Road to China yarn.

While I was there, I figured I would ask her about every interesting project I could think of, and one that has been on my mind for a while is thrummed mittens. I need roving (unspun wool) and worsted wool, so I asked her to direct me. I found a beautiful purple (again!) and green, and found coordinating Cascade 220 worsted heathers to knit with. I thought all of these colors would go together great, and my hubby is probably going to claim the purple pair, but I’ll put some accent colors with the green in as well, so they look like a set.

I needed to spend a certain amount to get a discount on my purchase, and I was very close, so I decided to either buy another sweater’s quantity and make it to the highest level, or just get a couple more skeins and make something smaller, so I went to the clearance section and picked out some beautiful lavender (of course) cashmere. I don’t know what I’ll make with it yet (maybe a cowl, since I’ll be wearing the world’s softest shawl all the time!), but it is very soft as well. I felt very preppy buying cashmere, something I never would have dreamed of when I started knitting.

One of the most fun things I bought recently is a set of cotton yarns from Hobby Lobby to make a sock monkey. I love making stuffed animals for my kids, and they love carting them around, and the idea of a sock monkey intrigues me. It has a pattern on the label, so all I need to do is knit the socks and go from there.

I bought a kit from Craftsy around this time last year (along with many other yarns) for a crochet bear, and finally got around to making it over Christmas. I had most of the pieces complete and just needed to stuff and sew it, so of course I procrastinated on all that. I did finally bite the bullet, and I’m so pleased with the results. It is soft, snuggly, and just the right size for my little Blessing to cart around on his shoulder. Instead of crocheting the little sweater, I decided it was faster to knit and be done with it. I should still pick up some stitches around the bottom and knit some ribbing, but it works the way it is. I also want to redo the muzzle, as the ends are poking out already, but it is functional and the little people aren’t complaining. Seeing how they treat their stuffed animals makes me want to knit them more, and in fact, besides the sock monkey, I have a few other animals in the queue for them.

A few days late for Christmas this past year, I finished a knitted Christmas ball for our tree. I then completed one for this year (I knit the year on each one), and started on gifts for family. I hope to make them for all the family every year. They're very easy and fun, and quick! I will use up the colors I have and maybe do green or blue or other colors in subsequent years.

I also had an opportunity to gift a set that I made several years ago with some beautiful acrylic yarn I liked. I made the scarf, loved the colors, made a matching hat, and had enough of the yarn to make something else, but not enough to finish it. I ordered an additional skein from someone on Etsy, and was able to finish the fingerless gloves. I gave this set to my aunt for her birthday in January, and she has told me so many times how much she loves wearing them all! I was glad to find a good home for something that I wasn't sure I needed to keep. 

I think that covers all of my recent purchases. I have so much to work on and so much in my possession right now. I am pretty sure I have enough yarn to last me at least the next 2 years, so I made a vow to my hubby that I would not buy more yarn for 2 more years, unless it is for a specific event or Etsy orders.

Speaking of Etsy, I also made a Viking hat and beard this month. I will be posting more updates about my shop in the coming months, so be on the lookout! A couple of changes and a special are coming up!

That is a lot of yarn, a lot of yarn photos, and very little knitting/crocheting to show, but thank you for reading to here if you have. I have three other projects on hiatus right now, 2 blankets and a set of slippers that I might talk about occasionally, but there is not a lot to speak of right now on them. I will post more often, as I am all caught up now and just need to update with new projects and progress on the ones mentioned above.

Until then, happy crafting!