Month in review: January

Setting goals is no good if you’re not going to evaluate your performance on a regular basis. So, hopefully, the last day of each month, I’ll devote a little bit of time to talking about my goals and updating them as needed.

As you might remember, I have two goals for 2011. The first is don’t buy yarn (minus a few caveats). And I have been so so so good about not buying yarn this month. There has been temptation; it has been rebuffed and sent packing! However, my stash did, in fact, grow this month.

One of the caveats to my Yarn Diet rules is that I can accept gifted yarns. And I will. And oh, how I will. This month’s stash enhancement is primarily the cause of the wonderful people that I get to call my friends. And because these lovely people sent me birthday gifts! For example, my friend Amanda sent me these hanks of Aslan Trends Santa Fe.

And Maria sent me some Malabrigo Sock.

Attached to the yarn were two little stitch kitten stitch markers, kittens that resemble my Vera monster. 😀

Elaine spun up some fiber and gave me first dibs on a skein for my birthday, and I chose this lovely Southern Cross Fibres yarn. (Anyone wanting the spinning details… it’s Navajo plied. That’s all I really know.)

I also received the final installments of a sock club from my friend Jen. I was helping her organize all the information in the beginning, so I got to choose yarns that weren’t on the club list. This is her Cheshire Cat colorway. I’m thinking thigh-high socks.

I’m not kidding. Well, I might be kidding, because I have long legs and long feet, and while I think 700+ yards of fingering weight yarn will get me thigh highs, they may just end up as knee highs.

And then there’s the yarn my friend Theresa included as part of my swap package. Cascade Heritage Quatro (you all know how I love the Cascade) in this beautiful blue-green marled color.

The other goal for this month was to knit a pair of socks. This goal met with some fits and starts throughout the month, mostly in the form of yarn debacles and knitting ennui. If you missed the Finished Object post, it’s available here.

The Random Number Generator has determined that next month’s socks are going to be Thelonius, by Cookie A. Anyone want to knit them with me?

So that was my January. Hopefully February is met with less ennui and more knitting (and maybe a little less reading; suspenseful books make going to bed at a reasonable time quite difficult). How’s the year treating you so far?

Finished Object: Spiral Boot Legwarmers

Yay, first pair of the year is done! Yes, they aren’t technically socks, but it’s my game—and I’d also told my friend Maria that legwarmers would totally count for her if she wanted to play along, so this is established precedent—so they totally count.

In case you’re just now following along with the saga of the January Socks, the random number generator originally picked a different pair of socks for this month. However, the yarn that I wanted to use for them was a re-skeined in a complicated way, so I couldn’t wind them. I turned the yarn over to my friend Sarah, who is a master detangler, and brought back the nicely wound ball within a couple of days (I thought it’d take her a while to master the yarn; I underestimated her and overestimated the tangles). In the meantime, I’d run the RNG again and came up with the Spiral Boot Socks by Véronik Avery, and cast on with my Berroco Comfort DK.

…without bothering to check my yardage. So there I merrily go, knitting away, and half way through the first “sock,” I thought hm, I wonder if I have enough yarn. I didn’t. Not even close. Given the yarn diet and the fact that it would have cost twice as much as the yarn itself to ship a skein of this yarn in the same color, I opted to step off the beaten path a few meters early and ended up with Spiral Boot Legwarmers.

Aside from improvising because I’m an idiot, I made a few other modifications to this pattern. I cast on 88 stitches instead of 80, because I thought 80 stitches might be just a smidgen too small for my calves. Good call there. I worked the rest of the pattern as intended, and when I got to a good stopping length, I worked a 3×3 rib at the end.

I wore them out today, over brown tights and under grey boots. Yesterday I worn a brown and white striped tee, a pink cardigan, and grey flats. Apparently I’m feeling very Neapolitan lately.

Side note: These boots are very loud, in an authoritative way, but really comfy, and I wear them a lot. Today as I was walking around town, I passed a few guys and one of them said “Nice boots” as I walked by. Yes, yes they are.

So these are my first finished object for the year! On the other hand, I’ve read 10 books. TEN. I think we might know where my priorities are at the moment.

What are you up to this fine weekend?

Friday Finds

Happy Friday, one and all! This is the last Friday in the month of January, and 2011 has been off to a wonderful knitty start. 😀

• This is such a fun story. A 14-year old girl is knitting her way to Europe. Wish I could do that!
• History, knitting, and chemistry, how cool is that? In the 1880s, a Scottish professor at Edinburgh University built a molecular model of salt out of knitting needles and wool. (link discovered via Ashley :D)

  

• Maybe it’s just my current flirtation with steampunk literature, but the sweet Aethercopter shawl by Jocelyn Tunney is stunning in its simplicity.

  

• Not only does Rebecca Danger have the best name ever (for real!), she also has a book. A big book. A Big Book of Knitted Monsters. It’s so stinking cute! I’m a fan of Cecil the Computer Monster myself.

  

• New Tiny Owl Knits pattern: Free Rapunzel!. Super cute!

  

• SpillyJane also has a new pattern, and this one is free! The Camilla Mittens are beautiful examples of a minimalist approach to stranded colorwork.

  

• Your moment of zen: Elephant and Ladybug by Ala Ela.

  

See, I am knitting

Sometimes.

I’ve got one legwarmer finished, and I’m roughly 40% finished with the second one.

Now, don’t remind me that the end of the month is six days away, and I should maybe stop reading so much and actually knit if I want to meet my goal for this month.

On the other hand, who wants to talk about how awesome Hunger Games is? Instead of knitting, I read the first book in one day. 😀

Friday Finds

Another Friday! Hope you had a wonderful week, and have a great weekend.

• Big and little hearts make up the repeating pattern on this adorable hat from Lindsay Ingram. Knit your own I Carry Your Heart for that particular upcoming holiday, or just because.

  

• Kamilla Svanlund’s Olivia mittens are gorgeous! I love the sort of abstract, nature-y design on the back of the hands.

  

• Like Knitty’s Froot Loop socks? Now you can have gloves to match, courtesy of Natasha Sills.

  

• Another excellent tutorial from Allyson at the Sweatshop of Love, this time on knitting two sleeves at once.
• Got sock yarn scraps? The inimitable Elinor at Exercise Before Knitting gives a quick run-down—including some math, but don’t panic, you can do it—on how to use up the last of your scraps.
• The lovely Nótt pullover by Dora Stephensen is lovely in its simplicty—your basic raglan with varying stripes and a cowlneck makes for a perfect “wear everywhere” sweater.

  

• A new sock pattern by Jeannie Cartmel: Complicated.

  

• Speaking of socks (this has been a sock-heavy Friday Finds, hasn’t it?), Alice at Socktopus has written a treatise (okay, more of a manifesto… or just a list, whatever) about why she loves handknit socks. And I agree whole-heartedly with every point she made. And wish I had more hours in the days to knit more socks. It’s a sickness.