Out With the Old, In With the New

As the old year comes to an end, I have been taking stock of my WIP and planning for the upcoming year. You might remember my Shetland Lace Shawl from Gathering of Lace.

Wish it farewell because it is slated for frogging. I had completed. One edging, one border, and maybe a third of the center. At this point, I realized that early in the border I had made a noticeable mistake. I see no way to fix it except to frog it and although it is not horribly noticeable it has sapped my enthusiasm to finish the project.



The good cluster (quite blurry).





The mistake (also quite blurry).




I am also planning to frog my Amble socks. They have been sitting around too long and I don't like them. Good bye also.




On a happier note, I received my Jamieson and Smith yarn for Alice Starmore's Katherine of Aragon sweater. After swatching I have decided to substitute one of the background colors with a Jamieson color. For more info see the Tudor Roses Knitalong.

Happy New Year and Happy Knitting!

Christmas Knitting Completed! Now what?

Well, Christmas is done and I have completed my meager Christmas knitting goals.

Gloves for my aunt. My aunt always talks about gloves that my mother knit for her 35 years ago. She described them as being knit very tight and being very warm. Apparently they caught on fire during a bonfire. She has been mourning them ever since. She and my mother have always referred to them as gloves. Come to find out they were actually mittens. I told her I am not knitting her a pair of those also.



Yarn: Nature Spun worsted in silver sage.
Needles: Brittany dpn size 1 1/2 (2.5 mm)
Pattern: Belinda's Gloves, my own design
Size: women's large

I also knit my husband his first pair of socks.


Yarn:
Needles: Knitpicks Options dpn size 0 (2.0 mm)
Pattern: my own basic sock pattern
Size: Men's 10 1/2








Finally, I knit my neighbor some socks. She has been a great help to me since our move to Michigan.

Yarn: Knitpicks bare, 75% superwash wool and 25% nylon, handpainted with Kool-Aid
Needles: Knitpicks Options dpn size 0 (2.0 mm)
Pattern: my own basic sock pattern
Size: Women's medium






I also was quite lucky myself this year. Instead of my husband buying his usual toilet brushes and brooms I received:

1. Fair Isle Knitting by Alice Starmore
2. Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore
3. Sweaters from Camp by Meg Swanson

I can't complain.

My next goal is to take stock of my current WIP's. I will be doing some frogging and some finishing hopefully.

WIP Wednesday

The Mara class has started a WIP challenge to encourage all of us to work on our unfinished works in progress. I have elected to work on Fulmar which I have been tackling on an off since March 2006. Although I have put countless hours into it I have only reached 40 cm out of 60 cm on the front. I must still finish the back and sleeves.

The time consuming part of this sweater is the gauge (252 stitches for each row) and the numerous cables (every right side row). This was something I really wanted to make so I figured that I would just continue plugging along until I was done.