2nd friday, 2nd project done

My goal to make 52 projects (ammended from goal: 52 pairs of mittens) in 52 weeks is in week two - with my second pair of mittens. Got the mirror beads on this pair too, which was fun. :) I love coming up with a kitchy design to decorate otherwise what may be boring mittens.

pair of mittens #1 finished, 51 pairs to go

Finished my first pair of the year: knit with Patons Classic Wool in leaf green, embroidered with some jade heather Patons Classic Wool & I added some boho type mirror beads that I bought off of etsy. These are a rather well modified version of a pattern I have, that should fit women's hands.

Happy New Year 2011!

I've got a new goal for 2011: 52 projects completed within 52 weeks. Mainly to destash all the yarn that I have. I'm hoping to use up as much yarn out of my own stash to do this without having to buy any new stuff for a while.



I love knitting mittens, so I think that most of these projects might wind up being mittens. My favourite go-to pattern has been the #18 mitten pattern from Knit Simple Fall 2007, & I've a feeling this pattern is going to be used to death. It's a chart break down of 9 different sizes of mittens: dk, worsted & bulky for each men's, women's and kids.

I'm currently working on my first pair, which I hope to eventually gift to my MIL later this year for xmas, made from Paton's Classic Wool (my favourite yarn). Pictures will soon follow.

the Dude no longer abides

Last year, you may or may not remember, I designed a Dude sweater from scratch mainly for my brother for his birthday (Sept). For a first attempt at designing a sweater, I must admit, not bad. But, truthfully, not as movie accurate as I could've hoped.

Just as luck would have it, after literally years of looking for a dude sweater to buy or for free, exactly 7 days after I posted my pattern online and for sale (& 4 days after my brother's birthday), someone had designed a much better Dude sweater, more movie accurate than mine, and in a better variety of sizes.

To be honest, I was both heartbroken and a little jealous. But truthfully, nothing more. Had I simply known to wait for 3 more months, I could've used her pattern to knit her version for my brother for xmas.

Sales for my pattern did fairly well I must admit. No complaints really, as far as I know. Although I did have ppl that needed a bit of clarification on certain parts of my design, those who admited that clarification was needed, I did my best to help, and as far as I know, those were made without a hitch.

Sadly though the two projects completed on ravelry of my design weren't pleased, and for different reasons. In part, I believe, had to do with later realizing that they could've saved the purchase price to go with the free design, which is understandable. In part for other reasons, but I'm sure that was a good one.

I do admire the quality of the free pattern though, and anyone who is willing to give a project as detailed as a lace shawl or adult sized sweater as a free pattern, in itself, is fairly awesome & generous. :) The FO's of her design all look really great, and I look forward to get a crack at it eventually, although I think I'll avoid the work of sewing on a zipper the next time and go with a button-up version instead!

handspun scarf finished

The yarn I spun a while ago is now a scarf, finally! I've been meaning to post this pic a while back, when I actually did finish it, but better late than never. I'll be adding fringe to it eventually.

a sweater makes headlines

Just follow this link to the story ... it's not a knitting thing but it's a sweater thing so it's kind of a knitting thing. :)

from handspun to scarf

A few months ago I finished spinning this ball of yarn and I finally cast on a seed stitch scarf with it.

The weather's starting to cool off, and I'm realizing I need some more wintery clothes! Not that I don't already have a zillion scarves, hats, and mittens, but one can never have too many.

This will be my very first project that I've knit with a handspun ball of yarn, and even better, a ball of yarn I've spun myself! Pictures to come soon!

bacon & chocolate... mmmmm ;)

It has truthfully never occured to me to mix bacon and chocolate together, but I happen to stumble upon a few chocolate fudge recipes that actually have bacon in them... and I went from "Ew, that's gross" to "Wait a sec, that just might work!"

I got some merkins milk chocolate wafers, mixed it with half a square of bittesweet baker's chocolate, melted it and dunked these strips of bacon (this happen to be regular, unsalted bacon) and... it tastes awesome.

I've no idea how healthy it is, probaby not very. But it's wicked. I dare you to try it, especially if you're weirded out by the idea.

knitted wrapping paper find! woot!

I love that I found this wrapping paper at Michael's the other day - I've been searching for something like this for ages. There was paper in fair isle as well, but I'm such a fan of cabled fabric that I decided to stick with these!

Now I can't wait for the holidays to come around so I can put these to good use!

mini knitting movie video

I absolutely love this video... give it a watch if you haven't seen it yet! It's an animated knitting video which has been around for a while, but it's absolutely adorable and kinda funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

I can't seem to figure out how to upload video into blog posts... but just follow the link!