I have been knitting! I have now made almost 3 versions of this simple but nice Mira’s Cowl Pattern. It is a perfect knitting project for watching tv, because it is so easy.

Here’s one version I made in Madelinetosh light:

I have a second one I finished that is a gift, so I won’t post it yet! Here is the third one I am making for myself out of some old Jo Sharp Silkroad DK tweed that I reclaimed from my first (failed) sweater project.

I got some yarn for the holidays from my husband! This is Rhichard Devrieze yarn in the Hot Flushes colorway:

I spent today on a super secret cross stitch I will be posting about later 🙂

Here are a couple ways to get codes for free ravelry pattern downloads from a couple knitwear designers, by signing up for their newsletters in January!

Lucy Hague

Janukke

I got yarn for Christmas!

Some Madelinetosh Merino Light:

And some Brooklyn Tweed Shelter:

Thistle

I’m working on a secret project for my Stitch N Bitch group’s anniversary party. We all knit something and swap projects! I’ve gotten an awesome cowl and some great slippers in previous swaps.

My kids both requested scarves, so I’m working on finishing up one. Just a very simple striped scarf. I have a bit more to do with this, then one more to go!

I keep meaning to document more of my knitting and I always end up forgetting to take pictures and update Ravelry. Here’s a summary of some of my recent knitting projects.

Big Boy Blankets – I made my kids some baby blankets out of some “superwash” wool that ended up felting so much I threw one away and have one nice felted wool bathmat. So I made them some new blankets, out of some acrylic/wool blend yarn that will hopefully not have the felting issue:

And here is the other one:

I can’t get a full shot of these as I don’t feel like standing on a chair. They aren’t super-big, definitely enough for a throw for a five year old but too small to actually use as a bedspread on a twin size bed. I could have made them larger, but the people I was making them for requested that I stop because they wanted their blankets done 🙂

I made a hat! Margene gifted me with the nice yarn (which I think was a nifty manos silk/wool blend) in a destash! This was the free Mairead hat pattern and it was quick and fun to knit.

Some projects in progress:

I’m going to finally be done with my Color Affection fairly soon.

This is made with some of the Wollmeise from my stash, it is always nice to find a great pattern to highlight some lovely yarn.

And because Cheryl spent some time contemplating and discussing Entrelac before making this scarf, I started thinking about another Entrelac project too.

I have 3 skeins of this semi-crazy Koigu colorway, and am going to slowly stripe in some slightly more subtle Koigu once I get beyond the halfway point. We’ll see how that turns out. This is my lighter-weight mindless at home knitting project, now that those blankets are done. I should learn how to knit backwards with this project, but I don’t really mind turning all that much.

I’ve been meaning to post more about knitting projects here, but I tend to be so busy that I rarely remember to document what I’ve done. But here is some holiday related knitting!

What we have here are a couple simple mistake rib scarves for my kids, the orange and blue objects. This is yarn that they picked out at my LYS when they announced that they wanted to knit. I figured they would try it out a little bit and lose interest and I would just end up making something for them with the yarn that they chose, and that is exactly what happened. Unfortunately I wasn’t paying attention to the yarn they were grabbing and they ended up picking out a wool mohair blend. I’m slightly allergic to mohair, but I managed to tough it out and make the scarves.

There’s also a grey slouchy hat that is a gift for someone in a Secret Santa exchange. The red wrap in the background is a project that I’m trying to finish in the next few days.

My husband was nice and took me yarn shopping on the last day of Hanukkah to Fine Points here in Ohio. There is a bunch of yarn crammed into a small space in the store. There were some novelty yarns, but also habu kits, Rowan, Jo Sharp, Noro, Madelinetosh, Debbie Bliss, Alchemy, and a ton of Claudia Hand Painted yarn. This is what I got:

A couple skeins of Tosh Chunky in Black Current. I have some sort of problem with Madelinetosh and purples, in that I have a hard time not buying it. One Zauberball in a mix of greens and black. Also, a couple skeins of Koigu. Overall a very nice unexpected last day of Hanukkah present!

Before summer I finished this Pop Block (pattern from Knitty) out of some great Madelinetosh yarn.

I was even able to wear it a bit in the spring when we had some unseasonably cold weather. Now it is well into the 90s in Utah.

I started Stripe Study in the winter and put it aside. But I recently finished it and am happy with how it came out too. I had to crop this image somewhat because of all the little boy socks that were on the floor, but you get the general idea.

The short rows in this pattern end up creating an interesting asymmetrical shawl. I am planning on making color affection next, but I think I need a break from interesting garter stitch projects by Veera Välimäki, since I’ve knit two projects from her in a row.

So I have decided that considering all the sock yarn I have, I should actually make a second pair of socks. I’m going to knit the infamous Monkey socks by Cookie A. I’m going to knit them using some Dream in Color Smooshy yarn I happened to have on hand, in the Pansy Go Lightly colorway, which is a nice mix of blues, purples, and a tiny bit of green.

I’ve also been working on some very simple log cabin blankets at home. These are my brain dead TV watching knitting projects.

And I bought a bit more Wollmeise:

I made a 3 hats (one each for my husband and kids)

I couldn’t find the red one I made, so imagine that is there 🙂

This was a simple ribbed hat pattern from Ravelry.

When knitting for myself, I am going through a Madelinetosh/Veera Välimäki phase right now.

I started Different Lines a little while ago, but it is on a bit of a hiatus because I’ve been a bit sick and brain dead and can’t seem to manage the very simple amount of counting necessary for this shawl.

Will get back to it when my brain fog has lifted though.

Yarn for this is Tosh Sock in Byzantine and Tern.

As soon as I saw Pop Block in the Winter Knitty I knew I would make it. I scored a bunch of Tosh DK in Duchess (a nice variegated purple) from Webs recently. I’m almost finished with the first section of pleats.

If you happen to be sitting around your house lacking energy to do much but knit garter stitch and marathon Vampire Diaries, I highly recommend this pattern. This wrap is ridiculously easy to make, but I think the asymmetric pleating will look very cool and it is the type of thing that I can picture myself wearing all the time when it is done. Now that I see how easy it is to make these garter stitch pleats, I might experiment with them on some other type of garment.

Now I’m going to spend the rest of the afternoon winding yarn and finding out how Stefan and Damon are going to prevent Elena from being killed again.

There are so many Snarky Vampires, Werewolves, Witches, and dying campers in Mystic Falls, I’m not sure how any normal humans manage to live there.

I actually finished a project just in time for the cooler weather!

This is the second Clockwork that I’ve knit, I gave the first one away to my Mom.

I really like the open circle shape of this scarf. I made it with 4 balls of koigu.

I had the multicolored red and purple yarn in my stash and thought the bright blue would go with it well.

I tend to go through waves with yarn brand obsession.

Right now I think I would be happy if I was limited to buying Madelinetosh and Wollmeise for the rest of my life, but I went through a major Koigu phase when I first started knitting.

So I was happy when I realized that I had the reddish Koigu when I thought about making another Clockwork for myself.

Here is my next project, I haven’t cast on yet.

Madelinetosh sock in Byzantine and Tern is going to be used for….

Different Lines!

And not surprisingly a leetle bit more Wollmeise somehow made it into my house recently.

A nice purple, ein klein wenig verrucht, and 2 skeins of rattenscharf.

I might have a tiny bit of a problem with getting too many skeins of reddish Wollmeise, but it is just too vibrant to pass up.

I finished up a couple projects recently.

A Citron in Madelinetosh Prairie Lace yarn, I think the color is blackcurrant.

This was basically my main summer knitting project.

Easy pattern, but it does get a little tedious towards the end.

Looking forward to actually wearing it when it gets colder.

I also made yet another cowl out of Socks That Rock Raven Clan sock yarn (which means I have none left in my stash, so I’m feeling a little bereft).

This was an improvised pattern.

I have been selling some of my manga to clear out some space and using the money to buy more Wollmeise, which I think is an entirely logical thing to do.

This is what I’ve gotten recently:

3 skeins 0-Rh-negativ and 1 PB.

I really want to get some of the matching multicolor for 0-Rh-negativ, which is the vampirific Fledermaus – a mix of grey and red.

1 Cassis WD and 1 Madame Souris WD.

This was from a purple semi-solid grab bag, and I was quite happy to get these colors.

I had a Madame Souris before and used it to make a sockweight Clapotis. I like the color, so I’m happy to get another skein.

I generally only knit for close friends, family, and people who I’ve written a book with. Since I have a limited amount of time to knit I generally only knit projects for myself. But it is fun to figure out how to make something new, which I did when Dave asked me to make a Space Cabby scarf for him. Since Dave is the world’s foremost Space Cabby fan and I obviously love Amethyst Princess of Gemworld, I feel we share being placed in a similar position of linking comic book characters who are so obscure that there will never be any licensed merchandise produced for them. So there’s not much else to do than make it yourself! Dave described the scarf he had in mind, and sent me a rough drawing of what he wanted it to look like.

This scarf was knit simply, but I had to do the bow tie in intarsia which was a knitting technique I hadn’t tried before. You can see Dave modeling his Space Cabby scarf here.