The purpose of blogging

I think I need to give up on this blog as a project tracker. That's what I started it for, but that was in 2004 (!!!), i.e. the pre-Ravelry days. Since Ravelry came along and I started recording all my project details there, it's been harder and harder to keep up with the blog, because I don't really have the time (or inclination) to record everything twice.

So instead, I think I'm going to start using this blog to talk about knitting techniques, pattern releases, and maybe some silly stories of my knitting life that won't fit in 140 characters. Plus maybe finished photos of projects that I really want to share.

Speaking of which, here's a parade of FOs since my last blog post...

100th birthday present for my grandmother
Pattern: Anatolia by Barbara Gregory
Yarn: Circulo Anne

A series of kippahs for DD1's beau, who was bar mitzvahed in January:

 

 

In order, we have the Tardis kippah, the kippah with the young man's Hebrew name on it, and a Dalek kippah. (As I'm sure you can tell, he's a Doctor Who fan.) All of them were adapted from the Basic Knit Kippah pattern by Jennifer Tocker.

Welcome-to-the-world baby gift for a family friend
Pattern: Summer Pelisse by Rene Dickey
Yarn: Schachemayr SMC Catania

Sweater for MEEEEEE!
Pattern: Sotherton by Kathleen Dames
Yarn: Katia Merino Mix

Birthday gift for DD2
Pattern: Reaverse Star Edition by Rea Jarvenpaa
Yarn: Various acrylic worsted, including Caron Simply Soft Brites

Christmas gift for my brother
Pattern: Seanair by Judith Brodnicki
Yarn: Patons Canadiana

Baby gift for first-cousin-once-removed's first child
Pattern: Dr. Quackers by Lizzy-Knits
Yarn: Various

Vest for me
Pattern: Rose Trellis Shawl Vest by Vera Sanon
Yarn: Nova Sock Print

Father's Day gift for DH
Pattern: Hat-heel sock by me
Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4-Ply

Farewell present for co-worker
Pattern: Jayne Cobb Firefly Hat by SmarieK
Yarn: Cascade 220 and 220 Superwash

I also came up with a new sweater design in celebration of DD1's birthday, and will probably be submitting it somewhere in the early fall. I kind of really really love this one, and have high hopes for an acceptance. Fingers crossed!

What else has been going on

There have been a few things I worked on this fall/beginning of winter that weren't gifts for this Christmas, so I need to catch the blog up.

In November, I got tired of DD1's constant declarations of desire for an infinity scarf (cowl) and made her one.

The yarn is some Knit Picks Diadem that I picked up for an absolute song at a (Cyber Monday, I think) sale last year. It's a single ply yarn, which I'm not fond of knitting with, but with a 50% alpaca/50% silk blend and such fantastic colours, I didn't really care. :) This turquoise colourway was always intended to be for DD1, since it's her favourite colour. I originally had another cowl pattern in mind to use it with, but I went instead with Two Sides by Ariel Barton, from Knitty, which is an a-maz-ing reversible scarf pattern - that's right, reversible cables! I basically just knitted until almost all of the skein was gone, and then joined the ends together to make it into an infinity cowl. It's perfect and she looks terrific in it, IMNSHO.

There were two design projects that I completed, one for DD1's friend's birthday present, and the other just because the idea came to me and I had to do it. I'm very much hoping to get them accepted by some publications in the next while.

My older BIL's Christmas present was originally supposed to be a pair of Flying Geese socks, made out of sock yarn leftovers, but although the pattern is incredibly cool and I like it a lot, for some reason it took me a long time to make any headway on it. So I eventually abandoned it for a quicker pair. I expect I'll revisit the Flying Geese sometime this year for his 2016 Christmas present.

And then, the family friend I was making the Twinkle romper for had her baby, and for some reason, the thought of finishing up the romper was just not appealing anymore. (It was taking forever.) So I cast on with some super-cheerfully yellow cotton for a Summer Pelisse:

You can see it's mostly done (and has actually been partly sewn together since the picture was taken), I just have to finish it up. Fortunately, it's fairly sizable, so it'll still fit the baby by the time I finish. But first I have to do the January deadline knitting.

There's my grandmother's 100th birthday sweater, which tonight I picked up for the first time since I wrote about it in October. (It may end up being a vest.) And then there's DD1's boyfriend's bar mitzvah present. I'm going to make him a tallit - probably Annie Modesitt's Max's Tallit pattern, since I really don't have time at this point to go through the trial-and-error process of designing one myself. (Although I will probably replace the "Sh'ma Israel" text around the neck with the young man's Hebrew name, and duplicate-stitch it rather than knit it in.)

Both to be done by mid-January.

[manically nervous giggle]