Glancing Back, Moving Ahead

Since the weather was so uncooperative last week, I never really got a chance to show off these:

Scarborough Fair Socks by Melanie Gibbons

Yarn: Knitivity Down Home Art Yarns sock in Italian Ice - Grape

Size 2.25 DPN

Or these:

Finished 10:35pm Dec, 31 2010

Tropical Stripe Socks

Pattern: Basic sock (Top Down) with a 2, 1, 1, 1 stripe sequence

Yarn: Noro Kuryeon Sock in colors S180 (MC) and S149 (CC)

Size 2.25 DPN

I decided halfway through the Scarborough Fair socks that I needed a simpler pattern for carrying around because although the pattern on Scarborough Fair is not difficult to memorize, the stitches are fiddly and I need to have the chart out more often than not to stay on track so it wasn’t very good for public knitting.  The first socks I knit in Jan 2010 were the Noro Stripey socks that I love, so I decided that the last pair for 2010 should also be Noro Stripeys and keeping in my experimental mode with stripes I changed up the stripe sequence just enough to keep them interesting.  I finished the Scarborough Fair socks on the 27th and even though I only had a portion of one leg done on the Stripey socks, I decided I would kick it into high gear so these would actually be finished in 2010.  I made it with hours to spare and I love the way these socks turned out.  (I also have enough yarn leftover for another pair sometime this year.)  In case anyone is wondering, I did futz with the yarn a wee bit to get the color sequences to match.  I didn’t have to try too terribly hard due to a happy little coincidence; the (inevitable) knot 

I think I was going to write a post about this, but it got OBE

in that skein of Noro (S180) was almost perfectly placed to divide it into two cakes of almost equal weight with not too much pulling out to get to the same starting point in the color sequence. The brown was harder to judge and so I did end up with different starting points.  They are not a perfect match, but that's okay. Heck, I think I would be both too hard on my self and too hard on the yarn if I expected a perfect match using any Noro yarn.

So those are the final two projects that I completed in 2010.  

Oh, and speaking of happy little coincidences, I was pleasantly surprised by this the other day:

1500 Yards of Golden Sunrise in Dura Lace

Ray, of Knitivity, had a little drawing back in December  for customers who ordered yarn during a certain week.  I needed to order a skein to match one I already had for an upcoming project and didn’t really think about the timing of my order in regards to the drawing.  I hadn’t been very active on line in December and subsequently missed the note on his website that I was the winner of the drawing, so imagine my surprise when I got this skein of yarn in the mail!  I do order quite a bit from him because I really like Ray’s yarn. I would highly recommend it if you’ve ever thought about adopting an indy-dyer to support.   

Moving on to 2011; I set up a few personal challenges for myself (rather than actual goals). 

I am continuing in the Sock A Month Knit-a-long and have set up another year’s worth of personal sock club bags to keep me knitting from stash and patterns I have accumulated.  I started my first installment on Monday and am pretty happy with the mix of yarn and pattern so far, but afraid the yardage could be a bit short, though.  If I can get by with making shorter cuffs I will, but if I end up needing to switch yarn, I’ll do that because I really do like the pattern so far.  The pattern is Journey Cable Socks which I bought some time ago and never got around to knitting.  The yarn is Rabbit Ridge Designs, one of the yarns I brought back from my trip to Alaska in 2009.  (See a trend here?)  Here’s a peek at what it looks like so far:

I'm actually quite a bit farther now

I am going to try to knit four shawl patterns (one a quarter?) that I’ve had in my queue forever.  I haven’t matched yarn for all 4 yet, and I’m cheating a little by counting the Annis that I started last month as one of the four.  There’s still not much progress there by the way, but I can show this:

I'll be happy when I get past the nupps

I’ve got sweater quantity in my stash for at least two sweaters.  Patterns not determined on both yet.

I have a couple patterns I love that I’d like to do up for my Granddaughter (not that I need an excuse to knit for her).

I would like to get on with it and actually complete my Level I of the Master Knitter’s course.  (Still working on that motivation).

I’d also like to do a little more charity knitting again and maybe a little more designing this year. 

Really, that’s quite a lot to have on my plate, but hey, that’s why they are challenges rather than goals… no pressure, just an organized way to keep my knitting going in a productive direction… and to try to use up yarn I already have.  

So I hope you'll drop by from time to time to see how I'm doing on my 2011 challenges.  

Happy Knitting,