Down to The Wire

Well, 2011 is winding to a close and I finished my last pair of socks for the year.  Officially, if anyone is counting besides my anal self, I have finished 34 pairs in 2012!  I don't necessarily plan to improve that record next year, but I am full of anticipation about what 2012 will bring and have a couple pair lined up and ready to be cast on.

Meanwhile, I thought I would show off the last two finished.  I finished the Spiral Stashbuster Pair last week.  I neglected to show you what the yarn looked like before I started knitting them in the last "in-progress" post.  It's interesting to see how the individual colors look compared to the blend.  Also, as you might suspect from the date on the photo, this is some of the yarn left over from doing these.  They don't take much of each individual color.

 

Yarn for Scrappy Stripes

 Here is what the finished socks looked like:

Scrappy Stripes

A very fun knit.  This pattern will go into my "go to" binder.  As will the next one I finished.

Pattern: Thumbelina by Lisa Dykstra
Yarn: Paca-peds in Paccacino

Swirls in my Coffee

A very fast and fun knit.  My only complaint would be the "opposite" pooling effect that happened in the foot/gusset of the sock.  Not sure how to avoid this, but I might have to make it my mission to solve this problem since I have more similarly dyed yarn in my stash.  Otherwise, I love them.

Happiest of New Years and Happy Sock Knitting!

Nana

My Blue Period

***Notice: link and photo heavy post; please step away and have a cup of hot cocoa or  eggnog if this will further stress you, otherwise, enjoy!***

It happens.  In your wardrobe; in your décor; in your paintings; and inevitably in your yarn choices; you take a good look one day and realize that you have been making some very monochromatic color choices.  In the case of my knitting, the color is blue.  It seems like I have been only knitting with blue yarn lately.   This is not strictly the case, but blue has definitely been my power color recently. 

I have finished several blue things (in no particular order)

The Brooklyn Tweed Rock Island Shawl in Mountain Colors Winter Lace / Harmony Starlight

Mr. Greenjeans in Gedifra Extra Soft Merino / Navy

A couple of pattern notes on this... sizing runs a tad small due to cables.   I made the sleeves longer and closed the YO's on the raglan shaping.  I know it's hard to tell from the picture, but it really did turn out nicely.

Movember Socks in A Swell Yarn Shop Middy Duet Sock Yarn / Lagoon Splash

Escargot in Dream in Color Classy / Midnight Derby / Visual Purple / Some Summer Sky

This pattern was a delight!  I needed something small and fun to knit after finishing the cardigan and socks and fell in love with this as soon as the Knitty Bis was published.  It fit the bill perfectly and I may have picked up another skein of classy to knit another one that matches the mittens I wear most. 

I may have slipped in a few of other projects in random colors just for fun:

My November PSC Houdini Socks in Madelinetosh Fingering / Sweet Pea

A Christmas Cowl (Chunky Eyelet Cowl by Nancy Wyatt) in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky / Shiraz

As a general rule, I'm not much of a fan of chunky yarn, but this stuff is like catnip to me.  I just can't stop playing with it and loving on it.  I might have yet another skein tucked away for one more quickie project.  Which leads me to another Misti project I'm quiet proud of:

Jazz Age Scarf-let (my pattern pending testing, etc) in Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Chunky / Magic Flute 

I got an idea for this pattern and puttered around with it until I got it exactly the way my head wanted it.  This is a fun quick knit and I hope to have the pattern out on ravelry very soon.

The long suffering and taking-forever-to-knit Miss Marple Shawl is still on the needles lurking somewhere near the back burner.

I’ve also cast on for my last socks of the year:

My December personal sock club selection was Lizard Ridge Socks in The Alpaca Yarn Co Paca-peds / Paccacino but I didn’t particularly like the way the pattern was knitting up and I think the yarn is a little too soft to give it structure after being blocked.  I frogged those and am now happily knitting Thumbelina with the yarn.

There were several choices for December from SKA, one of them was stashbusters.  The pattern Stash  Buster Spiral Socks has been in my Queue for a while so this seemed like the appropriate option.  I started these using up some of my leftover sock yarn. (Bonus points if you recognize that green).  I have finished the first sock and started the second.  No promises on finishing by the end of the month/year, but they have been pretty quick so far. 

On the horizon, I have a few more design ideas I’ll be playing with next year.  I have my 2012 personal sock club packaged up and ready to go; and I am slowly refining what’s in my queue to better target projects/patterns/yarn that I have paired and are waiting only to be cast on. 

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, and if I don’t post again before then….a splendid 2012!

Happy Knitting,

Nana

PS …. The icing on my “Blue” cake?   I got this for Christmas :)

(Ford Edge / Dark Blue Pearl … or is that Purl?)

[I snatched this picture from the official website for the record. ]