Happy New Year...

ox
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

...of the Ox

Amigurumi Attack

Quelle surpise. I'm already tired of working on the duplicate stitch sweater. There's just too darn much starting colors and stopping colors and counting. This left a gaping hole in my making stuff schedule that is being filled with amigurumi.

I went to Borders yesterday. I bought the Fall/Winter 2008 issue of knit.1 because it had the Chinese zodiac in amigurumi. Ana Paula Rimoli is the designer. I've done a few of the items from her book Amigurumi World.


When I got home, I read through knit.1 and found a kit for three dolls that look like those nesting Russian matryoshka dolls. I was really happy to discover that the matroyshka doll pattern was available as a separate pdf. Yay! I'm off to see if it has hit my email box yet.

This blog post sponsored by the letter N

noro
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I was Naughty today. I bought some Noro Kureyon sock yarn that I did Not Need. I was shopping for some yarn for a swap, and ended up buying this for myself. What I bought for the swap is Not Noro. It doesn't start with N.

UFOs

A little enabling

I was clicking around on Ravelry today, when an ad caught my eye. Rav's the only place on teh interwebs where I actually enjoy advertising. The site name is Discontinued Brand Name Yarn. It's a good thing I'm stashbusting or this place would've really tempted me. The yarns I saw were nearly all by companies that I'd heard of before. The prices ranged from pretty good to downright amazing. There was at least one kind of yarn that was over 90% off. There weren't massive quantities of things, but a pretty good variety. If you're looking for a project and don't have a specific color or yarn type in mind, this would be a great place to go. I'm posting this so I can remember to go back.

The jacket's done. I'll post pictures soon. I'm going to finish a second sock next. Then I'm going to knit some leaves for the International Fiber Collaborative project. Then I might finish the Godzilla in my knitting basket. No, that's not a euphemism, it's an actual knitted Godzilla.

Denim and crochet jacket progress

jacket
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

Here's a quick shot of the jacket. Only the sleeves are left. They are taking much longer than the rest of the garment because they are done in lighter yarn than the body.

I'm considering restarting the sleeves. The multicolored yarn is pretty but I don't think it works.

Sigh.

Shiny!

mini
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm done with self-striping yarn. I was captivated by it when I first discovered it, but that was a couple dozen pairs of socks ago.

When I saw Opal's Harry Potter color series, I was tempted. So far I've resisted it.

Berroco may have pushed me too far, though. Their new Metallic Sox has stripes with gold or silver in it. My inner magpie hops up and down and shrieks SHINY whenever metallic or glow-in-the-dark objects appear.

The free mini sweaters pattern is supposed to protect the inside of a handbag from scratching up your purse contents. Puh-lease. They are cute and they must be made for that reason alone.

Goals for 2009

Yesterday I signed up for the Lime&Violet Sock Marathon on Ravelry. It involves calculating one's sock yarn stash and setting a goal. I have approximately 10.5 miles of sock yarn in my stash. If it sounds like a lot, one person posted her over 37 mile stash. In six months, I plan to knit half of it. It's an ambitious goal, but one I think I can do.

Another goal is to do a mini advent calendar. 24 socks divided by 12 months is 2 little socks per month. I should be able to throw those in between marathon socks.

I have two goals between now and when the marathon starts in February. One is to finish half of a sock that got set to one side. The other is to finish the crocheted denim jacket. I should be able to finish them in 3.5 weeks, even if I'm (please, please, please!) working.

As for the Stricken, I may try them again during the marathon. The yarn I used for the second try had too much mohair in it to look good. I expect I'll either buy some yarn especially for these socks or dye some.

Out with the old...

In with the new.