2018 in review

This is the last completed project for the year.

It is prettier in real life, with sparkles in some of the yarn.

I finished:

• 30 pair of socks.  It is crazy when this is the fewest I have done in recent years.  When one is addicted to buying sock yarn, one has to do something with it.
• 7 amigurumi/soft toys.
• 6 outfits for Dolores the sheep.
• 5 hats.
• 3 pillows.
• 2 pair of slippers.
• A shawl, an afghan, a sweater, and a woven curtain.
• 10 squares for swapping plus a bunch of granny squares to turn into one big blanket.

My plans in general for next year are to do more big projects and to work from stash.  We’ll see how long that lasts.

What I Ordered from Santa

There’s not much gift exchanging in my life these days, unfortunately.  At least there are fewer opportunities to buy or make presents that just don’t work for the recipient.  I am good at that.  I allow myself to order things at this time of year and open them on Christmas.

I broke my favorite Pawley Studio mug recently, so I ordered a custom one.  I picked the wrong size, so it will be a holder for my many sock size DPNs.  The tool bag and the pins came from Becka Rahn on Etsy.  The bag has a sonic crochet hook on it,  The pins all have knitting/Firefly sayings on them.

The embroidery kit is from Sublime Stitching.  It is a chambray bandana printed with many designs and lots of embroidery floss.  The book is from Kate Davies Designs and has many cool hats.  I have yarn on the way from the UK to make one of them.  The yarn in front is the 25th of my advent calendar yarns from Happy Little Yarns.  The colorway is Aurora Borealis, which kind of goes with the last package.

It is Must Stash’s Space Camp KAL kit.  There’s a project bag printed in sparkly ink. There’s a astronaut ice cream sandwich,  There are hand and sock bar soaps and skin balm, all in a nice scent called Night Sky.  There’s a mug from Hill Country Pottery.  I bought last year’s mug and use it all the time.  This one is even nicer.  The yarn is self striping sock yarn in two matched skeins.  It has stellina for that night sky sparkle.

Merry holidays to those that celebrate them, and much fibery goodness to all.

Knit one, buy two

After a couple of weeks of intermittent cat barfing, I took Jasmine to the vet.  Long story short, the vet said he doesn’t expect that she’ll be around much longer.  I am very sad.  The only thing I can do is try and come up with anything that she’ll eat.

I am not concentrating well on my knitting so I keep starting projects and not finishing anything.  Whenever I see something I think might be fun, I buy it.  It is going to be lonely without my furry pal.  Maybe a big pile of projects may help a little bit.

I got some patterns from Mochmochi Land and managed to get some sugarplum fairies and nutcrackers made.  The nutcrackers look like they need an orthodontist.  I considered redoing the teeth but figured the whole face might fall apart if the existing teeth were removed.

The crocheted square they are sitting on is one I got in a swap.  The swap squares were all really nice and it will be fun to get them all together some day.

What I have been up to

I gave up on the advent socks.  I am making an advent pillow instead.  Every day I open an advent box and knit two squares for the pillow.  There’s still a lot of yarn left, so I will come up with a plan for it later.  The pillow looks like the colored squares are floating on it.  The effect  is hard to see until the whole thing is assembled.  I can see it a little bit now.

These are the Red Robin socks, the last pair from the Handmade Sock Society.  Pretend you can’t see that bit of laddering in the middle, okay?

I am getting my swap squares and have started working on getting them together.  It is a challenge to get things to match up that we’re made by 10 different people.  It is fun, though.

Possible projects:
-Dolores Transatlantic outfit, waiting for lost needles (long boring story)
-Dolores Sugarplum Fairy outfit, maybe next if lost needles don’t appear
-Roamin’ hat by Kate Davies, book and yarns on the way from the UK
-Thirteenth Doctor Rainbow scarf, waiting for:  pattern to be released, yarn to arrive from the UK,  out of stock color to appear so the rest of the colors can be ordered