17 Miles

That's how much yarn I knit up this year. 10 sweaters, 10 hats, 7 Christmas ornaments, 6 wraps/shawls, 6 pairs of mitts, 4 dishcloths, 3 scarves, 3 cowls, 2 pairs of felted clogs, 2 afghans, some legwarmers, a felted tote, a Christmas stocking, and a cup cozy.

This month's finished objects: (details on my ravelry projects page)

Christmas ornaments - all for gifts except the red one.

'Incognito' for my son:

Dad's wrap:

Fernando's hat:

Claudia hat:

' Fetching' mitts for my MIL:

Owl cup cozy for DD:

Edited to add - ha ha! I totaled it up and I actually knit/got rid of 274 yards more than I acquired!

STASHFAIL!

I won this adorable Sheepy Bank in a ravelry contest - I was runner up in yardage knit in October.

This month, in addition to the yardage-knit contest, I am participating in Stashdown. The goal of Stashdown is to knit/sell/give away more yarn than you acquire. As of the end of November, I am in the hole about 1800 yards. It would be worse except that you get to count all the yardage for a project when it's finished. The downside is that you can't count any yardage for a project until it's all the way done. Seamed. Ends woven in. Buttons sewn on. I bought an embarassing amount of yarn in November. It was bad enough that I am now really motivated to quit buying yarn!

A few more finished objects:

Christmas stocking for DD's dorm -

A cardigan for DH for Christmas -

and a felted tote -

Details are on my ravelry project pages.

Hopefully by Christmas eve I will have a few more gifts knitted! In January I plan to finish some UFOs, and then in February I want to knit 2 sweaters for me!

Mid-month Update

I have some finished objects I want to share 'cause I love them so much!

First, Slanting Gretel from the Fall 2009 Interweave Knits in Sundara Sport Merino (Leaves of Grass LE colorway) -


This is a cardigan I made for my beautiful daughter - Sedum variation in Knit Picks Swish Bulky (Fedora colorway) -

Felted slippers for the same gorgeous girl (in her college colors) - Fiber Trends Felted Clogs in Cascade 220 -

I've also ordered yarn I'm afraid, but it's gorgeous and I can't wait for it to get here! Four skeins of Sundara Worsted Merino in Nuances of Nature (green) and 2 skeins of Madelinetosh Pashima in Tart (red). I also bought one lonely skein of Kureyon at half price when I was in a LYS last week. Not too bad. (So far.)

Much better, thanks!

I knit a lot this month!

Charity hats:
Felicity/Toasty sets for DD and her BFF:

Plus more mitts for Dad, an earflap hat for DS, a cardigan for DD that needs buttons and finishing touches, a surprise for her that I can't tell you about, clogs for DD that need felting, and I'm almost done with a tote that will also need felting.

Only 3 stash enhancements, 2 of which have yet to arrive. This is Sundara Sport Merino in Leaves of Grass which is being made into a Slanting Gretel already.

The other purchases were 2 skeins of Sundara FSM in Granite Falls which won't arrive for a couple of months, and the last installment of the Sante Fe FSM, all of which is due to arrive Monday.

Total yards knit in October: 3464

Total yards destashed in October: 2920

Total yards bought in October: 2625

For a net loss this month of 3759 yards! (Not double the yards bought, but way better than the past few months!) The only October goal I failed to meet was finishing that tote, but I am really close on that one - got held up trying to find the mesh to reinforce the bottom.

November Goals:
-Finish Coraline
-Finish Slipped Hours
-Finish Slanting Gretel

I still have some knitting I want to get done by Christmas - Stan's cardigan and some mitts for his mother, and maybe a wrap for my mom, but I may not work on them until December. I did a lot of obligatory knitting in October and now I want to work on some fun stuff!

End of September Update

Well, the stash photos insist on being first -
Sundara FSM in Sun the Painter: Sundara FSM in Serengeti:

Yarn Chef Creme Brulee in Fossil:

Finished objects -

Ingenue Slippers:

Cowl:

Blackberries scarf:

Alpaca scarf:

Melody Shawl:

Meandering Vines Wrap:

A couple of these have been languishing for awhile, so it was good to get them done.

I did manage to knit/destash more than I bought this month. Not twice as much, but still a decent amount considering how hard I hit the Knit Picks Lace sale. I will do better in October!

Christmas knitting is on my mind, and there is quite a bit planned. Some sweaters, some vests, some mitts, hats, cowls, wraps, a bit of everything.

October knitting goals:

• Finish Celtic tote
• Start Coraline
• Knit Dad's mitts I promised on Father's Day
• Get 1/3 of my Christmas knitting done
• Plod along on my Slipped Hours and Melody II (or III)
  

Major Fail....

Boy did I ever fall off the yarn diet wagon this month. More about that later. First, the good news!

Featherweight:

Aestlight:

College afghan:
Once again, I have an excuse for my indiscretions this month. Yarn Chef finally had an update. How am I supposed to resist beauty such as this?

This was bought in a moment of weakness - won't it make a lovely laceweight cardigan?

In retrospect, this I could have done without. I succumbed to the temptation of ordering some sight unseen FSM from Sundara at a small discount. After ordering, I had a sinking feeling that I would end up with another skein of Caramel Apple (I already have 3, and no one is looking for any, so it is basically un-tradeable.) Guess what? That's exactly what I got. Major suckage. But a lovely fellow raveler came to my rescue and traded me a skein of Pale Sky over Sugared Violet that she had not had any success in destashing:

Even after casting on a project using double yarn and knitting furiously, I still ended up buying about 1000 yards more than I knit this month. Bad knitter. I will try to do better next month. At least Yarn Chef shouldn't be having any more updates....

Done!

Started sewing August 3 - finished quilting this morning:It has some warts, but I'm happy with it! Emma wouldn't feel like her mom had made it if I didn't have a few bone-headed mistakes in it.

I ended up using the walking foot and doing straight-line quilting in the sashing and border and then used a zigzag stitch to stitch over the seams between the t-shirt pieces. (I was afraid the seams would get all bunched up when it was washed.)

I used a grey batik for the back instead of the planned flannel. Made the quilting easier.

Emma and Smudge are breaking it in -

(she doesn't know it's done yet... I put it over her while she was sleeping!)

College quilt in progress...

The top is done!

It's bits and pieces of DD's t-shirts since preschool.

Summer Update

First, addenda to the stash management rules:

1. Swapped for yarn does not count, even if you are swapping 480 yards of silk/cashmere for 1500 yards of silk/merino.

2. Vacation (souvenier) yarn does not count. Be it emergency yarn to make mitts to enable knitting on a boat, Silk Garden bought for just-in-case crochet project for flying, or 3 skeins of yummy Dream in Color Classy in a long-coveted colorway. (I like to buy my DiC in person, so I have to take advantage, ya know?)

With those new rules in mind, I bought 700 yards in July and knit 1692. :o)

Finished this month:

Whisper -

which I wore all over London on our trip!

And Whale Watch mitts which I made in one day, making up the pattern as I went along!

July Goals:
1. Finish Whisper - Done!
2. Finish Melody - Nope.
3. Start/finish Featherlight - Started but not finished.

August Goals:
1. Finish Aestlight
2. Finish College afghan for DD
3. Finish Featherweight

I'm not listing Melody because I've decided to always have a Melody on the needles for my mindless knitting.

2009 is halfway over...

Wow.

June goals vs. what was actually accomplished:

1. Finish Amelia. DONE!!!
2. Finish Apres Surf. DONE!!!
3. Finish Blackberries. I think I did about 10 rows...
4. Finish Seafoam raglan. DONE!!!
5. Finish college afghan. Didn't touch it...
6. Cast on for Whisper cardigan. Finish it. About halfway finished.
7. Start Featherweight cardigan. Nope. But I have wound 1.1 of the 3 skeins needed and bought the pattern.

The good news? As of last night, I had knit 1900 yards this month and only bought 900.

Finished objects -

Amelia (for DD), Apres Surf and Simple Seafoam (both for me)

Stash enhancement-

Lagoon Jade Sapphire Silk/Cashmere 2-ply and Endearing Sundara FSM:

July Goals: (We will be traveling most of the month, so let's keep those projects portable!)

1. Finish Whisper

2. Finish Melody

3. Start/finish Featherlight

I may come up with some souvenier yarn that needs to be knit right away, so I won't add anything else right now. I'm really looking forward to pulling stash yarn slips out of a jar and knitting whatever I get, but so far, there's been too much must-knit-right-now stuff in the queue. Maybe once I finish the College Afghan and Blackberries. But I'm also eager to get to some of the stuff in my ravelry queue. I've obviously got to knit faster.