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!)