A Year of Projects

There are a bunch of projects I'd love to complete in 2013. I don't know if I'm a stable enough knitter to actually set goals for myself, so inspired by Tami, this is more of a 'hope list' :)

My 2013 List of Hopes:

1. Limit my to-be-read pile. I'm currently at 155 books on my to-be-read shelves. And that's physical books only, and doesn't even begin to touch on all the unread ebooks on my Kindle. I'd love to get down to 100 unread dead-tree books, but I know already now that that's optimistic, considering that I'm still purchasing new books at an alarming rate ;)
2. Complete the Lost In Music cover-up for Mixi's wedding Mixi has asked me to knit her a cover-up to wear with her wedding dress. It's a great honour, so obviously I HAVE to finish it.
3. Complete the fingerless gloves for Nina. - preferably by Rebekka's birthday (next time I see Nina), so she'll actually get them while it's still winter. Rebekka's birthday celebration is on January 19th, so it's definitely do-able.
4. Make a cross-stitch for Simon' baptism. I've made one for all my other nieblings, so it wouldn't do to drop the ball on this one!
5. Make a wedding present for Mixi and Morten. Since Mixi reads this journal, I obviously can't go into greater detail on this one ;)
6. Learn how to crotchet. I recently bought Crotcheted Softies by Stacey Trock, and it has some of the most adorable knitted animals I've ever seen!!! I especially love the snail :) It does require that I learn how to crocet though...
7. Participate in and complete NaSweaKniMo. ... or is it NaKniSweaMo? I forget. Anyway, rather than writing 50.000 words in November for NaNoWriMo, you knit 50.000 stitches on a sweater. Haven't quite figured out which one yet, but I have until November to decide. It should also help me keep my resolution NOT to attempt to participate in NaNoWriMo again ;) Anybody want to join me?
8. Complete the Haruni. I started knitting a shawl I really wanted to wear for Mixi's wedding. However, life intervened and I didn't get as far before moving as I had hoped. Now I have a whole bunch of other - more important - projects to finish before the wedding, so this has been put on the back burner. I'd still like to finish it, but I don't realistically think I will. That's okay :)
9. Make a Wingspan shawl for Nina's birthday. Since she asked specifically for this I CAN reveal this on here, even though she'll read it ;) I love knitting stuff for Nina - she's always so enthusiastic about it. Besides, the Wingspan is a quick and fun knit, so I'm happy to make it again.
10. Paint and move into my hobby room. It'll be such a delight to have everything I need for my projects stored in one easily accessible location! Besides, it's the last room that needs decorating on the top floor - then we can start thinking about the basement.
11. Get photos/paintings up on the walls. It's amazing how big a difference it makes. And right now the walls look rather bare. We still need to get the pictures/paintings from the old flat though, so can't get started on that just yet.
12. Finish unpacking everything. A rather more broad goal than the previous ones, and also somewhat more time-consuming as we actually haven't gotten all the boxes moved from the old flat yet, but a necessary one, as I've made a bet with some of my relatives that we'll have finished unpacking by Christmas 2013. That's it, then. ;)

... I tend to go overboard when making lists, so even though I could continue, I'll leave this at an even 12... one per month I guess ;)

WIP Wednesday: Lost in Music

Trying to get back into the habit of knitting. It's amazing how busy life gets in December. But I have a bunch of things I want to finish by March, so I'd better get cracking!

First, the fingerless mitts I'm making for Nina. These really ought to have been done by now, but I got sidetracked. Besides, the yarn is a hassle and a half to work with, so it's taking longer than expected. I've gotten one done now and am about a third of the way through the other. My goal is to finish this by January 19th when I see her next, and as long as I don't start procrastinating again that should be very easily achievable.

Next there's the "Lost in Music" cover-up Mixi asked me to make for her wedding. I'm honoured she'd want to wear something I've knitted for her wedding day, so of COURSE I have to finish this with plenty of time to spare. The pattern is a hassle and a half as it's done in purl only and me and purling not be friends, but fortunately the yarn more than makes up for it. I'm knitting this up in Grignasco Champagne which is a marino-silk blend and SO amazingly soft and wonderful to knit with!

FO 2012

I didn't mean to go AWOL for almost an entire month, but I've been so busy with work and moving, that I actually haven't knitted much at all. I'm slowly getting back on track though :)

I know there are still a few days left of 2012, but I'm curious - what were your favourite knits of 2012?

Without a doubt, my favourite was $5 in Paris
I love everything about it :) The colours, the yarn, the pattern, and I ADORE the way it looks on me :D Definitely the best thing I've knitted - not just all year, but EVER.

A close second is the Multnomah"
Mostly because of the yarn. Candy Skein yummy fingering is an absolute delight to knit with :D

I'd love to see yours :) Leave me a comment with your links.

FO Friday - Baby Blanket

I've been busy-busy-busy knitting this baby blanket lately. My sister's due date was this past Saturday, and I was no where near finished then. However, the due date came and went, and still no new nephew. But at least the blanket's done now.

Pattern: Ten Stitch Blanket.

Unfortunately it's not nearly as large as this photo makes it seem. Here it is with my hand for comparison (and at an angel... hard to take photos with the iPad with only one hand!):

Hopefully she can still use it, because I'm out of yarn, so there's no chance of making it any larger.

FO Friday - Dragon Costume

This is really my sisters FO rather than mine, but I promised to show you photos once my nephew's dragon costume was done, so here you go :-) My darling dangerous dragon (who has an incredibly clever mother!!!)


I've gotten the hat back though, because my nephew asked if I could knit it longer so he could use it for winter, and not just as part of a costume. This is the first time I've tried to unravel something from the middle, and knitting on without a definite pattern, so I'm a bit hesitant to start, but I'll have to get my act together soon so I can finish while it's still winter! I was thinking of removing the bottom ribbing, doing a few more rows of increases in straight stockingette and then adding ribbing again for proper flexibility around the ears. Those of you who've knitted this kind of thing before, how does that sound?

WIP Wednesday - 10 Stitch Blanket

I haven't had time for much knitting lately, but Sunday night I felt like something really easy and fast. I had a lot of scraps left over from Henni's Beekeeper's Rug, and figured they would do quite nicely for something to add a bit of colour to my new library.

My first attempt was the hue squares, but unfortunately that turned out much too busy, so I unravelled it again. Instead I decided to go for a small version of the 10 stitch blanket, which I think is coming along rather nicely :D

I still have yellow, orange, pink and beige to go... we'll see how it ends up.

WIP Wednesday - Colour Codes

Haven't gotten too much knitting done this past week - I've been too busy with our new house ;) But I did manage to get about an octave done on the piano scarf. It's turning out quite nicely I think :)
But like I said, we've been busy in the house :) Lars has filled in all the holes left behind, I've been washing out all the cupboards and shelves, and tomorrow I'll be going through the place to cover edges with tape so we're now ready to start painting this weekend! We're renting a car Friday to go buy paint, so the 'only' thing remaining is to actually pick out the colours! ;)

Fortunately I've discovered that our local paint chain has a terrific colour-picker app which I've had a lot of fun playing around with. Its best features:

• A complete colour card of their selection of colours.
  
• Take a photo of a colour and have the app determine the colour code.
  
• Take a photo of a room and use the app to colour the walls from the colour card.

The last one especially has been very handy, and I've had a lot of fun playing around with the various colours. I'm not very brave when it comes to wall colours though, so we'll generally be sticking to the pastals.

We've only been considering the first floor for now. The basement will come later, but likely we'll have quite a bit of a repeat in colours. I tend to like a larger varity of colours than Lars does, but at the same time I worry about it being too much... I just have to keep reminding myself that paint isn't permanent ;)

But here's what we've come up with so far.
The hallway will just be white. As all the rooms ajoining the hallway will be different colours, we thought that would be a nice way to seque from one to another.
The bathroom will be white as well. Mostly because it's white already, and nice enough that we don't have to paint it ;) Laziness FTW!
The 3 living rooms (lounge, dining room, library) will be a sandy yellowy-brown. That's the colour our current living room is, and we both really like it. It's warmer than a plain white, while still neutral enough to go with pretty much everything.
The kitchen will be more of a yellow colour. Not bright yellow, but darker than the living rooms. Again, it's the same colour as we have currently, and we like the way it looks together with white cupboards and wooden counters.
We originally considered having the bedroom the same yellowy-brown as well, but I managed to convince Lars to try something else here instead :) We considered various blues and greens, but ended up agreeing that this was by far the nicest :)
My hobby room was the hardest room to decide the colour for, as we agreed that Lars picked the colour for his hobby room and I picked for mine, so I only had to make up my own mind, and apparently that's more difficult than making up both his and mine ;) I'd like it to be a bit more vivid than the other rooms, while still not too overwhelming. I'm still not entirely sure. I think I'd like a purple colour, but haven't yet decided how dark. I think I've narrowed it down to these three though :)