2011 in knits

Another year is about to end and it's time for my annual review of the year.

In 2011, I finished 15 projects, most of them in the first couple of months (read: before baby!). Much to my surprise, I only made three pairs of socks! I plan on making more in 2012, as many of my socks currently have holes in them. I need new ones!

My favourite FO of the year include:


Julien's stocking


The Wayna Picchu Hat


My Eunice socks


My Icarus shawl

Of course, there's no nicer FO than this little boy right here:



I can't believe he's almost 10 months old! He's a beautiful and happy little boy and he makes my life better in every way imaginable. I looooooove him!

Bookpost

So I mentionned in my last post that I had some new books to talk about, well here they are.

On top of the great Knit Picks yarn that my mom got me for my birthday, she also got me Cookie A's Knit.Sock.Love book! I've been coveting it for a while so I couldn't be happier. I'm trying not to buy books anymore because I have tons of them and I've made it my personal mission to knit from them as much as possible. I'm currently trying to knit my way through Sock Innovation (though both of my current socks aren't from that book, but I'll get back to it as soon as they're done).

Anyways, I think I want to knit every sock in Knit.Sock.Love except for the German Stockings because I down do knee socks.

A friend of mine also gave me two great books. One is Classic Elite Quick Knits. It has lots of socks and hats and mittens (and other things), including some patterns by Jared Flood.

The other book is Socktopus, by Alice Yu. It has 17 patterns, including some that will work well with variegated yarn. I seriously like them all.

So yeah, I could knit only from those three books for the next decade and be happy. :)

Sorry about the lack of pics in this post, but I promise some great yarn porn in the next!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I must be the worst blogger ever! I completely skipped November and haven't posted a thing since mid-October! In my defense, Autumn has been crazy here. My son's been sick on and off with colds and various viruses for the past few months and he completely stopped sleeping through the night. His sleeping habits have gotten worse and worse and let's just say this mommy is exhausted. Things have been rough. But I can't be mad at this face, can I?



In other news, I finished something. I wanted to make a very special stocking for Julien's first Christmas.



Pattern: A New Baby's Christmas Stocking, by Dorene Delaney Giordano
Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark in Drift and Bayberry
Needles: US 2½ - 3.0 mm circulars (magic loop)
Notes: I love the FO but I really hate knitting toe-ups. I have to get used to it though as I plan to knit two more (one for Chris and one for me) in the future (not for this Christmas though).

In other news, I have to go on a yarn diet. My stash doesn't make me happy anymore. I have enough yarn to last me for years and years and everytime I buy more I feel I should really knit what I have first. I have lots of beautiful yarn and I hate that I'm not using it because I keep buying more. I got two birthday skeins coming in the mail but I'm hoping to stop buying at least until next Fall. We'll see.

That being said, even if I'm not buying, I can't help it if people buy me things. My mom got me a nice little Knit Picks package for my birthday.



She got me a skein of Stroll Handpainted in Watermelon:



Two skeins of Felici in Firefighter:



And four skeins of City Tweed DK in Rhubarb:



I had never tried City Tweed and I couldn't believe how soft it is. I always expect tweedy yarns to be a bit rough for some reason, but this is like butter. I really like it.

I also got two circular needles (sizes 0 and 1) and a book, but I'll talk about it more in a future post. Gotta go now!