little bit of crazy leaking out

January was a month of small knitting projects, for the most part. 

• I started off the month by seaming up a shrug that had been sitting in my knitting basket for six months.   
• 9 hats: 7 for the Dulaan Project, one for Bug and one for Hubby
• 1 skinny Noro scarf
• Tomten for the Dulaan Project
• 11 dishcloths; these are going to be set aside for teacher/bus driver gifts at the end of the school year

I forgot how much fun knitting dishcloths is.  I used several patterns including: Garterlac, the Ball Band Dishcloth from Mason-Dixon, Snowdrops and Lace Leaf from the Monthly Dishcloth KAL and a few 4 Corners Dishcloths from this pattern.  I made a couple of chages to the 4CDC; I didn’t slip the first stitches (it didn’t seem necessary) and I went down to 3 stitches at the corners instead of 5.  The 4CDC is based on a baby blanket designed by Elizabeth Zimmerman and is a lot of fun to knit up.

Although I did make several yarn purchases in January, I did end up knitting up much more than I purchased (by 23 skeins!).  I have to credit a lot of that on the Tomten, garter stitch uses up more yarn than you think.

I have several projects still on the needles:  EZ baby sweater from Knitter’s Almanac . . . umm . . . that can’t be the only thing, but for the life of me I can’t think of what else.

Goals for February:

• learn to spin on the spinning wheel
• knit a blue sweater for Dulaan and Project Spectrum
• knit up a few more dishcloths and scrubbies
• knit at least one pair of socks

The Tomten is finished at last.

 

pattern:  Tomten by Elizabeth Zimmermann
yarn:  Dulaan Avalanche Yarn 
cast on:  December ‘06   cast off:  January 31st
notes:  Bubba isn’t frowning, he’s saying cheese, sort of.  This is one warm/heavy jacket and I forgot how much yarn garter stitch eats up.  I prolly could have used less buttons, but I didn’t want it to gap in the cold Mongolian winters. 

    

    

I came, I saw, I bought stuff.

I wasn’t able to take any classes this year, but I did hit the marketplace.

The socks, they do rock.

medium weight Nodding Violet, heavy weight Highway 30

I wasn’t really looking for a heavyweight sock yarn, but I loved the colorway so much and they didn’t have it in med or light so heavy it is.  I’ll make a pair of nice thick socks to wear with Berks.

Yarn and pattern from Two Swans.  I have been looking at this pattern online for quite a while, so when I saw them there I went ahead and purchased it.   I have a SIL who collects tea pots and I was thinking this would be a nice gift for next x-mas. 

This sock yarn is from So Much Yarn and is in Seahawks colors, will end up being socks for Hubby.  Just to make sure I don’t run out of yarn I will do the heels and toes in a solid.

 A couple of roving variety packs from The Dizzy Ewe.

 

Roving from Crown Mountain Farms.  Yes, it is quite brite, I like to think of it as cheerful.

Gee, guess I’ll have to figure out how that spinning wheel works.