WiP Wednesday - What's Off My Needles (but should be on)

Do your hibernating WiPs ever feel like a weight on your shoulders?  They do for me.  It seems that every time I start a new project, I feel guilt for not picking up my half-done hibernating projects.  I keep telling myself that I need to finish them before starting anything new...but it never seems to happen.  Funny that for every new project I start I don't have yarn for it either -- even though I have boxes upon boxes of yarn.

Anyways, this week I pulled out some of my unfinished projects that I really need to finish or frog.

I started knitting this basketweave hoodie for my nephew when he was born...1.5 years ago.  I was knitting it in the 6 month size, which would have likely fit this kid at 3 months.  I got busy, figured by the time I finished it, it wouldn't fit him, and tucked it away:

 I have the back, both sleeves, and one front panel done.  I should just finish it already!

This is the "Hat with a Duck Part" - oh dear, in creating that link I realize that I started this 2 years ago!  (Looking back at old posts I apparently have a pair of colorful baby leg warmers on the go too.  I wonder where those could be?) The kid that requested it surely is holding a huge grudge against me by now for never receiving it.  The problem is, the yarn is cotton and there just isn't that much stretch to it.  In addition, the hat was not tall enough and I ran out of yarn.  I ended up buying a skein from someone on Ravelry (which I had forgot until now) and was able to add to the length.  

Not sure what to do with this project now.  Tempted to frog, slightly more tempted to finish it up and just leave it as a hat where you roll the brim up (like in the picture) and find some kid that it will fit.  There is a slight chance that I will still attempt to add a brim, but I doubt it.

Back in 2010 I knit and sewed some gifts for a new little girl in the family.  One of the gifts was a knit elephant.  It was so adorable I thought I'd make my niece a matching one (as the two little girls would be growing up together).  It's the thought that counts, right?

 We'll see if I can find the motivation to pick this one up again.  It's a great little knit, but I still remember how much it hurt my fingers because of how tightly it is knit.

I had the best of intentions when I started this sweet little bolero...BACK IN JULY 2010!  Another project for my niece.  Poor Lulu...ripped off by her aunt again (good thing she has no clue).

 I'm so close to having this done that it's a likely candidate for finishing but it will have to be for some other lucky little toddler.

Last year I started an oversized seed stitch cowl for myself.  I didn't get far.  The good thing is that this is big yarn on big needles, so it wouldn't take long to finish.  It's also the perfect season to pick this up again.

All I can say is thank goodness for my Ravelry project pages or I would not remember what size I was making for many of these patterns.  Unfortunately, those pages cannot tell me at what point in the pattern I stopped knitting.  Hopefully it won't be too hard to figure out.  If I had the foresight to know that I would not be finishing the projects as I had planned, I would have made note of where I stopped.

Writing that reminded me that I actually used to keep track of some of my projects...although I'm not sure my notes will help me in this case.  I found some notes for the bolero above...we'll see if they make any sense when I finally pick up the project again.

Hopefully some of these projects will be featured in future FO Friday posts!

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FO Friday! - Things for Your Legs

I finally have some Finished Objects to share with the FO Fridays group over at Tami's Amis.  Yay!  It's been a while.

It took me a while, but I finally finished the yoga socks I was working on for my mom.  I was able to finish them while we were on vacation in September.  Of course, she loved them.

I also finished a pair of boot cuffs for a friend.  They are knit in Madelinetosh Merino DK and I am having a hard time getting the motivation to pack them up and send them away.  This is my first project I've knit with Madelinetosh...I think I'm a yarn snob in the making now.  Not only is the color absolutely gorgeous, the feel of the yarn is to die for...especially after blocking!

More FOs to come on future Friday posts! 

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WiP - Baby Merry-Jane Booties

Happy to finally be back (again) and sharing a Work in Progress with the group over at Tami's Amis!

I'm working on a pair of Baby Merry-Jane Booties.  They've been in my Ravelry favorites for a while now and I finally have a good reason to knit a pair - my husband's cousin recently had a baby girl!  I started a couple of projects prior to the baby being born (not knowing the gender) and I wanted to knit something really girly once Baby P was born.  

I'm using Jeanette Sloan yarn in baby alpaca/silk 4ply and baby alpaca dk.  The sock part in pink and the bootie in chocolate brown.

I've knit booties similar to this before.  They are not my favorite thing to knit as I feel like I knit for so long and then still only have this teeny tiny piece of work.  But, the final product is so adorable...so this likely won't be the last time I do a project like this.

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Knit City 2012 - Vancouver, BC

I had the opportunity to go to Knit City yesterday and I'm glad that I did.  I'm also glad that I only made one impulse purchase as there were many, many things that I was tempted to buy.

A few highlights...

As one of my newest dreams is to raise alpacas, start spinning, and eventually open my own yarn store, I really enjoyed the opportunity to try my hand at spinning!  Harmonique Spinning Wheels and Looms had some wheels set up and staff there to give you a mini lesson.  I probably could have stayed there all day...but moved onto the needle felting demonstration.

I believe that the needle felting table was sponsored by Baaad Ana's.  At this table, I made a needle felted owl (and some holes in my finger), free of charge.

I was amazed by the felted masks at the Soul Fibre booth.  You must go to her Facebook page and check out her photos.  The masks blew me away.

Tin Can Knits had the Pacific Knits and 9 Months of Knitting books and samples on display.  I have to say that I think owning the Pacific Knits book my be in my future.  I have been admiring the Antler Cardigan as it's been appearing at the top of my Ravelry patterns page for the last couple of weeks.  It's even more wonderful in person...and the wonderfulness was doubled by the fact that the sample was knit in Madelinetosh Vintage.  I also have my eye on the Low Tide Cardigan, Campfire, and Urban Hiker patterns from that book.  The patterns are written in sizes for toddlers to adults, which is an added bonus.

Of course, a booth full of Sweet Georgia Yarns is always a good thing and it took a lot of willpower on my part to not walk out of that booth with a bag full of yarn.

On to what I DID buy.  I went in with three patterns I wanted to buy yarn for.  I was able to find what I needed and only had one impulse buy, as I mentioned before.

I was on the hunt for some neutral-colored yarn to make the Winter Baby Boots in.  I found a colorway that I liked in superwash dk at the Sweet Georgia Yarns booth.  They only had one skein left and it was 50% off because it was a bit loosely spun.  You can see in the picture below how the weight of the yarn changes in a few areas.

The girls working there, as well as one of my expert knitting friends, said that it likely wouldn't show in the project I would be using it for.  I figured for 50% off it was worth the risk!

The next project needing yarn was the Baby Merry-Jane Booties.  I found some gorgeous baby alpaca/silk 4 ply and baby alpaca dk at the Pollika booth.

I am a complete sucker for baby alpaca yarn.  This is what led to my impulse buy...two skeins of chunky 100% baby alpaca in a beautiful pink color.  I knit the Burberry Inspired Cowl for my mother-in-law in similar yarn and decided that it would be a good idea to make one for myself in this new yarn.

Finally, I have been wanting to make Owlet for a while.  It's something I'd like to make in a toddler size and keep for my own 'collection'.  I picked up a skein of undyed Ecological Wool in shade 9004 by Cascade Yarns from the Valley Yarn Ltd. booth.

I also found out that Valley Yarn Ltd. is opening a retail store in December about 10 minutes from my house.  This could be a very good but dangerous thing.

I was very tempted to invest in some handspun yarn as there were quite few booths that had skeins calling my name.  However, I promised myself that I'd stick to getting only what I needed for the three projects I had chosen (considering my stash at home is a little bit out of hand).  I'll be sure to put some handspun on my list of things I'm allowed to buy next year.


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Time...

Once again I have found myself without time to knit.

It's been a crazy semester  and I've been spending most of my time like this:

I have found a bit of time to work on things like this:

And even some of this (because fresh air is good for the mind):

I know, it's crazy to think that I haven't had the time to knit.  Between full-time work and full-time school and the rest of life, some days it's hard to find time for anything!

I'm in the home stretch of the semester and I don't have another class until July so I've been (while procrastinating) thinking of some stash-busting projects as well as finishing up some things that are currently sitting on needles.  That means more blog updates coming soon!

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Knitting Blog Week

Knitting and Blog Week is coming up!  Are you participating?  Hmmm...maybe a better question to ask myself is "am I participating?"  I hope to this year!  You can find more information on www.eskimimimakes.com.

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Sh*t Knitters Say

I had to share this!  I'm definitely guilty of many of these.  How about you?

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