So much for the resolution to blog

After getting back to London, I had a couple of papers to hand in for my MA. Shortly thereafter, my charming spouse decided to share his bronchitis, so I've been rather ill for the last few days. Nothing perilous, nothing needing antibiotics (unlike him!), but I've not really been up to much needlework. Still, I did manage to finish up the first project of the year.

Presenting my Travelling Blues Shawl:



Pattern is Travelling Woman, needles were 4.5mm, and those of you who have a good memory will recognize the yarn as some of my handspun! And a detail shot:



I love it. It's warm and snuggly and the colours make me happy. And I've nearly finished my first pair of socks for the year...

Old Year, New Year!

So, I am now back from a two-week vacation that included almost no computer time, and I am ready to get cracking on a new year of knitting and blogging! Quick wrap of 2010 in some numbers:

Projects completed - 29, which included

• 5 scarves,
• 5 pairs of socks,
• 6 shawls,
• 1 pair of garters,
• 1 pillow,
• 1 pair of mitts,
• 1 afghan,
• 5 snowflakes,
• 1 Thing,
• 3 lots of handspun.

My lowest count since the beginning of the blog, but then I have been working on my Master's degree throughout 2010. I'm not too worried! I'd intended to spend the year only making things for me, and I ended up with 4 things for other people. One was accidental - a pair of felted slippers that make me come up in hives that I've given to my spouse. One was for a wedding, and once-in-a-lifetime events were exempted from the ban. Mum's shawl* was my oldest WIP, so I wanted to keep working on that. The scarf I ended up giving to my spouse was a weaving experiment that suited him better than me, so there wasn't much point in claiming it.

I learned how to weave this year, and I took classes in spinning and knitting for the first time. I learned how to starch thread crochet and was again astonished at the magic of blocking. I finished up many of my oldest projects, and discovered that I don't like having fewer than two projects on the go at once! I neglected my wheel, but did a whole lot of fiber prep. I knit up more than I acquired, which to my mind compensated for the rather large volume of spinning fiber that's now living on my wardrobe.

As of this moment, I have five WIPs. They are:

• Yule Shawl (Posh cobweb-weight, and my oldest WIP),
• Posh Pink Scarf (weaving project),
• Travelling Blues Shawl (from my handspun),
• Peeps Massacre Monkeys (yes, another pair for me!),
• Sock Scraps Bedspread.

I'm happy with this number. The socks are living in my handbag, and I managed to finish the first while on vacation. The two shawls are good for working on when I'm in need of some stimulation, and the scarf and granny squares are perfect for tv-watching and talking to people. I'm not feeling the need to cast on for anything new, either!

My goals for the year are pretty basic. I'm aiming to finish 3 project per month - one spinning, one knitting, and one "other". I'm also planning to knit sweaters this year, which is going to mean getting over my swatching laziness! I want sweaters that fit me, darn it. I do have one long-term goal of crazy-making (besides a sock-yarn bedspread), which is to knit 6 cobweb-weight lace shawls for myself. I have all the yarn I need - all Posh of course! - and I've picked my patterns. One is the Yule Shawl that I'm currently working on. I'll do a big post about them a bit later on, but for now - summary done, goals posted, let's move on into 2011!

*Why yes, I do have a photo of the shawl. Here it is!

So apparently I have a blog!

And once upon a time I used to write things on it! My project to clear the decks of WIPs is going swimmingly and is a large part of why I haven't been blogging - I've been using the time to knit instead. Between the knitting and a wee bit of frogging, I am down to only 2 WIPs!

Most recently finished - a granny ripple afghan, sized for cuddling on a two-seater couch. Just in time, because it's been snowing all day and the Mr. and I have a long break from next Friday until the New Year! I'm quite pleased with it. It's exactly the right size, and it completely used up a ton of yarn.



Also recently finished - a sooper sekrit lace shawl for my mother, who picked the yarn and pattern, but has only seen the project at the "crumpled blob of spaghetti" phase of knitting. Hence no photos right now, since I'm going to visit her in a couple of weeks and will do the big reveal then.

My two remaining projects are my Posh Pink Scarf, which gained another 6 inches this morning, and my Cobweb Mandala Shawl, which I will be concentrating on once the scarf is done and out of the way. It's possible that I may not finish the shawl by the end of December, although my time off makes me hopeful, so I'm going to focus on finishing the project I know is doable first.

Scratch that idea.

The dress is off. I have somehow managed to sprain my back badly enough to warrant the good stuff from the doctor, and there is no way I am going to be able to crawl around on the floor pinning and measuring. Oh well. I'll have a new dress someday, and it's far more important that I let my back recover.

In other news, I have decided to frog my laceweight cardigan. I'd rather use the yarn for something else, and nothing in my wardrobe goes with that particular shade of green anyway. That leaves me at 5 WIPs remaining!

And now for something completely different:

... a sewing project! Next month I am attending a ball, SCA-style. I only have one set of court garb, and it needs a complete refit before I can wear it, which means that I am also garb-making this month. I shall be starting by cutting up my wedding dress!

Well, not completely. See, there's this book called The Tudor Tailor, containing many patterns for making (shockingly) clothing from the Tudor period. One of the gowns is a late Henrician-period French gown, with a fancy petticoat and lots of trim. I've admired it many times, but haven't attempted it because boning and lacing and complicated fittings are not doable on oneself. I realized, however, that the shape of the dress was very familiar, and I eventually twigged that it was the same shape as my wedding dress*. My dress has funky swoopy ren-faire sleeves instead of proper fitted ones, but apart from that, I think they might even be from the same template.

So, I'm going to take the sleeves off my dress, cut out proper ones, reattach the sleeves and sew on a load of trim. I'm also going to acquire some fancy brocade to do a stomacher and petticoat. And I need to make a hat, which will require pearls and more thread. I can totally do this by the first weekend of December. Sure I can. Maybe.

I'd better get sewing.

*I have two wedding dresses from two ceremonies, since we've got family in multiple countries and had a wedding in each. This dress is deep blue velvet and was bought with the intention of eventually using it for reenactment purposes.

State of the WIPs, Bonfire Night edition

So, now that I'm caught up posting about my finished projects, let's talk about the ones I'm still working on! I'm feeling pretty good about everything right now.

• Blue Posh lace shawl - priority 1. This is now my oldest WIP. I've finished the first chart, and since this is a bottom-up number that's about 25% of the knitting done. It's getting a lot quicker too, since every successive row is shorter.
• Ripple blanket - priority 2. I've packed all the yarn for this one and moved it to my office for daytime working. It'll get done much faster if I work on it every day, plus I can't overdo the crochet if it's not in my flat.
• Red Posh cobweb shawl - waiting. This will be my next at-home project once the blue shawl is finished. It's probably got the most remaining work on it, but I love it so much that it's ok.
• Laceweight cardie - hibernating. I'll get this out once the above 3 are finished.
• Noro mittens - pretty low on my to-do list, since I have a pair of perfectly good Posh mittens already. Still, they are easy enough, so once the blanket is done they'll get moved into my handbag for lunch hour knitting.
• Pink woven scarf - I'm working on this when I'm too brain-dead to pick up anything else. It's ideal for tv watching!

I can't believe I'm down to only 6 yarn-based WIPs. That's the lowest total I've had in years! I have some other projects either on the go or in the planning phase, so more to follow...

FOs

26/10 - A productive Saturday gave me the chance to finish off the pillow. I'm delighted with it! It's made of zillions of scraps, but I managed to sort them into a pair of colour-themed sides - orange:



and blue-green:


Some earlier works are the garters I'm donated to the Yule gift exchange:


and the dark woven scarf I made of two coordinating skeins of sock yarn:

Feeling pretty pleased with my progress right now!

05/11 update - Didn't get around to finishing the above post, and since then I've finished two more projects. :D

Coppery scarf:



Carnevale shawl, so named because the yarn reminds me of the festival: