J Strizzy

One Down, Fifteen To Go

My first Bottled Rainbows block is complete!

And of course immediately after taking this picture I noticed I'd missed sewing down one of the pieces (lower right, the one with the pink bits). 

After finishing the first block, I've learned that arranging and trimming the scraps takes way longer than the actual sewing.  I made up the white block/solid border base first and sewed it down to the batting, then laid out the scraps, then trimmed them with my pinking shears and stuck them in place with a gluestick.  And let them sit that way, block folded in half, for a week while seemingly all of my free time got sucked into sick-kid-ville, which is why there's a crease down the middle.  Sewing everything down took all of 45 minutes.  So I think there's definitely hope for doing two blocks a few of the months, in order to get the full sixteen.

In other news, the kiddos are starting to appreciate mommy's knitting. :)  They grab for the sweaters I knit them as soon as they see them in the clean laundry, and while I was knitting my last pair of Year of Socks socks The Girl asked me to knit her socks like mine.  So I'm working on one more pair of socks, hoping I have enough leftover yarn to get two socks out of it. 

The Year That Was 2011

Time for another year-end roundup.  I've been waiting until the very end of this year to post it, because there are a bunch of projects that were either recently finished and not yet posted/photographed, or that were almost finished so I wanted to wait and see if they'd make it in.  And they did!  I finally finished my Versaille Shell, languishing for far too long, and I whipped up the Grey Loop in only a few days.

This could really use some better blocking.  I did a lazy, quick, wet-it-down-and-lay-it-out-flat blocking -- no measuring, no pins.  It fits ok, but would probably look a lot better after a proper blocking.

I love the Grey Loop.  Love it.  This is Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo, which has a very smooth hand and a nice drape, but I can imagine a really delicious version in a bulkier, loftier yarn too.

Now on to the roundup!  In 2011, I finished:

5.5 pairs of socks

2 toddler sweaters and 1 baby sweater

(I never got a picture of the baby sweater after I finished it)

2 adult sweaters

1 cowl and 1 pair of gloves

 

1 blanket

and 1 little elephant 

And some sewing:

1 baby quilt and 1 flannel rag quilt

 

and 2 matching toddler shirts

Five And A Half Pairs

I finished the final pair of socks in my self-imposed sock club a few days ago, and they're delightful.

They're sooo nice and soft and cozy, and they fit perfectly.  They don't exactly match up if you're looking at color placement, but I think they're close enough.  Plus they're so bright I can't imagine I'll be wearing them anywhere other than at home anyway.

This lattice stitch pattern was a great choice for this yarn - you definitely still see all the colors, but it breaks up the striping and pooling nicely.  From the way the non-latticed parts of the socks turned out, I don't think I would have liked the colorway as much in a plainer stitch.

And now I'm done with socks for a little while.  I knit five and a half pairs this year (I didn't like one of the patterns enough to knit the second sock), and aside from a few weeks here and there, I always had a sock project going.  And a deadline - one that was self-imposed but nonetheless felt a little oppressive.  Like I always had to work on the socks at the expense of other things.

Which is not to say I regret doing it; it was a nice change to be working through a long-term plan instead of wandering aimlessly.  And I knit some patterns I might not have otherwise, or might not have put as much thought into matching up them up with yarns to show off both to their best advantage. 

So here are the five and a half pairs of socks from my 2011 self-imposed sock club, all gathered together (click any of them for full size):

Left to right: Francie, by Rebekah Kerner; Blossom, by Stephanie van der Linden; Swirl Socks, by Maia Discoe; Concentric Socks, by Carissa Browning; Sunday Swing Socks, by Kristel Nyberg; and Leyburn Socks, by MintyFresh.

Call It A Spree

I am a lucky girl.

Family members who know me well gave me these two books for Chanukah. 

Super Natural Every Day is by Heidi Swanson of the 101 Cookbooks blog, and if you're not familiar with Heidi's cooking, you should check out her blog - she has not only wonderful recipes but also mouthwatering photography. 

I've been looking through both of these books while working on a new project:

It's A Grey Loop, and coincidentally mine is grey too, thanks to my stash - Classic Elite Wool Bam Boo.  I feel fairly confident in predicting that this will be my first finished project of 2012, since I'm well over half done already, in just two days.  The endless rounds and smooth soft yarn and nearly mindless stitch pattern are totally mesmerizing and make it hard to put down.

Finished And Almost Finished

I finished some sweaters!  Little ones:

Some button detail (a lousy picture but you get the idea):

The Boy has thus far refused to try his on (not surprising), but The Girl has refused to take hers off since she received it last night.  Good thing that yarn is superwash.

I also finished my final pair of year-of-socks socks (that gets its own post, soon), and there's one more thing I want to finish up before the end of the year. 

Last fall, I didn't quite finish a black cotton sleeveless shell in time for the appropriate season, so I put it away until spring.  And then in the spring, I somehow managed to make great progress but still not quite finish it in time to wear.  I think all I have left to do now is weave in a few of the many ends, sew on buttons, and block it.  So, as ridiculous as it may be to rush to finish up a garment I won't be able to wear for another eight months, I'm going to try to do it in the next three days anyway.  After all, it's no more ridiculous than taking over a year to finish what little was left.

Oops

Thank you to Jen for letting me know one of my links was wrong.  Here's the right link for the salted caramel butter bars.  The mint meringues ended up a success too; for two egg whites, I used 1/4 tsp. of peppermint extract and 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract, and although the unbaked meringue seemed overpoweringly minty, the finished product is just right.

 

Busy Busy

So the Bottled Rainbows project I mentioned I was planning for 2012?  This happened last weekend:

I sorted my scraps by color, and found that I'm more than well stocked with greens and yellows, and kind of light on the purples.  I also made piles for colors I still need to buy solids for, and multicolored fabrics that I'll be able to fussy cut to get the right colors out of.  It looks like I'll need to cut into some yardage for some of the colors though.  Or buy some more fabric (the horror).

Unless anyone wants to send me some scraps (especially purple ones)!  Or trade scraps with me so you can make a Bottled Rainbows quilt too?

In other news, I'm almost done with The Girl's sweater - just a bottom band and sleeve bands to go, then blocking.  Choosing seamless patterns for both of these sweaters was definitely the way to go here, given the deadline.  Sewing up is always one of the things that I put off - I don't know why, because I actually kind of like it, but somehow it just takes me a while to get around to it.

And in between knitting and quilt prep (and spinning - I spent the duration of Black Swan spinning the other day), I've been baking every night this week: Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shortbread on Sunday, two batches of Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites Monday and yesterday, Salted Caramel Butter Bars Tuesday, and Mint Chocolate Chip Meringues (no particular recipe, I'm just going to make standard meringue cookies and add some peppermint extract and mini chips) tonight. The Salted Caramel bars won me third place in the office bake-off yesterday! We'll see whether the others will be as popular at the cookie exchange I'm going to tomorrow...

Gifties

I'm making good progress on my Chanukah knitting.  Ten days until the beginning of Chanukah, and I've got one sweater done and the second well over halfway.  This is the cardigan I'm knitting for The Girl:

It's the Silver Cardigan, knit in Shelridge Farm Soft Touch DK (yes, that's the same yarn as the baby blanket I started while I was pregnant and didn't finish until my kids were a year and a half old).

These sweaters are both size 2, so it's not like if I were knitting an adult size and still had almost half a sweater to go - I can probably finish this up in another few evenings.  If I didn't think it would be seriously messing with the karma of gift knitting to say it, I'd tell you I feel comfortable that this will be finished in time for Chanukah with time to spare.

And I even have buttons already, so I can avoid my usual weeks-long delay between finishing knitting a sweater and actually completing it:

I bought these at Rhinebeck, after it occurred to me to ask the vendor whether they're machine washable instead of just assuming they weren't (they recommended wrapping the buttons in foil before putting them in the wash). 

This afternoon the twins were playing while I was knitting nearby, and they asked me to knit sweaters for them.  I will enjoy it while it lasts!

Bottled Rainbows

I've decided on a project for 2012: Bottled Rainbows, a color-sorted ticker tape quilt.

These are fat quarters of most of the solids I need for it, so now I want to start sorting my scraps by color so they'll be all ready to go in January.  And so I can be on the lookout for scraps in colors I'm short on.

There are sixteen blocks, and only twelve months in the year, so depending on how the project goes for me, I'll either just stop at twelve (which is, coincidentally, how many colors are in the picture above), or try to do the other four blocks spread out over the year when I have time.

In mostly unrelated news, while I was writing this post, I fell down a rabbit hole of gorgeous Bottled Rainbows photos on flickr, and I forgot that I'd left a cup of tea steeping.  For twenty minutes.  Holy wow, this stuff is STRONG. 

Taking On 2012

I have abandoned New Year's resolutions.  I always used to resolve to do the same things (eat more vegetables, exercise more, keep in touch with distant friends, etc.) and neither actually fulfilling them (for a few months anyway) nor ultimately and inevitably failing in them makes me happy.  So last year I decided instead to take on a big project for the year; something that I enjoy and don't make enough time for otherwise, not things I feel like I should do.

Last year it was socks.  I wanted to use some of my sock yarn instead of just buying and storing it, so I matched up patterns and yarn and set myself the goal of knitting a pair of socks every two months.  By having the patterns and yarns all ready to go in envelopes, I could start each pair without dithering over which one to do next or which yarn to use with which pattern, and without being delayed by having to remember to print out the patterns or wind the yarn into balls.  And it worked!  Though I did run into one pattern I didn't like very much, I will still end up with five and a half pairs of socks at the end of the year, plus sizeable dents in both my sock yarn stash and my "to make" list.  And throughout the year, I almost always had a project on the go, something small that I could start and stop at a moment's notice, something I could stick in my purse for whatever spare moments I wanted. 

So now I'm starting to think about what I will take on for 2012.  While I still have sock yarn left, and sock patterns I want to knit, I'm a little tired of always knitting socks.  And I'm not wed to making it a knitting goal - though I do have a significant stash of lace yarn and patterns, and I haven't knit much lace in a while so I miss it.  But I have a feeling I'd get sick of lace by next December too.  I would like to think of some sewing goals that might work; not just a list of sewing projects but some bigger long-term theme or goal.  Spinning?  I enjoyed the focus on spinning I had during the Tour de Fleece - but that wouldn't be sustainable for me over the course of a year.  I want to give some thought to ways I could apply that kind of thing to a whole year.

I'm not set on making it something crafty.  Lately I've been finding it surprisingly satisfying to organize our house and get rid of things we don't need or use (on Thanksgiving I realized we have at least two baking sheets that don't fit in our oven!).  I found this 2011 de-clutter calendar that appeals to me, and it wouldn't be hard to turn it into a 2012 calendar.  And I have been bookmarking lots of interesting ideas for kids online - a long-term plan for doing things with my kids would also be nice; i.e., other than just "do cool things with the kids".  Photography has largely fallen by the wayside the last few years too, and I'd love to take on a year-long photography project of some kind.  The hardest part of this for me is settling on something that's interesting and challenging enough to keep my interest all year, something big enough that it feels like more than just what I'd be doing here and there anyway, but also something realistic enough for me to actually complete.

Any ideas?  What do you want to do in 2012?