Overall, I was really happy with this project – it’s by far my most challenging knit yet. I messed up the charts and had to frog so many times, but it was worth it in the end. I also ran out of yarn during the bind off, even after I frogged and re-knit the entire edging to conserve yarn. I eliminated the double YOs in conservation and ended up leaving those even after I finally purchased some yarn from another Raveler, as it is no longer available for purchase. Another major change that I made was using SSSKs instead of K3togs for all of the star stitches on the repeats before the center – a lot of other knitters have made this change, and it results in symmetric stars around the center.

Finally, here are some pictures before and after blocking (Ravelry Project Link)!

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Here’s the Ravelry link to all my Christmas 2010 tagged projects: http://rav.to/f2njlH

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The first shawl I knit was Traveling Woman – I’m just starting to wear it more, and I purchased a simple but beautiful shawl pin from RubyVegas Designs on Etsy to complete the look.  I made it with the absolutely delicious Dream in Color Smooshy in Lipstick Lava.  This is also one of the first projects that I properly blocked, and it made all the difference in the world!  (Ravelry Link)

In December, I was able to get my hands on a highly sought-after skein of Wollmeise from The Loopy Ewe.  I’ve had my eye on the Citron pattern for a while, and I’ve seen so many beautiful Wollmeise Citrons that I knew it was the right pattern for the yarn.  The rich green color, Petersilie (parsley in German) was perfect for a March St. Patrick’s Day project.  I started it at the beginning of the month as part of a KAL with one of my favorite Ravelry groups, and I finished it after just a week!  I lightly blocked it – just enough to even out the stitches and flatten the ruffle some without completely losing the rippled texture.  I finally got some great pictures, with Jake’s help, including one modeled after the designer’s shot. (Ravelry Link)

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The first blanket I made was for some friends having their second baby, and they weren’t planning to find out the sex. I didn’t want it to be too boring, so I chose a few different gender neutral colors and fell in love with this pattern. I made a few modifications, which you can read about on Ravelry. This is one of my all time favorites, and I think I’ll end up making one of these for baby McCoy, if and when that day comes.

Ravelry Link: Honeycomb Stroller Blanket
Pictures:

The next blanket I made was for some friends who would appreciate something really unique. OpArt is one of the most beautiful, intriguing blanket patterns that I have seen, so I thought it would be a great fit. I chose red because I wanted to start knitting before the couple had found out the sex of the baby, and it really did the pattern justice!

Ravelry link: OpArt
Pictures:

Finally, a friend was having a baby girl but decorating in bright primary colors. For some reason this beautiful orange sherbet colored yarn called out to me, so I chose it and picked out one of my favorite fun patterns!

Ravelry link: Curlicue Blanket
Pictures:

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To get everybody involved, the plan was to have everyone work on a 5″ garter square. I did the cast-on and bind-off and taught each girl how to do the knit stitch. I blocked all of the squares to avoid gauge issues, and then seamed them using single crochet.

In all, I think we had about 10 ladies participating. We got together 4 times and also worked independently. To get to the 30″x40″ size recommended, we finished 48 squares! Here are pictures of some of the wonderful ladies who worked on it:

I worked on the seaming over time as we got the squares completed. Here are pictures of the progress:

Then finally, it was finished! I’m REALLY happy about how well it came out, and I hope the mom who receives the blanket enjoys it and knows how much love was put into the the project.

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The first couple chose not to find out the sex of the baby, so I had to keep it fairly neutral.  They were planning to use a lot of white in the decorations though, so I chose a white yarn.  It took a lot of searching, but I finally found a pattern that I thought would be perfect – interesting enough for me to knit, gender-neutral, and beautiful.  The pattern was created by another member of Ravelry, and she was kind enough to share it with me.

Ravelry Link: Cables and Lace/Ladders Baby Blanket
Pictures:

The next blanket was for a girl, and I wanted something simple but pretty and girly.  The Ondas pattern fit this exactly.  It is knit in the round, and it was a really fun, quick knit!

Ravelry Link: Ondas
Pictures, including a couple of progress:

The third pregnant friend was also having a girl, and had picked out beautiful pastel pink and green for the nursery.  One of the patterns I had been eying for a while was a little bit more decorative, and it was just what I was looking for.  This was another pretty quick knit, and I can’t wait to make one of my own some day.

Ravelry Link: Baby Chalice Blanket
Pictures:

For two of these, I also made “lovies”, with the cutest little pattern ever!

Ravelry Links: Bunny Blanket Buddy and Another Bunny Blanket Buddy
Pictures:

Finally, a friend asked me to make a blanket for Hope Clinic For Women’s charity auction.  I didn’t have a lot of time, so I chose a simple but absolutely beautiful pattern – another one that I’d love to make for myself someday.

Ravelry Link: Serenity
Pictures:

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I picked out a beautiful teal color for mine, and started it first since I had to wait on my mom’s yarn.  It only took about a week to knit, and it was really a lot of fun.  Shortly after I finished, I got a great haircut and temporary curls, which went great with the scarf.  The kitties also helped me with some modeling.

My mom’s was in a really nice red color (Ravelry Red!), and I made it a little bit longer than mine.  It took me a little bit longer since I’ve been busy with class, but still only a couple of weeks.  She hasn’t seen it in person yet, but Buster was happy to model it for her.

I loved this pattern and yarn, and I will definitely use them both again!  And now – back to work…

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Second random thought – I’ve been trying to knit several projects lately.  I’ve always bought my knitting needles at Michael’s, because it’s easy, but I needed 16″ size 6 circulars, and they didn’t have those.  I stopped by Haus of Yarn, our local yarn store, and picked up some Addi Turbos, and they are amazing.  I don’t think I will ever buy bamboo needles again!  I’m currently working on a neckwarmer for Jake (Darkside Cowl, Ravelry Project Link).  I finished My So Called Scarf (Ravelry Project Link) for my sister (picture below), which I really love, even though it’s a bit short – next time I will suck it up and buy two skeins.  On my to-do list: Cascade Christmas Stockings, some gifts for my nieces Emma and Ashley, a scarf for my mom, and a scarf for me.  So many projects, so little time!

A much needed PhD update – I’ve got a project narrowed down, so I’m currently in the process of selecting my committee and getting ready for my qualifying exam and proposal.  I feel like this took forever, but as it turns out, I’m still on track to finish by the four year mark (crossing my fingers).  I’m really excited to get started on the project!

In just a few short weeks, Jake and I are going on our anniversary cruise!  Can you believe it’s been a whole year already?  I’m SO excited about the cruise – we’re sailing out of Miami on Royal Caribbean’s Majesty of the Seas to the Bahamas for 4 nights.  Naturally, I will be back with a million pictures.

And finally, I am cooking my very first Thanksgiving turkey tomorrow!  Jake and I are hosting several friends/family who will be staying in the Nashville area for Thanksgiving.  Hopefully everything will turn out well and I won’t poison anybody.  I’ll try to post the results of that as well.

Ok, enough random updates – back to cleaning!

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The blanket (Honeycomb Lacy Baby Blanket) wasn’t too difficult, especially once I actually understood the stitches in the pattern and stopped trying to count or go from memory.  The booties (Seed Stitch Baby Booties) were fun and quick, but I still need some practice knitting in the round, and I need to learn to pay more attention to the pattern (K2 != K2tog, and one ankle is skinnier than the other ankle).  Finally, the hat (Cable and Seed Stitch Baby Hat) was a bit of a challenge, mostly because I was still practicing my knitting in the round techniques (with seed stitch – bad idea), and making my first cables (also a bad idea to put these on the ends of the needles).  And back to the paying attention/counting, I managed to completely miss one of the cables!  Either way, I had a lot of fun making these, and hopefully Dominic will get a little bit of use out of them.

For anybody actually on Ravelry, here are the project links: Blanket, Booties, Hat.

And of course, here are the pictures, complete with Dominic modeling everything!

PS – If anybody wants to buy me some more knitting needles or gift certificates to the yarn store for Christmas, I would be eternally grateful.  I have lots of projects that I want to make, but my needle stash is very limited!

PPS – I know that I am a terrible blogger and I need to update this way more often!

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