Happy 2009!

It's going to be a good year, I can feel it!

I like to set goals at the beginning of the year just to have guidance. Sometimes when things around me get complicated I can go back and take a look at my intentions and decide if it's still the way I want to go or not. This year, I started with three goals in mind. The only one that went unheeded was #2 the Modular Knitting.

My 2008 Goals were:

1. Learn how to make a sweater without a pattern using my own measurements and swatches. My LYS did in fact offer a class and I made a beautiful sweater made out of Alpaca.
2. Learn Modular Knitting. Although I didn't get to try this last year, I'm just going to carry over this goal to 2009 and try again because it is something that looks very cool and will be a new technique that I haven't tried before.
   
3. Seek out other spinners in hopes of finding somebody that I can watch and learn from. This was a successful goal due to a group of spinners from the OC that were willing to trek down to Common Threads the third Friday of the month to spin with the few of us that are local. Thank you Lori and group for giving me somebody to spin with once a month!
   

Those were my three main goals I had set for myself, although not all of my knitting accomplishments.

My knitting accomplishments for the year 2008 include:

• 24 completed knitting projects
• 3 sweaters
• 8 pairs of Adult socks
• 3 pairs of kids socks
• 1 shawl
• 6 Hats
• 2 Bags/purses
• 1 Toy
  
• Made 5 skeins of handspun
  
• Assembled 4 blankets for charity
  
• Completed and submitted 2 pairs of socks for the Think Outside the Sox contest. This was part of the reason I didn't achieve all three of my goals. It was by far the most challenging project I've ever undertaken. Knitting is one level, but when you try to write out something and explain it, it takes on a different level. To be able to communicate what you want to say in writing is an art, and not one that comes easily to me. I'll be at Stitches West in Santa Clara when they announce the winners and can already feel the anticipation. It's going to be crazy!

The sock contest was also the reason I didn't have time to complete all of my kits from the 2008 Rockin Sock Club. I was thinking that having 3 of the 6 kits leftover was good enough reason to wait for the 2010 sock club membership, but you can see from this post what happened with that. At the end of January I'll get the first shipment. Woohoo! The three I didn't get to knit last year will just hold me over between shipments.

My goal for 2009 is to learn about sweater construction. I'll probably start by knitting a sweater from Wendy Bernard's book Custom Knits. It has detailed instructions about working from the top down and I have some ideas on how I would like things to look. Then I'll just see what other patterns are out there that have the look that I like and go from there.

Happy 2009! It's already a great year!

Blue Ribbon

I first entered the San Diego Fair in 1999. I crocheted this Baby Pinwheel Afghan just because I thought it was cute, with no intentions of entering it in anything, but my husband encouraged me to so I could see what it was like. He and I would walk through the hall with all of the handmade displays every year and I loved seeing what people were making. I was very excited about having it displayed with all of the other beautiful things I had seen there. It didn't win a ribbon but it gave me a chance to see what it was like to enter. I checked out the ones who were awarded ribbons and made some mental notes on what won, so I could maybe get a ribbon next time.
The pattern for this is in a Leaflet from Leisure Arts #2756 called Make One For Baby. I've made a couple of patterns from it and they were all wonderful patterns. It uses a Crochet hook size F (3.75 mm) and each motif is 6". The afghan consists of 52 pinwheel motifs of 12 rounds each. After assembling the motifs, you work two rounds of edging.

In 2000, I entered this Cascading Curls baby afghan. I showed up to the fair all excited to see if I had won something. They don't notify you if you've won, you find out when you go see the displays. If there is a ribbon on your project, then you've won! So it's kind of suspenseful until your able to go see. I was very excited to see I had gotten a ribbon! Second Place, and I was happy to have been part of the top three.

The pattern for this is in Leisure Arts Leaflet #2904 called Curly Cuties. I loved making these little twirly ends.
Then, in 2001, I entered the Granny Bear Afghan. And finally, I had a blue ribbon. A first place ribbon! Woohoo!

This pattern is in Annie's Favorite Baby Projects. It consists of 61 Bear motifs that are crocheted together. I had a lot of trouble with this one, because it was hard for me to line of the motifs straight and then the bows had to be made out of a different yarn so they didn't overpower the bear.
I haven't entered anything since I had my children. Partly because I know it takes something special to be awarded a ribbon and I just haven't put the time into it. I know if something I make is worthy of being entered or not and the timing just hasn't been right. I am very proud of my entries in the fair and hopefully will be able to enter again this year. I've heard there is going to be a sheep to shawl contest happening this year and I definitely want to check that out. I've always wanted to see one. It would be really fun to see the process live and in person. The only thing I've seen of them are from Cat's video podcasts Letsknit2gether. I hope it works out that day for me to be there!

Happy New Year!

This was a pretty good year. It's going down in the books as one of the first times in my life I've felt peaceful within myself. I'm happier than I've ever been and in a good place in my heart. I've accomplished a lot because I have a wonderful family, wonderful friends and surround myself with their love and support. I recognize that having positive thoughts and intentions, patience, kindness and strength will help me be the best that I can, in everything that I do.

My knitting accomplishments for the year 2007 include:

• 33 completed knitting projects
• 17 pairs of Adult socks
• 2 pairs of kids/baby socks
• 3 sweaters
  
• 1 Baby sweater
• 4 Bags/purses
• 2 wire projects
• 1 scarf
• 1 shawl
• 1 pair of gloves
• 1 Hat
• Learned how to knit and manipulate wire to make jewelry and stitch markers
• Knitted 9 Squares for a charity blanket
• Completed my 2007 goal "The Lucy Project". I was able to try many different socks techniques and learned what I like to do the best.
  
• Learned how to hand dye yarn using Kool-aid and Acid dyes. I also learned how to make my own self-striping yarn using a warping board I made.
  
• Learned how to spin using a hand spindle and a spinning wheel
• Learned how to process raw fleece
• This was fleece just shorn from the sheep. My Best B taught me how to wash it, card it (gave me fleece and carders for my birthday), and showed me how to roll it for spinning.
• Found a knitting group. I feel like I searched for so long for other knitters that live by me. I knew they had to be out there, but I had such a hard time figuring out where they were meeting. I was so happy to have found them and I feel privileged to have met such a wonderful group of women.
  

My goals for 2008 include:

1. Learn how to make a sweater without a pattern using my own measurements and swatches. I'm hoping that my LYS will be offering a class that will help me with this.
2. Learn Modular Knitting. I have the book already, I just want to make time to sit and go through it so I can fully understand what it is going on.
   
3. Seek out other spinners in hopes of finding somebody that I can watch and learn from. I have learned what I'm going to learn from books and I need to see it person. I'm not really looking for a teacher that I have to pay for lessons. I want to find a person or group of people that like to get together to spin and wouldn't mind somebody observing their work and occasionally asking questions. A group similar to my current knitting group, except for spinning.
   

Happy 2008! It's gonna be a good year!