2010 Review, Finished Objects Part 1

It hardly seems possible, but I only finished 14 projects in all of 2010, plus a bit of charity knitting. Only one of those projects was even all all big or complicated, so I can't even use difficulty of the knitting as an excuse for my poor volume of output.

I finished:

6 pairs of socks
3 cowls
3 small shawls
2 sets of cuffs/mitts



These were my favorite socks of the year, finished last Spring. I love the colors. They are made with Pagewood Farms Yukon sock yarn. My previous experience with this yarn is that it does relax & pill more than some other yarns, due probably to the bamboo content. So I have gone down a needle size on my more recent sets of bamboo blend socks, which seems to help.






In the Fall, I managed to finish 3 pairs of socks in one day. Sounds impressive until I confess to the real reason behind it. I find it much easier to kitchener in bright sunlight, so the knitting was actually finished at various earlier times.


October 23rd, 2010 was a gorgeous & warm Saturday, so Lucy sat out on the porch with me & kept me company throughout the kitchenering.

First Finished Object Friday 2009

Here is my first Finished Object of 2009:




It's a charity scarf to donate to the Special Olympics World Winter Games.

It's made with double-stranded Red Heart yarn, in the Special Olympics Winter Games colors. I used a 60 inch long size 10 circular, cast on enough stitches to fill the needle, & had plenty of mindless knitting for a couple day's worth of meetings.

However, there has been an overwhelming response to the call for hand-made scarves for the athletes. They have received over 14,000 which far surpasses their goal of 5000. Therefore, the scarves collected at the Knitting Guild meeting tomorrow are going to be shipped to the Heartland Regional Special Olympics Winter Games instead.

Disappearing December

Where did two-thirds of December disappear to? Or, for that matter, the year 2008?

I don't have much in the way of finished objects to show for the past two months. The small items I did finish are Christmas presents, & thus aren't going on the blog yet.

My KIP/carry-around project for the month has been these socks. They are the "Christmas is Coming" colorway from Dyeabolical Yarns. I cast them on Thanksgiving afternoon, while waiting for the turkey to settle enough to have pumpkin pie.


The one finished item I can show is a hat that I knit for the Caps for Kids charity & handed in at the St. Louis Knitter's Guild luncheon.


I have finished both sleeves on my February Lady Sweater, but it remains to be seen whether or not I'll finish the body before the remainder of 2008 disappears.


I've barely touched my Susie Hoodie at all this month, & still have a little bit left to go on my lace vest. I'm hoping to finish the vest next weekend, in time to wear it to a New Years Eve party. That might very well end up the last Finised Object of 2008.

Dropping Off the Squares

This Wednesday post is all about what came OFF my needles in the past week.


I finished my daughter's sweater in time for her to wear it to the Sticks & Stitches game on Sunday.




I also finished a third Warm Up America square during the first period of the game & handed it in to the collection basket.



Here's a couple more shots from the game. Also, more pictures from the St. Louis Blues official website are published here.



I've been to other Blues games before, but this was the first time that I was there when they WON a game. I guess I'll have to bring my knitting more often, since it seems to be good luck!

Saturday Sky, February 16th 2008

This Saturday Sky picture was actually photographed by my younger son. We were coming back from a Scouting event, & he asked if he could take some pictures through the window while I was driving. Little did he know that Mom might have a hidden motive for allowing him to take pictures... (Since I knew the day would be so busy I'd probably forget about Saturday Sky, & I was right about that.)

The picture was taken in the middle of the afternoon, though it looks more like early evening with the solid cloud cover & lack of light.

One way to pass the time while watching a bunch of Webelos at a Cub Scout event is to knit on a Warm Up America square. I finished a second one on Saturday.
Since I was knitting squares for collection at the Sunday Hockey game, speed was key & garter stitch ruled.

I may not win a prize for the most squares completed, but I think I should get bonus points for Extreme.Stash.Usage. Note the price tag. MCX Iwakuni means that I purchased this yarn for a baby blanket when I found out I was pregnant with my now-teenaged son. I was last in Iwakuni in 1993, fifteen years ago. (MCX = Marine Corps Exchange -- i.e. Military Department Store Equivilent)

Knitting Update

I have been getting some of my own knitting done; here's some proof:



Thursday night, during Maureen's "Trunk Show", I finished my very first hat ever, for the STL Knitting Guild's charity drive. I basically made it up as I went along. I cast on 100 stitches, figured out a colorwork pattern that would go OK over 100 stitches, & winged it from there.







I completed the heel flap on my second sock during extra bits of time at the Japanese Knitting class on Friday, turned the heel after I got home (& could get out my Sensational Knitted Socks book to refer to while doing it.) I had just enough time to get the gusset started before going to hang out with friends for the evening. Fortunately these were good friends who didn't mind my knitting while I sat & gabbed, so the gusset is done now too.








Last weekend I got the main body of my Norwegian sweater finished, so I tried starting the next chart this weekend. It doesn't look like the pattern is lining up right though, so I'm going to have to go over the math a little more before I get any further into it.

Time Travel Tuesday -- the 40 Days Edition

Ann is once again doing 40 Days For Others this year. It's a very good idea, & fits nicely with something I've got in the works. (Plus I've also started a hat for the Hats For Kids challenge by my local Knitting Guild)

All this, plus this week's Sticks & String essay about time & knitting, got me thinking about my grandmother's charity work, & my mother's. Charity work is a commitment of time, given for other people. (As opposed to charity donations, i.e. money for other people.) Both of my grandmothers were very involved in church charity work, but only one of them got involved in charity handwork. My dad's mother made baby quilts for AIDS babies. I'm not sure if she ever did any charity knitting, but I'd put charity sewing & quilting into the same general catagory. My mother doesn't knit very much, but in the past year she has completed a shawl for her church's prayer shawl ministry.

Charities need both time & money to stay running. Knitting for charity gives them both, in a way.