chasing the winter greys away....

....with a couple of colorful finished projects! First up are some socks that have been buried in the WIP basket for going on five years now. I originally started these in an attempt to learn how to knit 2-at-a-time socks on 2 circulars in order to conquer the dreaded second sock syndrome. But the process didn't click for me because it lacked the mindless rhythm that I crave when knitting socks. So the whole tangled mess was thrown in the basket with just the toe shaping needed to be knitted. And there the socks stayed for five long years until today, when I decided to put them onto dpn's and just finish them off separately. A half an hour later, my toes were in hand knitted sock heaven.

These are made out of Cascade Fixation, a soft cottony yarn with elastic. I added the broken rib stitch pattern to my plain vanilla sock formula for a fun effect. So happy with how they turned out and with the fact that I can declare this project finished at last.

Can I add that I do not envy you regular sock knitters the hard task of taking finished photos of your socks! After a few hilarious attempts in which I fell out of the chair as I tried to hold up my feet for the camera, I decided it was best to give up before I caused myself an injury.

The next item to show you begs an answer to the question: when is a project finished? Is it when the pattern instructions declare that you bind off all stitches? Or after you weave in the ends, wash, block and brag about it? Or, in this instance, is it when you know deep down that you will never work on the thing again or use it for its originally intended purpose. But it holds just enough of your affection to stop you from throwing it in the frog pond. That was the dilemma I was in in regards to my Blooming Flower pillow cushion. Until I had a light bulb moment and decided that Lucy would not come storming into my house in a fit of fury if I turned her brilliant pattern into a chair seat cover:

It's a pretty great feeling to have more space in the knitting basket! Now I can kick up my feet and relax and knit away on the never ending cowl that is pine bough....

amanda cardigan

I can't believe that I am wearing my Amanda cardigan not in the sweltering heat of July but on an overcast snowy winter's day. It's my first finished knit of 2015 and I absolutely love it.

The cardigan was a joy to knit, mainly because I was in such excellent company. It was also a pretty easy and straight forward project. The only difficult part was towards the end with the vertical seamed-in button bands. It was my first time working up this type of button band and I was a little clueless at first but am very happy with the finished results. Probably the best looking button band that I have ever made. Just don't look too closely at where I sewed on the buttons....must look into how to properly do this one day!

You can find my original post with all of the project details here. Also, check out the lovely finished and in-progress knits from this KAL using #fringeandfriendsknitalong on Instagram. I am finding knitalongs to be quite contagiously fun and have already started on my next one (Ysolda's follow your arrow 2)! What was your most recent KAL and was it a good experience?

seasonal goals :: winter

One of my favorite things to do in January is to read about everyone's resolutions and goals for the year ahead. So many wonderful intentions and inspiring ideas. I love the feeling of having a blank journal just waiting to be filled up. This year, I have decided to set seasonal goals instead of year long ones. Hopefully, thinking in the short term will result in more success and most importantly, be more fun!

So here are my goals for the next couple of months:

❄ Be more adventurous in the kitchen and start cooking recipes from my large collection of cookbooks. At least two new recipes a week. Different variations of spaghetti does not count.
❄ Start a recipe journal or box. Write down the ones that are tried and true family favorites for future generations to gush over.
❄ Work on Vietnamese language skills at least 30 minutes a day in preparation for my upcoming visit in March.
❄ Finish the following WIP's: Pine bough cowl, Amanda cardigan, Kraken pullover, Spirograph headband the second.

I think that all of the above goals are realistic and achievable. One caveat: since there won't be any shiny new projects to show off for awhile, things might get a little boring around here. However, I am hoping that my diligence pays off and there will be more finished objects to show you in the next couple of months. Otherwise I might have to resort to posting bad photos of my weekly recipe attempts.