Happy New Year 2016!

In some parts of the world it is 2016 already, and for those of us in the US Eastern time zone, it soon will be. 

I want to thank everyone who stopped by my 'virtual studio' in 2015, I look forward to sharing many more knitting and other endeavors on this page in the coming year.  

I wish you all a wonderful New Year celebration and a very happy and creative 2016! 

top two photos: pinterest

Happy New Year 2014!

Happy New Year 2014! This month I'm knitting a few small projects like a chunky infinity scarf and a couple of Lavande neckwarmers, as well as putting the final tweaks on a new pattern to be released within the next few days!

No New Year's resolutions for me this year save one - to (try to) do all things with love. I believe that when we attempt to approach every situation, person or task asking ourselves the question of whether our response to it/ them is a loving one, the world can only be a better place. I'm pretty sure this will not be easy for me, but I want to try.

Thank you very much for visiting my virtual studio today and during 2013, I wish all of you - my blog friends - much love, prosperity and happy stitching in the new year!

Needles at the Ready

I love how every moment of every day we get a chance to make a fresh, new start. But there are few moments as poignant as the beginning of a new year and I especially love the feeling of possibilities that the change of calendar brings - the feeling that a fresh page has been turned and anything can happen. 

Even the projects I began in 2012 and carried over into this year will develop and come to their full potential (I hope!) and completion as 2013 FO's.

Remember this post? 

I'm happy to say that I did become more organized and I'm mostly pleased with my completion of, or progress towards, many of my knitting and life goals last year. I'm also thrilled about the ideas for knitting and designing I have to work on this year, and I certainly have concrete ideas for what I'd like to accomplish. But I'm in somewhat of a different mood this January, so accordingly I decided to think a little differently when deciding on my 2013 goals. My goals for this year are: 

1. To love more
2. To share more
3. To forgive more
4. To be more thankful
5. To be more kind
6. To work hard
7. To have fun

I believe that some of these goals will be easier to reach than others, but I hope I can incorporate creating and relating into all, or most, of them. So with needles at hand, I stand ready and look forward to 2013 to be an exciting year of knitting (and crochet, spinning and other fiber-ous pursuits) adventure, learning and life.

I hope you are excited for 2013 too, and I wish you a very happy knit year!

Happy New Year 2013!

 

Thanks to everyone for being such wonderful blog-friends in 2012, I wish you a  Happy New Year filled with much love, laughter and stitching. May your yarn stash be bottomless, your stitches be even and all of your projects a perfect fit!

For last year's words 

belong to last year's language
And next year's words 

await another voice. 

And to make an end 

is to make a beginning.

 
~T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"

Blueprint for Knitting

Since about the middle of last October our life around here has been frantic at best. Both knitting-wise and personal life-wise things were cranked up to boiling level and continued so through the holidays and until the end of this week when all of my previous knitting projects and a stint on jury duty were finally concluded. 

 

Since the first of the year, I've bound off the back of my gray hoodie, swatched a huge batch of stitch patterns (I love swatching), and begun another new pattern project - one that was really easy to pick up and put down during aforementioned jury duty and that, in light-weight yarn, would last a while. I'll try to get some photos and post more about it soon. 

We've finally received enough snow to matter here, and I can call this weird season Winter. I'm  hoping we'll soon have enough snow that I can try out the snowshoes I received as a Christmas gift. 

Our climate, although not fabulous, is nice and in the temperate range. We usually only receive a few weeks of extremely cold or hot weather through the year. But along with much of the US, we've been experiencing even milder than normal conditions, which was fine with me considering all the running around we've been doing.

Now that life's a teensy bit calmer, I'm taking time to chill out, knit some fun projects and clean house. And, um, I haven't yet packed up the Christmas things... But hey, it's 2012 and I'm excited about the possibilities the year holds!

This guest-blogger post from the Designsponge.com blog suggested a 'blueprint' strategy to get organized for the new year. 

I am using this idea, rather than traditional resolutions, as my outline for what I'd like to accomplish in 2012. 

One of the things I plan to do right away is hold another giveaway, so check back in the next week or two for details on that (I just need to photograph the loot), it's going to be a good one!

I can't wait to move on to to more of the things on my checklist - I'll be sharing a lot of them here throughout the year - and I'd love to know what knitting or craft-related goals YOU would like to achieve this year. As always, I really love to read your comments. 

Peace, blessing and happy knitting to you!

New Year, New Knitting

So long 2011, helloooo 2012! 

In a nod to the 'out with the old, in with the new' way of thinking at New Year, I decided that I would empty out my WIP basket and finish up a few things, then reward myself by  starting something new, so I spread everything out and wove in ends, added trims and blocked like mad. It was somewhat tedious, but rewarding to see some of 2011 projects complete and wearable.

I haven't been able to share as much of my knitting progress from the latter half of 2011 as I'd have liked to because much of it was for publication. Some things, like my new Bosc hat and scarf, have been revealed, but the others are for publication in print for 2012 and are still top secret. 

One of the secret projects was developed in this yarn from Royal Fibers Spinnery, a heathered dark charcoal gray, aran-weight pure alpaca yarn I purchased from the close-out bin of their booth at the Taos Wool Festival last year. The yarn is extremely soft and surprisingly lustrous, with the exquisite drape of pure alpaca. 

Although the pattern will appear in a very different yarn for publication, the open nature of the main stitch pattern is easily worked in a variety of yarns. Can't wait to show you more when the pattern is released!

Another pattern for print publication was also developed in alpaca yarn, shown here in a dusty purple color, although the official version is, again, knit in a different color.

I've been playing around with these fun little doodads for a project,

and these handmade beads, a few of which were purchased from a glass artist exhibiting at Rhinebeck (sorry about the crummy photo, trying to take fast photos under artificial light is not a great idea).

In the 'in with the new' knitting category, I just finished a shawlette design prototype, wrote up the basic pattern outline and am now knitting it up in another yarn, incorporating some new ideas I had. And I've cast on for a cable cardigan - a hoodie? - in some stashed Berroco's Ultra Alpaca (see photo at top of post). 

The Ultra Alpaca was some of the only yarn I had enough quantity of on hand for a large project, so it will not surprise you to discover that it is... gray, lol. I do also have plans to knit purples, some gorgeous cobalt blue, a little red, lovely creamy white, a bit of green, perhaps more gold?, definitely more gray, eye-popping orange, a touch of pink, and a few other of my favorite colors this year.

I'll be able to show many more photos of WIPs and FOs as the year progresses.

And finally, to help celebrate a fresh new year of knitting, I will be holding another free pattern and yarn giveaway contest, so check back for details on that in an upcoming post.

Happy knitting and Happy New Year everyone!

Knitting into the New Year 2011

 

The toasts have been made and Auld Lang Syne has been sung for yet another New Year's eve.  I hope everyone had a joyful and safe celebration.

Every January 1st I feel as if the new year were a fresh, blank calendar page waiting to be written upon.  I get a little thrill at the prospect of setting new personal life and crafting goals for myself.  Not resolutions exactly, but challenging points that I want to aim, stretch and reach for.  

 

Some of these I set and might or might not have accomplished in 2010, but I want to increase or renew for this new year as well, including publishing more knitting patterns, learning new and unusual methods of constructing knitwear, and experimenting with designing my own stitch patterns.  

 

I'd like to get back to making more sweaters and garments as mine are looking sadly worn this winter.  I also want to spin regularly (and use my handspun for projects), and crochet a little every month.  

 

Can I stick with these goals for the year?  I believe I can, and will enjoy the process of trying to, but only time will tell.  

One thing I know for certain is that if I don't first set out, I cannot finish.  I like this quote from Horace, the Roman lyric poet (65 BC-8BC):

"He who has begun has half done.  Dare to be wise; begin!"

Happy New Year everyone, and may your 2011 be filled with love, joy, peace, prosperity and lots of knitting and fiber-y adventures.  Go forth and knit!