January Overall

January FO Count: Still 6.

Projects This Month:

1. Walk in the Park Hat
2. Purple Puffball Hat
3. Flooofy Baby Doll Dress
4. Baby Doll Jumper (no pictures - sorry kids!)
5. Stripey Baby Doll Socks
6. Cream Color Baby Doll Knee High Socks

What's in the Bag Right Now:

1. Knit Dress for the girls
2. The Wedding Present
3. Shrugs for the girls
4. Hat for Charity

Not planning on adding anything to this list until class assignments are up for Feb for HPKCHC, then there may be some new projects - I'm also aiming to get one of these older projects off my plate for Detention.

And now a quick peek at my 12 in 2011:


January: (WIP) knit dress for the girls - almost done with the skirt, see here.



February: (WIP) Crochet dress for Joan -still on the back burner, will bring it up after the first dress is done.


March: (WIP)Shipwreck Shawl: added a few more rows, no major progress. I want to get moving on this and maybe have it done for the bridal shower in April.


April: (WIP)Two matching shrugs - had to restart in a different color, only a couple inches into the first collar. Also need to get a move on with this one.


May: Socks for my son (4) - he'll need kilt hose for the wedding, after all, so I need to get a pattern together ASAP.



June: New kilt hose for Daddy - planning on ordering the yarn for this after the wedding.



July: (WIP) Dollar and a Half Cardigan - also a back burner, after the wedding.


August: (WIP) Skew sock needs a second sock- still!



September: (WIP) squishy Noro scarf- sits untouched this month.



October: (WIP) Lion Homespun Blanket - waay back burner.


November: (WIP) my Jeannie shawl - not a stitch this month.


December: As a present to myself, if I can clear out most or all of this list, I’d like to make this just for me - well, this will most likely sit on my list until sometime mid-December, when I finally clear out the list.

So, that's January, boys and girls! Not too bad!

Yaay!

2011 FO Count = 6.

Birthday Baby Doll clothes for the girls (two outfits plus socks) complete. One more battle won in the fight against Naked Baby Dolls Invading My Living Room.

Yaay, indeed.

Quickie

2011 FO Count: 4

Finished Sunday: Fluffy Baby Doll Dress, striped baby doll socks.

Worked on last night: second pair of baby doll socks - fancy-pants white socks with a teeny cable up the back. I'm on sock #1, about an inch up the leg, planning for a 2.5" leg and 1" of cuff.

Planning for Tonight: Taking some time off baby doll stuff to put a couple more rows on the shawl, then back to either the jumper or socks. I still need to find a pants/top pattern.

Also, I have been eating waay healthier for about three days now and feeling very nice. I've been following a diet (sort of) and packing lunch, rather than availing myself of the cafe downstairs at work. Expecting the numbers on the scale to change (a little) in about a week or so. Got three kids to eat salad.

January - Halfway Through

Well, I've been working away at baby doll clothes for a week or so now, and I am almost through the fluffiest. damn. doll. dress. ever. Seriously, I've run though two complete skeins of acrylic, part of a third and I'm still not done. As of last night, I'm within about three rows of done if I don't make the goofy underpants. I'm not making two of these. So, I decided to go with making the floofy pile of awesomeness, a jumper and maybe a pants and top along with a couple pairs of socks.

Been putting some thought to knitting for charity and found a couple of options in the area - I'll go on at length about this when I have better plans laid out.

Put a couple of rows on the shawl and on my 12 in 2011 January Project.

Also starting this: I want to see what I'm really getting done, for all my whining about starting and not finishing, I want to see what is getting done.

2011 FO Count: 2

January and More Fun

Friday night, I sit down to patiently work my way through this month's selected projects (btw, that would be the knit dress for the girls, working on the shawl and a couple of things I had in mind for HPKCHC) and it hits me. It's January. I have two girls, who happen to have been born in January. They expect birthday presents. I should make them something. Thank goodness I knit (or, as we will see - crochet).

The next sound you hear will be the sound of all my other intended January projects grinding to a screeching halt. Except for the hats for HPKCHC - those are done. (Hey, I finished something! Woohoo!) Now, my time is consumed with crocheting two sufficiently frilly doll dresses, then two miniature jumpers, then four teeny pairs of socks. If there's time, maybe some hats, or baby-bunting-type things. I have until the 28th, after all. Two days in, and I'm almost done with the first dress.

I have also been infected with the doll clothes bug. I now know why my mom seemed obsessed with creating a tiny wardrobe for baby and Barbie alike. It is the essence of instant gratification crafting. It's the complete garment on a small, quick-to-finish scale. I don't know if I'll ever fully recover. My queue is full of doll clothes patterns, and I'm considering taking up sewing for lighter items. My scrap sock yarn is in danger of becoming so many pairs of teeny lacy socks.

I am less confident in my abilities to finish the shawl by May. Welcome to Sidetracked Crafting.

New Pattern!

OK, kids - have at. Give it a try and tell me where I can make it better. It's a free pattern for Ravelry and I'll be updating as the pattern improves.

Basic Bonnet

By Evie Wood

I used this as the base for my Patch of Purple Mushrooms hat for my daughter. To get the same effect, once you complete the cap, use pom-pom yarn (I used Red Heart Pomp-A-Doodle) and slip stitch it on to the brim portion of the bonnet.

Yarn Used: Loops & Threads Impeccable worsted weight acrylic (any worsted weight will do)

Hook: US 8 (H)

Gauge: Your guess is as good as mine – my finished bonnet fit my almost two-year-old.

Brim:

Ch 16.

1: Sc in 2^nd ch from hook and each ch across (15 sc) Ch 1, turn.

2: Sc in each sc across, ch 1, turn.

Repeat Row 2 48 times more (50 rows total) Do not fasten off.

Back of Bonnet: This portion is still in progress. This is the method I use d on the original hat and it gave me a loose, fairly high-cut back to the bonnet. While I like the high cut of the back (good if you have long hair), the looseness was a fit problem. I will gladly take any suggestions as to how to improve this portion of the pattern, and will revise as I find a method that yields the results I’m looking for.

1: Ch 1. Working down side of completed brim, sc in side of each row (50 sc).

2: Ch 3, (Ch 3 counts as first dc now and throughout) sk first sc, dc in each remaining sc (50 dc, including first ch 3)

3: Begin decrease rows: Ch 3, dc 2, dcdec (dc 3, dcdec) across to last 5 st, dc 4, skip ch 3 from prev row) (40 st)

4: Repeat Row 3 (32 st)

5: Ch 3, dc 1, dcdec (dc 2 , dcdec) across to last 4 st, dc 3, skip ch 3 from prev row) (24 st)

6: Repeat Row 5 (18 st)

7: Ch 3, dcdec (dc 1 , dcdec) across to last 3 st, dc 2, skip ch 3 from prev row) (12 st)

8: Repeat Row 7 (8 st)

9: (This row is worked in sc) Ch 1, ( scdec) across to last 2 st, sc 1, skip ch 3 from prev row) ( 4st)

10: Ch 1, (yo, insert needle in next st, pull up a loop) in each of the next 4 st, yo, pull through all loops. Fasten off.

Ties: Ch 30, join with sc to bottom edge of brim, sc 15 across bottom of brim, then about 35-40 sc evenly spaced across the back of the bonnet, then 15 more across the other edge of the brim. Ch 30 for the second tie, then fasten off.

January Knitting Schedule

Just trying to start out the new year right - here's what I'm planning for January:

1. January project for 12in2011: Maggie's Knit Dress. Completely restarted in a new yarn (after midnight of course!) and I want to put some significant time on it this month.
   
2. Charms January 2011 (HPKCHC): Stalking a fellow first year - making a Walk In the Park hat for a recipient still to be decided.
   
3. Herbology January 2010 (HPKCHC): Making a very fun Pomp A Doodle scarf for Misses Maggie and Joan to play with. I've felt some strange self punishing urge to play with this yarn and Maggie has developed a fondness for scarves lately.
   
4. Planning to put in some time on the shawl o' doom as well as the girls' shrugs, now that I've found a better yarn.

That sounds like a sufficiently busy January. Add to that a nightgown that needs a sleeve fixed and a pair of pants that needs patching and it will be a busy January, indeed.