Resolutions & FOs

I've been thinking about New Years Resolutions. Most of the time I write them down but never stick to the list. This year I'm going to try my hardest to accomplish everything on my list. Some of them will be easier then other.

My 2008 Fiberly Resolutions are:

1. Use up some of the multitude of sock yarn that I have. I'm not saying I won't buy sock yarn along the way but I'm going to try to make more socks.

2. Learn how to spin. I have spindles. I have fiber. I even have lots of resources. Nuff, no more excuses....must learn!

3. Fair Isle knitting. I keep seeing these sweaters, mittens, hats and such on other peoples blogs. I want to learn and I will.

4. Make more things for myself. It's OK for me to knit for the kiddos but I need to make more things for myself besides socks.

Non-Fiberly 2008 Resolutions:

1. Exercise more!!!  It's time to get off my butt a little more and use the exercise equipment we have set up here in the house.

2. Lose 60 pounds. Don't know if I'll lose it all in one year but I'm going to try (safely) to lose as much of it as I can.

3. Eat more healthy foods. Thanks to the move back in Sept I managed to put on 20 pounds. This was due to eating out because we were too busy or weren't able to make dinner.

Now that the Resolutions are out of the way I can move on to the stuff that I finished.

Kaity's mittens were finished up New Years day.



I think these are my most favorite mittens so far. The pattern is Elegant and Easy Cable Mittens for the Family  from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders and was extremely easy to follow.

I finished Kaity's sweater last night.



Sweater Stats:
Pattern: Knitting Pure and Simple, Children's Hooded Tunic # 232
Size knit: 2-4 years
Yarn: Lorna's Lace Shepherd Worsted Multi and Solid. I used 2 skeins of the color Purple Club for the the body and arms. 1 skein of the color Violet for the hood and pouch.
Needles: US 6/4mm and US 8/5mm Knit Picks Options and bamboo double point needles.
Mods: The only mod I made to this pattern was to knit a pouch for the front of the sweater.

The pouch is a little off centered but crazy as it sounds it looks perfectly centered when Kaity has the sweater on. Maybe Kaity is off center too! She is my kid so anythings possible.  :~)

I made up the pouch as I knit. I cast on 25 stitches, knit for a few rows and then started increasing 1 stitch on each end of the pouch every knit row until I had about 47 or so stitches. I then stopped increasing and knit a little more until I thought the pouch looked right. I used the same method to attach the pouch as was given for attaching Sheldon the Turtle's legs (explanation at bottom of pattern). I have no idea what it's called but it makes for a almost invisible seam.

This was an easy knit. I love the way this pattern was knit in the round. I'd highly recommend this pattern to a beginner knitter who wants to make a sweater but doesn't want to do a bunch of seaming.

I'll leave you with this pic.



Aren't these the cutest things you ever saw? Shawn and Kaity brought them home for me yesterday. They saw the sock monkeys and thought I'd love them....which I do! If I remember correctly they got these at Target.

Which of course reminded me that I need to take the girls to the LYS to pick out some yarn so I can make them each a sock monkey of their own. Here's the Etsy link & the Ravelry link to the pattern I bought it awhile back. The move and everything got in the way and I forgot about it until yesterday when they brought home these slippers for me.