Last Post of 2010

Before 2010 comes to a close I thought I would get one last post in for the year. There have been a lot of FO's:



First up my Fall Parallel Socks, pattern Parallel Twist by the very talented Jeannie Cartmel, the yarn is by Vesper Sock Yarn in Essential Autumn, which is a sock club 4 color striper (which I got in a destash) I love it! The pattern was a great knit, easy and makes the most out of self-striping yarn.

Next up my mis-matched pair from the November Rockin' Sock club shipment, I didn't take a picture of the yarn before I started knitting, but it did come with very cute and little stitch markers from Knitifacts. The skein has no name and Tina of Blue Moon Fiber Arts had a contest to see who could come up with the best name for the skein, winner gets a 2011 Rockin' Sock Club Membership, what an awesome prize.



There of course were two patterns, the first one is called Checkerboard Socks by Nancy Bush. This pattern was great for end of the year knitting, it was simple, complimentary to the color and patterned enough but simple enough that you can have a conversation with someone and knit at the same time.



The second pattern is Canopy Socks by by Samantha Roshak, another simple, yet nice pattern that would great in a stripe if you could get it to line up with the yarn. There is a nice picot turned and hemmed down top, and an interesting and new toe, so it was nice to try something new at the end of the year.

The next FO is Lindsay's Eclipse Lindsays, pattern by Cookie A., when I bought her book when it first came out I wanted to knit every single pattern. I remember that there was a pattern named Lindsay (with an A) which is how my best friend spells her name. When she was a kid she never had pencils or pins with her name spelled the way she spells it, so I knew I had to knit these for her. I could have made these out of any good sock yarn (which I have no shortage of) but the perfect skein of sock yarn came along a few months ago.



This is a special limited edition of Lorna’s Laces in Eclipse (it's a black and dark red), did I mention Lindsay is a huge Twilight fan (and no she is not a tween). So this pattern and this yarn were destined to be together. The only problem is that the yarn is soooooooo dark which makes it hard to see but it was well worth it.

Last but not least are two hats for my best friend's baby Danger.

The first hat is a replica of a hockey helmet, we are both huge hockey fans so I knew that he would love it, the baby wasn't even 3 months old, I made the 3-6 month size and it's way to small, so we are going to their house for new year's eve so I will attempt to make him another one that will fit his head. It's a great pattern, the helmet is really just like the ones they use in hockey, it even has a snap to close the chin strap.



The second hat is my own version of the baby Mohawk hat, I was going to buy the pattern but before I did I read up on it on Ravelry and people said that kitchener the fun fur was maddening (and I totally agree). So I knit at hat and then knit a rectangle of fun fur and then attached the fun fur, it was easier for sure. The hat looks a little bulb-shaped but it was just the way is was sitting for the picture, the hat is classical hat shape.



A few new yarn purchases, first off I love me a striped yarn, probably more that I will admit. So when I saw this yarn by AlaskanNancy (Fireweed Dyeworks on etsy) I HAD to buy it immediately, and there was only one left and I can't tell you how lucky it was me. I can't wait to see how the colors stripe up. Please let me introduce Holiday Kitsch:



Next up is from one of the talented ladies from my Ravelry home, KnittyK8, it's her Sparkling Stripe, in colorway Free the Grapes. I love the stripes and the silver together is amazingly great together, it gives the black a bit of pop. These are being knit into socks for my other college best friend Janice, who will be here in a few weeks, hopefully they will be done.



I was going to save the Free the Grapes for me, but they really wanted to be socks for Janice. I was a little sad that I wouldn't have sparkly black stripe socks but lucky for me KnittyK8 is a Ravelry friend and dyed a skein of Purple Octopus on the Run, for me the last time she was wrapping and dying (thanks Kate). It's in her Sparkling Stripe base (I love it) and it's blue and purple with a black stripe, gorgeous! Don't believe me, here is a picture.



The next couple of things are surprises, first of all after following The Loopy Ewe's blog for year and year the RNG (random number generator) picked me for a prize. I won a $25 dollar gift certificate. And just today I found out that I was picked by the RNG again today for a great prize, two skeins of The Loopy Ewe Solid Series, a pattern of my choosing, AND a tub of Heel (super awesome foot creme) from the people that make Soak Wool Wash. That is an awesome prize and very generous for The Loopy Ewe to give the prize packages away, I posted on the RAK thread, they wanted to know what nice things you do for others in the month of December. It's great to read what everyone's RAK's are over the weeks, it restores your faith in humanity. I will post pictures when the package gets here so show you what I picked out.

The very last thing is something so wonderful and special and it really made my holiday. On the CPaASG's board on Ravelry we love each other so much it's sort of odd for never meeting most of these people. But it's a place where we can go for friendship, support, to vent our "my-husband/kids-are-driving-me-crazy-because", love of all things fiber, and anything in between. This year we decided that we were going to have a holiday swap, the whole thing was put together by kbelle (thanks Kristin), she made a questionnaire, everyone filled it out, and she matched us up. Person #1 gifted Person #2, Person #2 gifted Person #3 and so on. It was so much fun post stalking your downstream swappner (that is swap partner) and find out what they liked and didn't like, get a swox (swap box) together for them. Everyone shipped their swox and on Christmas Day we all opened them up, took pictures, and posted on the thread, it was awesome to see what everyone got/sent. My upstream swappner was jeepgirl (Lisa I loved everything in my swox), she sent me this:



Here's what was in there, it was amazing!
An awesome blue notions case, I love it!
Tazo tea in Organic Chia and Zen Green
M&M’s
A notepad with magnet that says ”I’d rather be knitting”
A pair of puppy snips (super cute)
Ghirardelli peppermint bark (which might not be with us anymore)
2 gorgeous skeins of Sundara in Beaded Turquoise
And if you look really closely at the candy canes there are 2 sets of handmade (by Lisa, her first stitch markers), which I love more than I can tell you. It was a great way to end the year, and the first year that I can remember for the longest time that I wait to open presents on Christmas Day (it was way worth the wait). I hope we do another gift swap like this again.

The last part of 2010 was hard on a lot of people that are close to me, so I'm really glad to see it coming to a close and in a few days have a new year and put 2010 behind us. Here is to a happy, healthy, and joyful 2011!