This post is just going to be some quick pictures of the things I’ve been working on since the beginning of January. I still have tons of pictures to go through, I haven’t even uploaded the pictures of my yarn stash that I took way back in December but hopefully I’ll have a chance on the weekend when I have some free time.

This was the first project I made in 2011, it was also the first sweater I ever made! The body was a bit too big and the sleeves were a bit too short but it was a great starting point!

I tried this next, I used the same pattern and just adjusted it to make it a cardigan. My friend Jordin kept calling it my Kurt Cobain sweater. haha!

These were the first mittens I ever made, I was so impressed with myself I took a picture and sent it to my mom! LOL!

I made these mitts next, I wanted to try the same pattern in stripes (I'm really into stripes right now if you haven't noticed).

Very similar to the blue/green striped mittens, I just tried the thumb in a different place. I ended up giving these to a friend for their birthday.

I am REALLY proud of myself for making these! The Totoro fair isle pattern has been on my "to do" for a long time and I just decided one day to give it a go. I had never tried fair isle knitting before so I got some excellent advice from some twitter knitters and was super surprise by how easy fair isle turned out to be. This was actually the second pair of Totoro mitts I made, I didn't get a picture of the first pair...

Last but not least, I just finished these last week, the pattern is called "pirate mitts" on Ravelry, don't you just love the skulls?!?!?

Its been 41 days since I bought any yarn. 4 1/2 months to go!

HELLO!!!!

Its been ages since I posted anything, unfortunately my new years resolutions about blogging didn’t last long BUT my resolution about buying no yarn is still good to go! I have purchased absolutely no yarn in the last month (yay for me!).

I learned how to knit so many new things in January. I made a few raglan baby sweaters, I tried a few different mitten patterns & learned how to knit intarsia & fair isle patterns too!!! I got some really excellent suggestions from some twitter buddies on where to find videos & patterns to learn from & I must say I’m pretty proud of myself. At the moment I have no pictures to show or anything else to say really, everything has just been life as usual around here, I just wanted to post something saying that I haven’t forgotten that this blog exists.

I’ll post again soon (I hope), with lots of pictures & other interesting things.

Its day 4 of my six month challenge, and I’m happy to say that so far I haven’t been temped to buy any yarn, I know its only been a few days but with all the boxing week sales going on around this time of year I feel like I’m actually doing pretty well. My friends at work don’t think I’ll be able to make it the entire six months but the more they razz me the more it strengthens my resolve, I welcome the chance to prove them wrong!

Right now I am working on some accent pillows for my couch.  I saw a beautiful fabric with a bold red flower print on a white background and it inspired me to revisit rosehip’s pillow pattern and make something similar for myself! I just took this picture and the light in my apartment wasn’t so great but I’m sure you get the general idea. It’s still a work-in-progress, I’ll make sure to take some better pictures when they’re all finished up.

Tomorrow is my one year blogiversary! One year ago I sat in my apartment, registered on WordPress and wrote my first blog post! Now 30 posts later I am looking forward to another year of bloggyness.

To be honest I didn’t live up to my blog goals for 2010, I put things off way too much and I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted. This year I will be better, even if nobody reads this blog I will be better for myself so I can keep some type of record of my projects.

Also I’ve issued myself a challenge for the first six months of the year. I am sure I am not the first crafter to do something like this, I think futuregirl did something similar last year (or maybe it was the year before I can’t remember) but my plan is to only use the craft supplies I’ve already accumulated to make projects for the next 6 months. NO BUYING NEW STUFF! I was thinking about doing it for a year but I honestly think I won’t make it to the 1 year mark, 6 months seems much more realistic for me so I’m going to give it a go.

So as of today no more trips to Michaels on my way home from work, no more trips to the yarn outlets and NO MORE buying yarn just because its on sale! Its going to be a long 6 months for sure.

When I get home tonight I’m taking stock of what I have to work with. It may take a while as I have a tendancy to squirrel stuff away but once its all out I’ll make sure to take some pictures and post them.

See you in the new year!

Its Tuesday December 21st, at 1:26am, I decided to venture out into the cold Canadian night to watch the lunar eclipse, the one i’ve been hearing about on the news. I bundled up in my husbands warmest work coat, pick up my iPhone and camera and head out. The info on the internet tells me that the eclipse begins at approximately 1:33am, so I walk up & down the street we live on for a few minutest, occasionally glancing up at the moon to see if anything is happening. It was extremely subtle at first, hardly noticeable as the shadow creeped over the moon, but as time went on the shadow grew and grew. About a half hour has passed and the moon is almost half covered in shadow, I am so freaking cold that I sat in my car for a minute, listened to Annie Lennox sing Christmas carols on the radio then decided that I was warm enough to give it another go. I look up and the shadow has creeped even farther over the moons surface. At this point I know that I MUST stay out until the moon is completely eclipsed, no wimping out, so I bust out my camera and start taking pictures of everything, the street, the houses, trees, myself. I even try and get a few shaky pictures of the eclipse but my camera is not good enough for anything really clear, the moon just looks like a little blob of light in the sky. Slowly the moon is completely engulfed by the redish shadow and I officially decided that there is a warm blanket and a spot on my couch that is calling my name. I’m tired, I’m cold but I’m also really satisfied. I wish I could say something really profound, something that would sum up this experience but I can’t think of anything to say except this:

That was awesome.

Me, with bedhead, looking very cold

My view

I thought this pic was neat looking

This past weekend we had “Fake Christmas” at my parents house in Picton. Unfortunately some of my family won’t be able to make the trip to Toronto on Christmas day so we decided to have a get together the weekend before Christmas so nobody gets left out and VOILA! Fake Christmas was born!

It was so nice to get out of the city. The last few weeks have been busy with work, Christmas shopping, and a bunch of other stuff that it would take too long to write out, it was so nice to get out to a place where we were disconnected from city life. Everything was so beautiful once I got out of the GTA and with the snow that fell the week before I felt that everything I looked at was like a picture off a Christmas card.

We ended up just kinda hanging out all weekend. My Mom and I made a gingerbread house, I crocheted a bit, we ate tons of great food & we got to see the Bolshoi Ballet perform the Nutcracker LIVE from Russia at the Regent Theatre. Also we did a gift exchange and (lucky LUCKY me) I got these as a gift! YAYAYA!

I always bring my camera to these types of things but I rarely remember to take photos, these are some of the pics I did manage to take.

My mom & I attempting to sew in all the ends on a afghan I made for my grandparents for Christmas

GINGERBREAD HOUSE!!!

Fake Christmas dinner! I mashed the potatos (best potatos ever if I don't say so myself )

The view from one of the windows in the house, those little specks in the distance are my brother and cousin going to the woods to get some firewood together

Merry Fake Christmas to you all!

It looks like my handmade Christmas dreams are going to come true.