Two years ago today I started my Moorish Mosaic Afghan.

Two days ago I finished it.

I don’t even have a decent photo of it but I DON’T CARE. It’s done!!!!

I can go back to knitting!

The yarns used were Bernat Satin Solids and Patons Decore. In a mix of various colours. The afghan washed and dried beautifully.

It has been gifted to Awesome sister, since it matches her room so well. Enjoy it!!!

Katie tried to pose for a picture, but blinked…

Sometimes the black dog is biting at your heels and you need to focus on / do other things.

I did manage to finish row 5 of the afghan on Friday, I might sew that up tonight.

Katie, thankfully, has been sleepy and cute.

So… continuing with my blanket saga. Here is what it looks like now:

A whole new row! (I now have the “New world” song from Aladdin in my head, thanks brain)

Here is the row before seaming:

and the octagons I finished this weekend to make up that row:

But wait! There’s more!

I almost finished another row!

…but I ran out of yarn.

So I ordered more, and I hope it will be here before the end of the week!

Thus ends the blanket saga for now

Here is the updated schematic for those playing along:

Katie hasn’t been very photogenic recently, so I’ll leave you with a picture from around the time I cast this blanket on:

Started January 29, 2010. Yes, 2010!!!!!

And!!! It is STILL.NOT.DONE!!!!!

*scream*

What is it?
The Moorish Mosaic Afghan. *ooooooo*

Here is what I’ve finished so far:

Just a little over 50% finished

Here is a schematic of the complete blanket:

30 octagons, not horrible, right? That’s what I thought but then! Boom! Life and stuff and boredom and stuff and now I’ve only got:

Blue=complete and sewn together
Pink=complete but not joined

So close to finishing another row… My goal this weekend is to see how far I can get!

Stay tuned for the thrilling result of a weekend of crochet!

First of all the 2011 crafting breakdown:

30 knit
16 crochet
1 woven
47 total items

I also had 4 spinning fo’s, but I’m not exactly sure how to categorize that, since after they are done they enter the stash.

The category breakdown:
12 socks
10 amigurumi
7 things for heads
6 things for hands
5 things for necks
1 sweater
1 blanket

The mega mosaic of project pictures!

The new hobby:

This year marked the death of weaving. Some poor internet shopping experiences and a very poor weaving experience put a damper on weaving in general. However, this freed up time to take up another auxiliary hobby. Spinning!

The resolutions:

It’s not having what you want, It’s wanting what you’ve got.

(yes I borrowed a line from a song, a free internet to anyone who guesses it first.)

2011 is going to be the year of the cold sheep. Cold sheeping is the practice of a chronic yarn stasher going ‘cold turkey’ on buying yarn. I won’t be adding to my stash until January of 2013.

The rules? I am not to spend any money acquiring new yarn for the next year.
The exceptions?
For yarn? None, I do have a (pre-paid) club shipment coming in February but that will be the last ‘new’ yarn in the house. ETA: If I have something already on the needles (prior to 2012) I can buy extra yarn to complete the project, if it needs it!!!
For Fiber? To buy more fiber I must have spun through my entire (small) fiber stash — excluding mawata.
For dyeing? If there is no blank yarn in the house an order can be made – must not use blanks to circumvent stash shopping.
The goal? Reduce amount of physical and mental space the stash takes up.

I realize that the ‘dyeing’ exception is a bit wishy washy, but I’ve written a full paragraph about it in my personal journal, this is just the cliff’s notes version.

So that’s it then. I’ll be shopping from my stash and trying to find projects to fit the yarn I already have.

Katie has resolved to relax on the couch more:

ETA: This is my 100th post!!! woot!

The holidays have come and gone and now I’m back to work. blah.

The beginning of this year finds me knitting with and dyeing darker colours. I’m not sure if that is a reflection on anything or just the way it is working out.

The shrug I started in last weeks post has been finished. I was monogamous with it since I really wanted to wear it!

Excuse the too large t-shirt.
Pattern: Top Down shoulder warmer by Laura Chau
Yarn: Dream in color Classy in colourway ‘Black Parade’. The project took less than 2 skeins
Needles: 4.5 mm and 5.0 mm (from my new Hiya Hiya interchangable set! ♥)

It doesn’t look like anything awesome without a body in it though…

The dye pots were pulled out one last time:

1) Cask DK (231yds / 100gr) – aurora borealis

Same pot, one came out more blue the other more green. Go figure.

2) Merino/Nylon 2ply sock (430/100gr) – cobble

*squee* the first time ever I’ve tried to recreate a colourway. It’s not a perfect match but a good one, and still very pretty.

Next week will be the big ‘official’ new year’s post. I’m looking forward to it.

Anyway, you can’t visit a museum/ exhibition center without visiting the gift shop.  I didn’t need anything Titanic related, but I did see something I *had* to have.

Aren’t they just awesome? Dragon stuffed animals are so hard to find, nice ones even harder. The red one is named Blaze and the teal one Squall. They will make a nice addition to my (rather large) collection.

Speaking of dragons my mom made me a dragon-y box bag for Christmas! I’m using it for my newest wip:

Pattern: Top Down Shoulder Warmer by Laura Chau (aka cosmicpluto)
Yarn: Dream in Color Classy in Black Parade (so far, I might have to add a cc)
Needles: New Hiya Hiya interchangables (thanks awesome sister!) US 7
CO: December 28, 2011

I would like to finish before the new year, but that is probably a bit unrealistic. Hopefully it can be my first knitting FO of the new year.

My FO this week has been a long time coming. It is a spinning FO!!!! (I know, omg!)

339 yds of (on average) a heavy worsted weight. Sure it can be thick and thin, but it is gorgeous soft and pluffy. I can’t wait to knit it up, I just need to find the *right* pattern. le sigh. I’m thinking the TGV scarf (from Rav) or something similar might work.

Awesome sister also gifted me with a new spindle, which I put to immediate use.

As I hinted last week awesome sister and I dyed yarn earlier this week. We made some very pretty yarn in my not so humble opinion.

Here’s a quick look a awesome sisters:

l to r: christmas red (cash aran), tin tin (cash dk), bored! (cash sock), spruced (skinny bugga)

However, since this blog is all about me:
All colourways were dyed on a cash dk base ( 231 yds / 100 gr )
1. Plum berry

2. Mother Tree

3. Cobble

4. Crystal Cave

I absolutely adore Crystal Cave and Cobble. They came out exactly the way I wanted them to.

Finally, I overdyed a skein from earlier this year. It went from this:

to this:

Making the skein more cohesive was the goal, and I think it is.

Whew, thanks for making it so far down! This was definitely a long one. I hope everyone had as good a holiday season as I did and I wish everyone a happy New Year!

On the knitting front:

Anything that isn’t colourwork hasn’t been touched. Which of course means that I have an FO.

and a crappy image of the top:

Deets:
CO: Dec 13, 2011
BO: Dec 21, 2011
Yarn: The sanguine gryphon skinny bugga in ‘widow dragonfly’ (purples) and ‘sea star’ (red-orange)

This is probably the ‘largest’ piece of colourwork I’ve ever done. I’m very proud of how even the floats turned out and how nicely it blocked. ♥

On the Christmas Front:

All the presents have been bought, they just need wrapping. Speaking of wrapping… anyone else with cats have this problem?

She’s pretty much acquired squatter’s right at the moment. If you approach the tree with a present she takes her position. One of these days I’ll get there before she does.

Looking ahead:

• Lots of knitting related changes next year, I’ll save the specifics for January blog posts…. Mostly I’m going to be changing the way I choose projects and organizing myself.
• We have a special dye session planned over Christmas break, so look forward to seeing those skeins soon.
• My FO breakdown from this year which is larger than ever! Which has both good and bad implications.
• Stash documentation. I might as well own up to what I have…
• Special event blog posts which follow me as I try to do something crazy with a time limit.

Merry Christmas to all and sundry. 

Psychic Mittens
CO: Dec 4, 2011
BO: Dec 11, 2011
Yarn: my own hand dyed from 2010 in Cash Sock

New Project:

Myrten Hat
featuring the nicest corrugated ribbing I’ve ever knit and…

… flowers!

Oh yeah… the bunny came back for a visit. He looks a bit colder though.

Socks!!!

MY CHRISTMAS KNITTING IS DONE!!!!! (yes it had to be yelled)
Dad’s socks are finally off the needles, thank goodness I started them in October or they never would have been finished in time!

CO:October 6, 2011
BO:November 24, 2011
Yarn: String Theory Colorworks – Resonance Base in Kopernik

I managed to squeak a men’s size 13 out of one skein + one heel toe skein. I totally and completely love this yarn (and this company) to pieces.

Christmas

::dances:: It is coming closer. Yay! We decorated last week and I love love love our tree this year!
It started out looking like this:

…and ended up like this:

…and after decorating the mantle the whole living room looks like:

I made some amigurumi-type decorations for my mom’s tree, which took me less than a day. Two cute little robins.

More Socks

Yep finished the hand-dyed socks. I’m wearing them right now. These just flew off the needles, even with a longish break before I cast on the 2nd one.
CO: Nov 12, 2011
BO: Dec 2, 2011
Yarn: Wool2Dye4 Crazy Eight – Handdyed by me as ‘Harvest festival’

Katie

… is loving this season. With all the new potential toys. She claimed the tree as soon as the tree skirt was down:

She also had a close up photo shoot one day:

…which revealed a secret:

…She doesn’t wipe her paws!!! Litter dust everywhere!