wip: p u r l s c a r f

My baby sister is getting a children's book published (!!!) so as a congratulations present, I'm knitting her a scarf in her favorite color. She picked the base yarn (Malabrigo Worsted in Sapphire Magenta) and I picked the complimentary yarns and the pattern - the Purl Scarf, from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. This was one of the very first knitting books I ever bought, and though I'm not a big scarf knitter, I've always wanted to knit this one. I'm knitting it on size 13s rather than 15s, mostly 'cause I don't have 15s, and it's definitely thinner than I expected based on the photos - if I made it again, I might add a few stitches to get a bulkier scarf. But I love the loose open rib and the way the colors all go together, so, here's hoping she likes it too? 

wip: o a t m e a l

I keep meaning to take photos of this in progress but the knitting is going so fast that this is the first change I got. Massive needles = awesomeness, especially because work has ramped up the craziness lately, so coming home to something mindless feels pretty damn good. 

In other news, my mom sent me a giant box of photos from my childhood this weekend, which gave me an excuse to play with the scanner. Good to know I still have the same awkward dance moves.

And also the same haircut. Yay, bangs.

fo: i n t h r e e s

First FO of 2013 is also my first ever knitted gift for a baby! I don't know many people with babies - or at least, not people I know well enough to spring a handmade knitted gift on - but two friends of mine that I met five years ago in Vietnam had a baby girl a few weeks ago. Knowing nothing about babies, I can only hope that this fits and is the kind of thing she can wear maybe in the Spring when she gets a tiny bit bigger. 

The pattern is In Threes, and I used Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted in sage - which looked greener on the website (I'd been aiming for gender neutral, though no one could possibly care about pink or blue for boys and girls any more, right? Please say yes?) It's more of a robin's egg blue, though, which works for me since that's one of my favorite colors, and hopefully it works for the baby (or at least her parents). Also, it's crazy soft and superwash. 

The only modification I made was that I didn't include the garter bands that run down from the arm pits. This sweater knit up in five days of lazy knitting (babies, it's awesome how tiny you all are!), and I flagrantly disregarded my New Year's resolution to watch exclusively quality TV programming by devouring probably about ten episodes of Once Upon a Time to keep me company as I knit it. 

Raveled here. 

wip: i n t h r e e s

Way better at starting projects than finishing them lately: also on the needles is this cute baby sweater for my friends' new baby girl - In Threes, knitted in Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted.  Oh my god, babies are tiny, and this is going fast. Here's hoping I can finish it this weekend, maybe? 

wip : l a u r e l

I've had this skein of madtosh vintage (in Glazed Pecan) for years now - I bought it when I lived in Japan on one of my sporadic yarn binge international orders from WEBS - and am finally doing something with it. The only problem is that because I've had it for so long, somewhere along the way I wound it up and used an unknown amount of it, because now that I've reached the decrease section of the hat, I'm running precariously low on yarn. Damn you, self of the past! So here's hoping the madtosh community on Ravelry bails me out in my quest for Glazed Pecan remnants, because buying another full skein just to finish a hat would sort of defeat the purpose of knitting from your stash... 

vietnam

Absolutely nothing to do with knitting, but a few more snapshots of Vietnam... 

Whistles for sale! I bought one for my sister and she can't figure out how to make noise with it. Suggestions welcome. 

Lanterns and cyclos abound in Hoi An. 

Hoi An, be prettier! 

It felt beyond amazing to visit Vietnam again, even if it was only for a few days (three in Hoi An, three in Hanoi) - and extra awesome that I managed to work a little travel into the tail end of 2012! So here's hoping for a little more adventure in 2013 :) 

wips: y e l l o w

Some snapshots of some very early-in-progress works-in-progress and also from last month's whirlwind trip to Vietnam, because, yellow! 

They're not much to look at yet but I have high hopes for these two sweaters, because I love yellow and it goes with everything I own. The first, above, is a cozy Oatmeal Cardigan by Jane Richmond, which I need to finish soon or else it'll be too hot in LA to wear it. 

... and this here will someday be a Cria by Ysolda. 

And, more pictures of Vietnam to come - remember when this blog used to be about knitting AND traveling? Me too! That was awesome! 

oh and also

One more resolution for 2013? Figure out what needles I have, and don't have (or had and then somehow lost in between here, Peru, the UK and Asia), and fill in the gaps accordingly. And also stop loosing needles. And stop *thinking* I've lost needles and buying more size sevens when at this point I have enough size sevens to knit an entire cover for my car using only DPNs. Seriously, keep track of your needles, self! 

Also, relatedly, make sense of this nonsense, below. Why are there tubes of lipgloss, memory cards and wine corks in your knitting organizer thing? No, really, why?

2013 knitting resolutions

I made a lot of knitted resolutions last year and, rather spectacularly, barely kept any of them. Pretty much all the plans I had in place this time last year ended up falling through and in the resulting chaos, knitting fell by the wayside a lot more than I would have liked last year, due to a combination of factors (a new job that kept me typing for as many 10+ hours a day, moving to a new city, and - as lame as an excuse as it sounds - ending a long-term relationship). Now that the dust is settled a little after all of the last year's upheaval and general craziness, and also now that my work is a little less brutal on my wrists -  I've been easing back into knitting but, given the way plans go haywire, think I'm going to scale back a little on the resolutions this year. 

1. Tend to the overflowing basket of WiPs (see above) - and accept defeat and frog the unsalvageable ones. I'm looking at you, screwed up Swallowtail shawl. 
2. Knit, let's say, four wearable-in-public sweaters. Four seems like a good number. And one of those should really be my best friend's cardigan that I promised her a year ago. 
3. Listen to/watch classier tv shows/podcasts while knitting. Yes, I know, I work in reality TV now which means I'm sometimes obligated to watch some fantastically lowbrow crap (for WORK! I SWEAR!). The rest of the time, I need to keep my brain from atrophying. Now accepting suggestions for radio programs, good netflix-able shows and audiobooks. 
4. Go to that Ravelry LA knitting group that I've been saying I'd go to for like a year now. There have to be other knitters out here, right...? Right? 
5. No stressing about designing - I got seriously hamstrung last year by thinking all my knitting had to be devoted to coming up with new patterns and ended up just frustrating myself a lot.  If it happens, yay! 

So that's it! Five seems like a good attainable number (if you're me and you usually make long ass lists). So we'll see what happens. Here's to a happy and health 2013 for you all - thank you for reading my sporadic and over-apologetic for being sporadic updates, and I hope this shiny new year brings you nothing but the best.