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. 

holiday cards!

Oh dear god, it's December. It's a bit of an understatement to say there hasn't been a whole lot of knitting or wayfaring or pretty much anything other than work this year - but despite being insanely busy and not doing any of those fun things, I managed to get my act together enough to a) buy a heat embossing gun and b) make some holiday cards these last few nights. It's the first remotely craft-y thing I've done in ages, and even though they came out a little smudged and uneven, I'm still pretty pleased with them:

They're not quite as awesome as my rabbit cards of two years ago, but the Year of the Rabbit only rolls around so often, and in the meantime I like my giant tree stamp:

And also embossing! Nothing like covering your entire kitchen with glitter and messiness because you're a grown up. 

As crazy as this year has been, I *have* managed to get some knitting in, and even some designing. Whether I manage to write any of it up or photograph it in a timely fashion is another question, but for now, here's a sneak peak of the stitch pattern :) And here's hoping for a wonderful holiday season for you all and an amazing, happy and healthy 2013! I'm hoping to finish this year on a good note, hanging out in Vietnam - so more from there, hopefully!