There might be a lot of these going around this year, courtesy of KnitPicks.  Just keep knitting, just keep knitting....

KnitPicks is so clever...

Sonic

I had a request this week for a knitted sonic screwdriver for friend's baby shower.  The 10th Doctor's to be exact.  How better to welcome baby into the world than to provide the tools necessary to succeed!

Does not work on cats.  They must be made of wood.

Found on Ravelry here.

You cannot has back.  Is mine.

Yarn makes for a nice padded bed, wouldn't you say?  I shooed this one away...

...only to come back to this one.

One month to Christmas!  What knits shall it bring...

9 of 12: Adelei

This could very well be my new favorite.  Shawl number 9 was the Adelei Shawl by Wendy Neal.  I was drawn to this one by the irregular shape and the interesting center lines.

The pattern is basically six triangles - two large, two medium and two small.  The yarn is a recycled blue silk.  The pattern called for beading, but I didn't have a bead that worked well with the blue so I opted to keep it simple.

The color is a beautiful - almost an indigo.  Looks great with jeans.  I've gotten a ton of compliments on this one and I've only worn it out a few times.

The accidental gift

As the first chill of winter hit, and before I started in earnest on my holiday knitting, I knit myself a pair of slippers.  Except for my very first project, I've never been able to keep a pair of slippers.  They seem to all be gifted away.  These were no exception.

Nola's Slipper Pattern is a very quick knit - worsted yarn held double and knit flat.  However, it creates a neat look, visually separating the body from the sole of the slipper.

After whipping these up in a few days, I tried them on with high hopes of finally having a pair of nice slippers.  They were a touch too big, and Ben jokingly asked to try them on.  Lo and behold, they fit his size 14 man feet perfectly.  Apparently the pattern has a lot of stretch.

The next pair are for me!

The belated birthday gift

Better late than never was the mantra of this project.  The yarn was given to me in July with the purse request...which turned into a supposed birthday present in August...which languished knit-but-not-yet-lined in my pile of orphan projects until today.  Sewing is not my strong suit, but the purse came out well overall.

The Sock Yarn Handbag was an interesting design.  It is knit flat: four triangles, a rectangular middle section, and then four more triangles.  Sewing it together, you get an interesting mitered square look which really shows off the yarn.  The designer has a good step-by-step tutorial.

The lining included two pockets, which were held back when I unraveled the sweater for the grey yarn.

Per my gracious patron's request, I also added included a key loop.

I'd like to knit more purses in the future.  I could definitely use the sewing practice!

Get organized

This morning in a stroke of tidiness, I reorganized my yarn cubbies. I restacked the balls of yarn, but mostly I folded and organized the yet-to-be-unraveled thrift store sweaters.

Dot was very helpful in this process, supervising and occasionally pitching in to move the yarn...though mostly from the shelf onto the floor.

The sweaters had been stacked on the top of the left shelf, but my stacks had slowly turned into an unruly pile over the last few months.  With a bit of relocating, I was able to fit them all into the cubbies on the right.  Now I can actually see all my yarn, and it was quite the motivation to get ripping.  Perhaps if we lose power tomorrow I'll have an unraveling party.

Off the cuff

My first pair of socks are coming along quite nicely.  Cuff is done, moving on to the heel this weekend.  Working with tiny needles isn't that bad...it just takes a really long time!

SOCKS!

Look what I got for my birthday.  SOCKS! 

In general, I have not been motivated to make socks, mostly because my technique leaves a bit to be desired.  I haven't mastered the needle changes, so I always end up with ladders - these loose bits that run the length of the sock.  Practice makes perfect, but it's tempting to keep doing what you're good at.

Then, there's Cookie A.  Her socks are just amazing.  When I came across her latest book - knit. sock. love. - I simply fell in love with the designs.  I can't wait to knit some of these, even if I might be cursing through the first few as I fiddle with my tension. 

Check out the link to see her beautiful photos.  LOVE.

Pretty in Pink

I like to keep a simple project in my desk drawer at work.  Something that provides a little mental reset when I need a break.  Scarves work particularly well because you can knit a few rows and then put it down.  I present my newest mini-escape: lace weight cashmere.  Oh so pretty and oh so soft!

Helper

"I don't think that pin goes there.  Here, let me help you."

Honeycomb

I've been quiet lately as I've been working on a few secret projects.  However, I just love the way this one is knitting up so I thought I'd share a quick pic.

8 of 12: Royal Reading Wrap

Number 8 of my grand 2012 shawl adventure is the Freya Shawl by Renate Haeckler. 

I actually finished knitting this one back in June.  It took a while for me to block though because of its unusual shape.  Other knitters' shawls came out as a semi-circle.  The best way I can think to describe mine is a Millennium Falcon.

I really like the deep purple of this yarn.  It looks very royal.  Tony likes it too.

Vacation thrifting

I went thrifting with sis while I was back in Ohio last month. We found not one...not two...not three...but FOUR cashmere sweaters. A pretty great find, especially for the middle of summer! They're all beautiful pastels.  I can't wait to unravel and knit up these beautiful yarns.

7 of 12: Shetland Shell Lace Scarf

While on vacation in Florida earlier this year, I picked up some amazing Araucania lonco multy in a great blue/purple colorway.  As soon as I saw it, I knew what it would become: the Shetland Shell Lace Scarf by Frances Goodman (ravelry).

The pattern shows off the great color changes and the cotton yarn makes for a lightweight summer scarf.

Being a bit OCD about my knitting, I worked both sides at once and grafted them together in the middle so that the shells would fall the same way on both sides.

Lest ye be questioning if this counts for the challenge, the finished scarf (we'll call it a "stole") comes in at a generous 12 inches wide and really does lay more like a shawl than a scarf.

4 of 12: Something Borrowed

Now that the gift has been given, I can reveal my fourth shawl of 2012: Something Borrowed by Kathy Lang. 

For Gram's 80th birthday, I had the idea of a diamond theme: the April birthstone.  There don't seem to be traditional birthday gifts, but diamond is also the 80th aniversary.  A birthday is kind of like an anniversary with yourself, right?

I found a white cotton yarn with a strand of silver sparkle.  Perfect for someone who's always cold, but also lives in Florida.

This was also my first beaded project.  I had been a bit intimidated by beading, but it's really quite easy.  Now that I have the hang of it, I can't wait to start my next beaded project.

 

6 of 12: Gala Shawl

I've had this yarn for several years, but had been waiting for just the right pattern.  It reminds me of a bright autumn day, where the leaves have changed and the sun is just right.  When I saw the Gala Shawl by Cheri McEwen, I knew that the leaf motif would work beautifully.

Halfway through the 12 in 2012 challenge!

 

I love the wavy "stems" between the leaves.

I've been drawn

My brand is strong.

First Class Flying

Don't need much to make me happy on a plane...though a little more elbow space would be nice.

Vacation knitting

When in doubt, pack all the yarn.  And the yarn ball winder.  You never know when you might encounter something to unravel.

Be prepared

Always keep your knits about you.  You never know when the train might be delayed.

The beginning

Happiness is - starting a new shawl.  Love the yarn, love the pattern.  Looking forward to watching it grow into the beautiful piece I know it will be!

5 of 12: Color Affection

Back in February, I underwent a small shoulder surgery.  Faced with a week of recovery, but the prospect of low dexterity and reduced mental prowess, I queued up Color Affection by Veera Välimäki (ravelry).  While I am normally not a fan of garter stitch, this pattern offered a very cool effect for very little mental effort.  Just keep knitting, just keep knitting...

Now, you many notice the colors.  I'm not the best at matching, so one evening I called the Boy into the yarn lair.  I had picked out a deep cranberry, heather slate, and a bright white.  "What do you think of this combo?  I think it looks classy," says I.  Deadpan look.  "Liz....that's scarlet and gray."  And so, I knit up an accidental tribute to my alma mater. 

The wingspan on this is huge - I can wrap it around myself three times with room to spare.  A project like this would have normally have taken me at least 4-6 weeks...but being couch-bound I breezed through it in 8 days!

I would be remiss not to mention that I received support on this project from my dedicated assistant, Dot.

4 of 12: mystery project

As shawl #4 is going to be a gift, it has to stay hidden for a little while.  However, here's a little teaser:

This project was my first foray into beaded knitting.  I love the effect and can't wait to use beads on another one of my 2012 shawls.

Measuring up

I love recycling yarn.  I could spend hours combing the thrift store shelves in search of a great find.  As most of my yarn comes from pulling apart sweaters these days, I usually don't know how much I have of any given yarn - other than the generic a lot!

So much yarn...but how much?

This hadn't bothered me before, but joining the 12 shawls in 2012 challenge, one of the posting requirements is yardage. Now, I could estimate based on the pattern or the weight, but as soon as the idea snuck* into my mind, I knew I would have to figure out a way to actually measure the yarn.

 
Enter....the internets!  After looking at the expensive tools, I ran across this excellent summary of options, which pointed me to the brilliantly simple solution of using a bike computer.  After all, a swift is basically a wheel, and all you need to do is count rotations!

After a bit of fiddling with the circumference, I'm fairly certain that I'm getting a good reading.  Since I have so much yarn to ball, I do cheat a bit.  I'll unwind a few balls to the swift, measure those, average the yardage/weight ratio.  Then for the remaining sweater bits I can unwind straight onto the ball winder, saving a step, and just calculate the length from the weight.  It's not the most accurate method, but the estimate is certainly good enough for my purposes.

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*Apparently the proper form of this word is "sneaked"...but that just sounds odd.  I'm going with the informal conjugation.