Looking back

Another year has come to an end. I've been looking over my projects on Ravelry, and have picked out a favourite project for each month of the year.

Starting off in January (top left) are my Monkey socks. These were the first patterned pair of socks I knitted where I had to modify the pattern to fit my big feet! February and March are also pairs of socks. February saw me knitting my first toe-up pair, using the Yarn over Cable pattern from Charlene Schurch. March was another foray into pattern adaptation, using the Spring Forward pattern from Knitty. In April I knitted some baby clothes, and loved knitting those cute little booties designed by Saartje. In May I had a go at some simple lace, joining in the KAL on the Phoenix Knitting Forum, and was delighted with my Ishbel. It's had lots of wear, and won first place in the handicrafts section of our local show! In June I finally finished a garment for me! Salsa had been on the needles since the previous summer. It's a lovely snuggly cardi, perfect for these chilly winter days we're having at the moment. I discovered the Zauberball in July, and made these fantastically bright RPM socks. Socks again in August - this time Jaywalkers. They are one of my favourite pairs at the moment. It took me three attempts to actually get this pattern to fit. I'm so glad I persisted. In September I knitted lots of little hats for The Big Knit, to raise money for Help the Aged and Age Concern. This hat was one of my favourites. I'm hoping to knit a few little hats each month so that I get plenty knitted next year. In October I went on a workshop run by Debbie Abrahams, where I learnt how to knit with beads, and also how to work with several colours at the same time. It was a great day, and skills that I'd been quite intimidated by, proved to be surprisingly straightforward. In November I used one of my favourite yarns, Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend, to knit a drop stitch scarf for a friend. I think that I'll be knitting myself one in 2010. The year ends with a surprisingly summery looking bag, from the wonderful blog of Lucy at Attic 24. I was inspired to give crochet a go after visiting Lucy's blog, and this bag was the result! The largest picture in the centre shows the knits I've made for my knitting club at school. I'm starting this next week, and I hope that I'll be inspiring a whole new generation of knitters.

My resolution to knit from stash hasn't quite worked out as planned! I was very good at the start of the year, but it's sooooo hard when I see some beautiful, squishy, colourful yarn! How can I resist?! I do have two favourite yarns; the first was from a swap with a Canadian knitter, Cathy, and is a skein of Casbah sock yarn by Handmaiden, in beautiful berry shades. It's going to be one of the first yarns I use next year, and I think beads will be involved too! The second is a skein that I bought at the I Knit weekender, from the Skein Queen. It's called Wisp and is a mixture of silk and cashmere. Mmmmmmm, luxurious.

There's a lot to look forward to in 2010. Snoopydog and I are heading to London in July for Knit Nation, where we'll be attending a couple of classes and no doubt doing a spot of stash enhancement! (Better start saving now!) I'm giving myself some much broader aims next year, so that I can attempt a greater variety of projects without pressure to meet a deadline. I'd like to be able to spin yarn worthy of knitting and to improve my crochet skills. I'd like to knit something lacy with beads, and to work on my blankets (and maybe start another one or two!)

Thank you for visiting my blog this year. I hope that you have a very happy, healthy and yarn filled new year! See you in 2010! xxx

Great minds yet again!

Hello there! What a miserable day it is here in North Norfolk. It's so dull outside that I haven't turned the lights off since breakfast! I have a wonderful ta-dah moment to share with you, so I won't waste another minute. Earlier this year I discovered the wonderful, colourful hooky world of Lucy at Attic 24. If you haven't yet popped in to visit her, then you absolutely must! Her blog never fails to cheer me up, and has inspired me (along with a lot of others on the Phoenix Knitting Forum) to have a go at crochet. We depleted Kemps of its stocks of Patons Sorbet in order to crochet a bag. Mine has been off the hook, so to speak, since September, but as I wanted to line it, and my sewing skills are not great, I was waiting for a chance to see my friend Sally, whose sewing skills are brilliant! Yesterday afternoon Sally helped me to line it, so without further ado, I proudly present to you my Atiic 24-inspired bag!

I put some webbing on the back of the straps to help reduce any stretching, and I just love the fabric it's lined with. It's going to become my crochet project bag and, oh look! It's got some yarn in it already!

Twelve balls of Debbie Bliss DK cotton to be exact! They just fell into my arms when I popped into Norfolk Yarn yesterday to get my spinning wheel checked over. I'm planning on starting off with a cushion cover from one of the patterns on Lucy's blog. You can be sure that I'll let you know how I'm getting on. My spinning wheel is all set up now and raring to go! I treated myself to some Corriedale tops to move onto once I've had a go with the fleece. There were lots of colours to choose from, but I settled on this trio.......

I'm busy knitting another pair of socks, this time for my friend Charlotte. She started to knit this pair of socks over a year ago, and hadn't progressed beyond the first cuff. I offered to knit them for her, so want to get them finished before the start of term next week. The yarn is lovely, Solemate from Violet Green, and the colour is very rich. But perhaps not the best colour to use for your first pair of socks. I'm struggling to see the stitches at times! I've finished one sock so far.

Whilst I was in Norwich yesterday, I called in to see my good knitting pal Snoopydog, and exchange Christmas gifts. Now I think that Snoopydog and I have a bit of knitting ESP, as several times we have bought the same yarn or the same book within a matter of hours of each other. We set ourselves a budget for presents, and I was feeling pretty pleased with myself after visiting the Knitting Goddess and ordering some mini skeins of yarn for Snoops, just perfect for her sock yarn blankie. So imagine my surprise when I opened an almost identical set from Snoopydog for my birthday, a couple of weeks before Christmas.

A little bit of questioning gave me the answer I was dreading - Snoopydog had done what I usually do when buying a gift - one for josiekitten, one for Snoopydog! AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHH! I had to do a good bit of jigging around of miniskeins to get together a gift for Snoops that didn't involve duplication of skeins! We swapped parcels, unwrapped gifts, and laughed! Snoopydog gave me some more mini skeins from the Knitting Goddess, and a fantastic book to knit and crochet flowers.

And I am now the proud owner of a magnificent mountain of mini skeins! (not sure what the collective noun is!) Look!

I was well and truly spoilt, as the Misses Snoopydog 1 and 2 also gave me a wonderful gift of a Debbie Abrahams blanket book.

I think it will come in very handy next year. I'll tell you why another time. Bye 'til then!

2009 Sock Challenge - done!

It hardly seems like a year ago when I set myself the challenge of knitting a pair of socks each month, each one using a different pattern. It wasn't always easy, and at least one pair of socks took considerably longer than one month to knit, but I did it!! Here is my ta-dah moment where I proudly present my 2009 Sock Challenge socks!

It's a relief to have finished. It was quite pressurised (all my own pressure admittedly!) at times, and having to knit a pair of socks each month ate into my knitting time. At the beginning of 2009, I only wanted to knit socks, but as the year has progressed, there have been other things that I've wanted to try but couldn't because I had to knit a pair of socks! Next year, I don't think that I'm going to set myself such a strict timetable, but undoubtedly there will be some 2010 knitting challenges to meet. I have a couple of favourite pairs, that seem to get pulled out of the rather bulging sock drawer more often than others. They are the August Jaywalkers (3rd row middle) and the January Monkeys (1st row left). Which pair do you like best?

The 2nd day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me an Ashford spinning wheel!

It's not fully set up yet. I seem to be somewhat technically challenged at the moment. Could be due to the quantity of mulled wine that Mr JK and I are drinking! But I will get it sorted in the next few days. I have two bags of fleece to get me started, before letting myself loose on this lovely fibre. It's a merino/silk sliver, and is just soooooooooo soft.

At the other end of the fibre spectrum, I received these two balls of yarn from a (non-knitting) friend!

On the second day of Christmas I gave to my true love a pair of stripy socks! (See, technically they weren't late, as there are 12 days of Christmas!!!) Mr Josiekitten was very pleased with his socks, and modelled them for me.

Henrycat seems rather attached to the yarn, and has been reluctant to give it up! I think he's saying, "Hands off, they're mine!"

Now that the snow has pretty much melted, we took the chance to get out and about, and happened to be in Cromer at the time of the Boxing Day swim. It wasn't as cold as last year, but I still admire all those brave (mad?!) souls who ventured into the chilly North Sea to raise money for charity.

Crowds of people had gathered to watch, from Cromer Pier .......

and from the seafront .......

I felt cold just watching them! We came back home and warmed up in front of the log burner. Before I go, I must just share with you one of our presents, all the way from Germany. This lovely wooden Santa is brightening up the fireplace. Enjoy the remaining 10 days of Christmas, whatever you're up to!

The Great Sock Experiment - Day 4

This was what the Yarn Harlot told me this morning. Ok, so I haven't made it! I should have started a day or two earlier. I didn't take into account all the other things I needed to do, like make sausage rolls

and mincemeat palmiers.

Mr Josiekitten worked from home this morning, so there was no chance of getting in a couple of hours of clandestine knitting. Never mind, the world won't come to an end! I had fun trying.

Happy Christmas to you. I hope Santa stops by with a squishy parcel or two!

The Great Sock Experiment - Day 3

When a picture speaks a thousand words ...............

I'm not panicking - well, not much! See you tomorrow!

The Great Sock Experiment - Day 2

One sock done, one still to go! I haven't by any means knitted solidly today, and managed to finish the first sock before Mr Josiekitten got in from work.

Henrycat likes it, and is looking forward to snuggling up with Mr JK's feet on the sofa just as soon as they're done! I have quite a lot of things to do apart from knit tomorrow, so time management is going to be important! And to cap it all, Mr JK announced over dinner that he's thinking of working from home on Christmas Eve! That really would scupper my plans! I shall do my best to encourage him to go to work, although I can't appear too keen to get rid of him, as it's our wedding anniversary, and ordinarily I would be delighted to be spending all day with him!

We still have lots of snow, and it's bitterly cold outside. Our little tree was sparkling away this morning when I took this photo for you. See you tomorrow, same time, same place, for the latest sock news!