New Year's Resolutions

Here is my first finished object of 2013, a pair of socks for my mother. I'll give them to her on Saturday when I see her, so I don't yet know whether she likes them or not! I however are really pleased with them, and they were lots of fun to knit, too. All the cables were done without a cable needle which was a new experience for me, and worked out surprisingly well. The pattern is a free pattern, found in Ravelry, called Bly by Caoua Coffee. They have some other fantastic patterns as well and I'm sure to try some of them later!

Bly cably socks for my mum

Now for my resolutions. I have a few knitting-related goals some especially for this year, others in a more general way that apply pretty much whenever. I decided to write down here to ensure a better follow-through or something...

1. To not buy any more yarn before I have finished even some of my ever-growing stash. (I think this is a goal many knitters share and find ever so hard to achieve)

2. Finish at least some of my nine projects marked as "in progress" on Ravelry

3. Decide what to do (finish, frog...) with some of the six projects marked as "hibernating" on Ravelry.

4. Knit this beautiful long cardigan with bunnies in the colours shown, I have them already in my stash

This pile of yarn will be a cardigan

5. Knit Magic Mirror mittens by Kristel Nyberg. For these I also have yarn (below) and am dying to get started! When I saw that beautiful light green I just could not resist!

Spring must be coming!

6. Knit more socks. Not because I particularly need them but because I have bought so much sock yarn. I have yarn for at least five pairs so those really need to be knit up. Luckily I am not short of sock patterns either, I have browsed through Ravelry in search of free sock patterns and found so many I love. (And let's not forget that I own Cookie A.'s Knit.Sock.Love which still has so many patterns I have not yet knit.

7. Knit three berets I already have yarn for: Selbu Modern by Kate Gagnon Osborn in white and the awesome multicolour yarn below. The colourway is called ´bluebell´.

Bluebells :)

The second beret is from A Stitch in Time vol. 2, it's the Sunday Pictorial Beret by Susan Crawford. I'll knit in stripy, like some people have done, in red and white. I think the candy cane -look suits a beret beautifully. The last beret is River Tam (by Jessamyn Leib) that I am going to knit in deep green. The name of the beret is a reference to a character in the awesome TV-show, Firefly, in case you were wondering.

8. Knit the Echo Flower Shawl by Jenny Johnson Johnen. For this project I also already have yarn, that is Malabrigo Yarn Lace in colour ´sealing wax´. The yarn is so awesome and the pattern so beautiful I cannot believe I haven't knit this yet.

Malabrigo yarn lace in sealing wax

Well, I think that is quite enough goals for one year, don't you? If I can keep my promise on number one, the rest will probably happen pretty much by themselves. I love yarn, I am always tempted by new colours and brands but there is only so much room in a 39 square metre flat!

Me and my boyfriend were in London for five nights last week so I though it would be good to finish this mammoth post with a good old-fashioned London tourist shot. Enjoy!

Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year everyone!

This post should probably have been written yesterday, as I intend to show you some projects that have been finished for a while but have not been photographed before, due to both extreme laziness and extreme darkness. It's pretty much impossible to get good natural light in Finland during the winter, but we'll just have to do with what we get. The first project I'm going to introduce is a hat, a 20's style art deco hat that goes by the name Regina and has been designed by Carina Spencer. As you may remember, I knit this hat with leftovers from the cable hat I knit for my boyfriend and another vintage hat I knit for myself, the 50's Bobble Topper (which I also should get better pictures of). But as it turns out, this hat has made itself a regular wear as it's so cosy and and goes so well with my new coat, too! Here are some pictures taken in Winter Wonderland with Santa's little helper, my boyfriend's mother's dog.

The other project I'll introduce are these great slippers by Drops design. It's a free pattern, as is Regina by the way, and you can find it on Drops design page along with hundreds (I think) other free patterns. And they also come in a variety of languages, they have all the big European languages along with smaller ones. Here are my finished slippers, which I'm wearing while this as well as almost always when I'm home. They are really soft and kind of massaging, as the bottom is so thick in moss stitch.

The picture is not of the best quality, cue the lack of natural light. It looks like it's really dark outside in the photo but it really is the middle of the day! Still, they are dark blue and look kind of like that...

During Christmas time, I knit quite a bit but I'll post about that later. I have so many exciting knitting ideas for this new year and I can't wait to finish some of my already started projects to make room for new ones!