Fame & Fortune

It figures that the day I take a time out and leave you with nothing but a wacky filler youtube link is the day that Craftzine will blog about my free knitty pattern, miittens. Woot! I am famous! And also tired... I worked about 16 hours yesterday on only 3 hours of sleep and I'm feeling more than a little bit frazzled. So um yeah, welcome craftzine readers! Scroll down to check out some of my more impressive content, like this free pattern for two-needle slipper socks.

Oh and guess what today is? The LAST DAY OF JANUARY. Which means operation blog every single day in January is a win, and now I can stop posting filler just to keep up appearances. I do plan to keep blogging regularly though, its just too much fun not to.

After These Messages

Sometimes, work eats my life. I refuse to fail at posting every day on DAY 30 of 31 though, so you get this rather appropriate nostalgia trip instead. Proper knit content will return soon!

Free Pattern: Simple 2-Needle Slipper Socks

I first made a pair of these slipper socks in early 2005 when my husband (then my boyfriend) asked for a pair. After a bit of experimentation I came up with this really simple pattern that is knit flat and then cleverly folded and seamed to make the slipper/sock shape!

This is the original pair of slipper socks I made for my boy. Its a terrible photo though, so I'm mostly using the more recent shots of my pretty green socks!
Because they don't require a lot of yarn, they make an awesome stash-buster project. You will need approximately 100g of worsted-weight yarn to get the results pictured here! They can be made very special by using a really luxurious yarn or embroidered embellishments and make a great, quick-to-knit gift as well.

These intructions make about a size 7 - 10 (women's) slipper. If you are interested in test-knitting a larger or smaller size for me, please email me to let me know so I can add more sizes to the instructions! Eventually I plan to create a PDF of this pattern for download on Ravelry and it would be nice to offer more than just the one size.

Yarn
For the pair of green slippers I paired a lighter worsted-weight yarn with a strand of kid mohair for a little extra fuzz and depth of colour. Using two strands of similar coloured yarns held together have a beautiful effect, as you can see in the photos.

Green version:
2 balls Knit picks Wool-of-the-Andes, 100% Wool, 110yds/50g. Colourway: Grass.
Approx 25g of Fleece Artist Baby Kid (discontinued, but any baby kid yarn will do) Nylon/Baby Kid Mohair, 1093yds/250g

Grey version:
Approx 100g of Red Heart Worsted. 100% acrylic, 835yds/454g.
Scraps of random green acrylic for edge detail

Tools
Size 7 (4.5mm) needles (or size needed to obtain gauge)
Tapestry needle

Gauge
23 ST and 24 Rows = 4" (in pattern - K1 P1 rib)

Directions
CO 21 ST
Row 1 (ws): *K1 P1* Repeat to end of row
Row 2 (rs): *P1 K1* Repeat to end of row

Repeat these two rows until you have a 21" length.

Fold and pin the strip as in the diagram below, with the right side facing out. Seam along both sides (purl stitches) and the seam should practically disappear.


You will end up with a folded shape like this:
After seaming, squish and shape the slipper sock until you have this sort of shape:
A sock-blocker helps to shape these, but isn't absolutely necessary -- just putting them on your feet will do.

And, you're done! The ribbing makes these flexible, stretchy slipper socks, but keeps them snugly in place when they're on.

When You're a Jet You're a Jet

One of these days I'll be "rounding up" my 2008 FO's. Just as soon as I track them all down, photograph and detail them that is! I've started and completed only one item in 2009 so far, my huggable shrug (details to come soon, I swear). So I was pretty happy to get started on another project, the Vine Lace Vest that both Jacquie & Lisa have knit with lovely results (Lisa doesn't seem too impressed with hers but I thought it was pretty nice!).

So far I've completed a couple inches of 4x4 ribbing on the back and I'm really digging the results.The yarn is the same one that Jacquie used for hers, FibraNatura Mermaid, although hers was Turkish Tile and mine is Jet Black. It has a great depth of colour colour and a slightly unusual mixture of fibres: 42% Cotton / 35% Superwash Merino / 12% Silk / 11 Seacell. I'm really hoping that this will be a great wearable item for me when it is done, since I often have trouble with full-on woolly sweaters being too warm. I'm counting on the Cotton & Seacell content of this fibre to keep me snug but not overheat me!

Finished Object: Onerva

You know, when I asked for all your advice on which of these 10 great, free lace shawl patterns I should knit, I didn't expect that the result would end up being one of my favourite finished objects, ever. The main reason it took so long for me to blog about it is that it went straight into rotation as my "cold day" winter scarf and there have been a lot of cold days here this winter! I usually wear it like you see below, wrapped around my neck with the ends tucked in the front of my coat, and the triangle hanging down the front over my coat zipper. I've been told it looks a little bit western (like a cowboy, not a european... although that is inevitable since I'm whiter than white) when worn this way, probably because the geometric lines are similar to a bandana. A giant, cozy wool bandana.


Pattern & Modifications
Onerva by Särmä

The first thing everyone says to me when they see the pattern is "oh my god, you translated it from Finnish!" But the thing is, the pattern itself is a straightforward, charted lace, and it uses typical symbols for yarn-overs, k2togs etc. A little bit of google translate to clarify the chart details and with a little help from some other knitters' ravelry notes it was actually very easy to figure out, and once I got into the second repeat it was easily memorized. The whole thing is made up of only 3 successive stitch patterns, stacked, they form this beautiful sequential lace.


Yarn & Needles
Mmmm, Malabrigo Laceweight, 100% soft, brushed merino in sapphire green. To get the heavier weight fabric, this yarn is knit doubled on 3.25mm (US 3) needles. The results are lusciously soft and drapey but substantial enough to keep you warm even when the temperature heads deep into the minus territories. I used 4 skeins for this shawl, and I basically knit until I ran out of yarn, which was conveniently enough a rather nice size.

Timeline
Begun in September and completed some time in October, this project got a lot of wedding-jitters knitting from me and then was promptly put aside for the actual wedding preparations in late October! Since I've been back from the honeymoon it has been getting almost daily wear though, which is part of why it took so long to photograph.

Twenty-Six Days!

I can't believe I have posted every day in January so far. It has gotten a bit more difficult lately with my new job which has really cut into my knitting time, and I struggle sometimes with completely non-knitting posts. But, at the end of the day I'm not just a knitter and this is increasingly not just a knitblog.

Now that I've blathered on about lack of knitting content, here is some knitting content! My latest FO -- a cozy wool shrug I just finished up. It is actually blocking right now and I'll shoot some official modelled shots and share the full details once it has dried and hopefully stretched just a tiny bit in the shoulders. I'm expecting a real halo from this great, woolly soft cotswold yarn and I can't wait for it to finish drying so I can wear it!

Presents. Turkey. Drama.

Just look at all that food! Our table was full to capacity; I think 9 adults is about as many as we can fit. The kids had to eat at the coffee table!
It was just like real xmas! Our "Xmas II" had everything regular xmas does, and more: after our morning of gift-opening, we got ready to host the big holiday meal. It seemed so real that when Adam saw someone in the hallway with grocery bags he thought "how did he get groceries? Isn't everything closed today?". The turkey was deliciously moist and the litre of gravy we made wasn't even needed (although it was delicious). Everyone brought something and there was so much food the table was completely covered. We had scalloped potatoes with toasted gruyere on top, mashed sweet pototoes with cream & butter, steamed broccoli, two kinds of salad, stuffing, homemade rosemary bread and more... never mind we'd been munching on appetizers all afternoon that included Adam's incredible homemade shortbread cookies and a pile of yummy cheeses, crackers and patés.

The only gift items that were a bit of a splurge were these wii games for Tasha & Jamie: Cooking Mama International and Lego Batman.
We bought little inexpensive gifts for everyone, and thanks to the post-holiday sales managed to get some really great things for under $10 for all the adults; we splurged on a bit more expensive gifts for the kids because that is one of the best things about the holidays. Its all about spoiling the kids!

Debris from Jo's Subaru
The drama came in the form of a little um, fender-bender. Sorry about the pun Jo! In the bitterly cold temperatures plastic bumpers are much more brittle that usual, and a little ice disguised as as snowbank can really do some damage.

An awesome xmas II gift! Adam got me My NHL Monopoloy, which lets you choose where to place the teams in the NHL on whatever property you want. It was a lot of fun to play and for some reason its way easier to remember that you own hockey teams than properties!
After dinner we broke out my brand new My NHL Monopoloy game, which I proceeded to lose miserably at. For the longest time the only team I owned were the Avs, and no one ever seemed to land on it. I was the first one out after some not-so-great trades and ended up as a spectator for the rest of the game. Oh well, I got to have the first slice of this delicious cake!

Laura didn't disappoint with this delicious, moist and rich Guinness chocolate cake with crème fraiche icing. Mmmmmm.

Merry Xmas Two!

Xmas '08 wasn't great for us: I was sick with the death flu, our trip to Nova Scotia was cancelled, and we had no presents or holiday treats at all. But I love xmas too much to just let it pass... so thats why we're having xmas in January this year! We bought each other a few gifts, left the fake tree up an extra month, and even special-ordered an 18lb turkey to share with some of our friends for xmas dinner two tonight. We took turns wrapping gifts out of sight for each other last night, and this morning we got to have our very own special xmas morning, opening gifts while we sipped our coffee. We both got some great, very thoughtful gifts (but nothing too expensive, that is not the point of the holiday for us). My favourite is this clock that I got for Adam -- it is made from Nixie tubes, and looks awesome. It is very steam-punk, a style that he loves, but which is hard to find affordably since they are usually bespoke, high quality products. The maker of these clocks must love doing it, because he sells them very reasonably and they are very nicely made. Adam loves his new clock and so do I, to be honest; it makes a very nice addition to our living room!

Its Getting Better, Every Day

I promise someday I'll blog about knitting again. For now you'll have to be satisfied with even more photos of me... I'm starting to feel a little self-conscious about the number of photos I have of myself, and how many have appeared here in the past 3 weeks. I can't believe I am 23 days into blogging every single day! Anyways, I just had to post and share the happy ending to my horrible haircut saga; I went to my appointment at Civello last night and saw Trinh and she worked an even better than usual miracle on my hair. Not only does it look great, but it also seems to be the exact same length as it was before she cut it. I don't know how its possible, I was expecting to have to go quite a bit shorter to disguise all those wacky layers!


So as you can imagine, I was quite pleased already when I arrived at the Purl for the January Roundtable, which of course turned out to be a very fun night involving much fondling of much excellent yarns. I was even more stoked when I got up to the prize table and won this great knitting necklace! It matches my shirt :) I took tons of photos and as soon as Spring Knitty goes up I'll be sharing them all.

Oh and, I might have bought just a teeeensy bit of yarn... I cannot resist the sparkle...

And We Didn't Even Plan This

I met my friend Sar after work last night to visit a gallery show followed by dinner and a quick stop in at Lettuce Knit.

We did not call each other to arrange to wear matching hats, I swear. It just worked out that way! Sar knit hers using the same sparkly Artfibers Beaded Silk that I did, which she also got as leftovers from the original Knitty Roundtable* back in July 2007. She got a little bit more of her yarn than I did so she was able to do the entire crown in the stripe, and the unusual colourway is paired with a strong brown. She's got some gorgeous photos and details on her blog. Looking at this photo I understand why people have asked us if we are sisters, we really do look quite a bit alike.

It was good to get out for a little socializing last night, and we had dinner at a delicious taqueria called El Trompo in Kensington that I will definitely be going back to. And then we headed to Lettuce Knit, where I got to hang out with my knittas, get in a little quality yarn-fondling time and finally get to meet Elwood, Megan's (the owner) six-month-old son. Yes, I have somehow missed seeing him for half a year, but in my defense during that time I made my own wedding dress, got married, spent two weeks in mexico and survived the xmas death-flu. Anyways, he is completely adorable as are all Megan's children (this photo of her daughter with Laura is one of my all-time favourites), and I can't wait until I have the chance to photograph his cuteness!

*Speaking of which, January's Roundtable is tonight! Mmmm, yarn & prizes!

CLATTERS for 81 Points

• Its another bullet point update!
  
  
• On friday night some of my girlfriends came over and we played scrabble. It sounds boring but when you add the drinking it can actually get quite rowdy. Adam made us homemade leek & potato soup for dinner which we followed with cheeses, crackers, flatbread and even more homemade goodness in the form of chocolate-chip cookies.
  
  
• I'm grinning like that because my first tray of tiles included the blank (its got a little diamond printed on it in this version) and allowed me to not only use all my letters for a bingo but to hit the triple-word score as well. Woot!
  

• Other than scrabble nights I have been working like a fiend. I am working on a lot of new and different projects at the new job* and it always takes longer to get the work done when you're trying to learn it at the same time. I think I am going to need to ratchet up my already pretty good time management skills if I'm going to keep on top of all the different tasks I need to get done and not end up working 12-hour days** anytime soon.

• It is my Nephew Colin's birthday in a few days and he will be two. I feel badly that I don't see him or my niece more often, and as part of Operation Remember People's Birthdays '09 I have already packed up an mailed him a gift. Its really just an excuse to give gifts to people, which is something that I love doing. Colin is getting a little souvenir from Mexico and the Cashmere Robot has gone to live with him.
  
  
• I'm now trying to come up with a great project to make for his sister, who will be 5 soon and is apparently into unicorns and dolls... a tiny part of me wants to make her a doll with a horn, but I think that would actually be disturbing instead of cute.
  
  
• This bullet point update is brought to you by the letter 'Q'.
  

*Hee, I still love saying that. Hooray for employment!
**Don't worry, it hasn't happened yet and hopefully won't happen much, but in the field I'm working in some long days are par for the course. I don't mind when its not every week because at the end of the day, what I do is really cool :)

Finished Object: Mrs Danvers' Mrs Beetons

This photo is from before the wedding, and my hand already looks
strange to me with only my engagement ring on!
I knit these back in September as a part of a Ravelry group: Knitting 20th Century Novels. We read Rebecca in August/September and I wanted to honour the most interesting character in the book with a little something appropriate, and these little ruffled cuffs were just the thing. Even the name of the pattern seemed like it was meant to be. I really loved this book! I've kind of fallen off the reading schedule since then, although I did read a few more after Rebecca.

Pattern & Modifications
Mrs Beeton (rav link) by Brenda Dayne for Knitty. I modified it by leaving off the beads and working with a heavier and slinkier yarn than the originals. Since I wanted a sort of old-fashioned look, I also made both ruffles the same depth so they would flare out a bit more.

Yarn & Needles
Berocco Bonsai, a worsted-weight bamboo/nylon blend. Its got a lovely shiny finish and when knit with 5mm (US 8) resulted in a nice drapey fabric, and the creamy white yarn is a perfect match with the pattern and look.

Timeline
A very quick knit! I started these on September 5th and finished it on September 7th. Basically each cuff took about a day of knitting and finishing.

Focus on the Love

Click the photo if you want to see who knit what, or to tag your square.
Ok so I've bitched enough in the past few days about the tiny annoying things that happen to us all sometimes. Now its time to focus on the love! As I'm sure you all know, Adam and I got married in November. Now I sort of knew the knitter's were up to something other than just helping me knit a gazillion wedding roses, but I didn't expect anything as huge and lovely as this blanket. It is absolutely perfect for us, not that Adam gets to use it much; it is wrapped around my lap as I type this!


The colour is gorgeous In Vino Veritas (remember the socks that I knit for Laura? Same colourway) and the yarn is superwash Dream in Colour Classy, a wonderfully squooshy and cozy yarn. It looks lovely draped across our couch and it has been getting lots of snuggle time lately as its been a little chilly here in Toronto.

Thank you so much knitters! I still don't know who knit all of the squares, so please go click on the top photo and add your info so I can give you a big hug in person next time I see you. And thank you especially Elizabeth for coordinating and assembling and knitting that loooong border on it, to Lettuce Knit for the great deal on the yarn, and to Kelly, Jacquie, Emily, Sandi, Aleta, Sarah and everyone else who knit these beautiful squares!

Even. More. Bitching.

I'm having one of those weeks... all the minor things that are going wrong are really making me appreciate the things that are going well in a big way though! Today's whining is brought to you by the Aveda School, where I went to try to get a simple, straightforward trim to my angled bob today because I had very bad split ends after growing my hair out for the wedding.

Two hours and my literally begging them to just cut my fucking split ends off, this is what they did to me. I thought my last disastrous haircut was shitty. I even paid for the "Academy" level students, who are supposedly fully trained as hairstylists and are just working on learning the aveda special stuff like head massages etc. This cut is the worst one I have ever had in my entire life, and this is coming from someone who has cut and dyed their own hair and occasionally shaved her head. Did I mention that this is after the instructor "fixed" what the first guy did?

I have booked an appointment with my Civello hairstylist, who I love, to have this repaired on Thursday evening. I wish I had gone to her in the first place, but she is rather expensive (but worth it) and I am trying to be responsible about where I spend extra money right now. This is why I was trying the Aveda School!

Never go there. Ever.


Amazing incredible knitting content coming soon, I promise!

Support Our Skaters!

The Smoke City Betties are having a fundraiser (no facebook? weird! but you can still email for info at info@smokecitybetties.com) at the Amsterdam Brewery on January 24th. We had a blast at the last roller derby we went to back in August and it is really something I think everyone in Toronto should take the time to do! I love the punk-rawk styling, I LOVE the incredible art that accompanies it all, and it is an all-around inexpensive, fun, and wholesome* form of entertainment.

This is one of my favourite shots of a Smoke City Betty from the last derby we attended:


*Not everyone may agree with my definition of "wholesome", but I feel that watching a bunch of women be active, engage in healthy and friendly competition and have a lot of fun doing it sounds pretty wholesome. I would take my kids to see it without batting an eyelash. If I had kids, anyways ;)

Grumpified

I am in a grumpy mood. We all know I love my Fluevogs; they are cute, stylish yet timeless, and most of all comfortable and durable. Recognize my wedding shoes above? They were perfect and every time I look at them the still make me happy.

So I have to say that when I dropped a small fortune (for me) on a new pair of winter boots last saturday, I felt pretty confident that I was getting one more pair of gorgeous, comfortable and long-lasting footwear to wear for years to come. Instead, I'm back to wearing loafers in winter after the failure of my backup boots because after only 3 days of wear, the heelcap came off. Now this wouldn't be irritating me quite so much, except that when I stopped by the store after work today to get them repaired they told me it would probably take a week-and-a-half and they'll call me. Now to be fair, I am also having the calves stretched to fit my hefty calf muscles. But when I bought the boots they said that would take 2-3 days, so I have to assume the heel repair is what is adding 8 or 9 days.

Why on earth, when I brought in a defective product after only 5 days of ownership and 3 days of wear, did the salesperson not say "....um, let me get you a NEW PAIR". I don't know why it didn't occur to me to ask at the time; maybe I was just so shocked at how long it was going to take that I was rendered speechless. Suffice it to say, I am not happy.

The fact that we're in the middle of deep freeze and I'm now bootless again with consistently -30° temperatures is just the icing on the cake of this bad experience.

Number 36!

Thats right folks, we are only two weeks into 2009 and I have already crossed ten of the items off my list of 52 things; with a goal of 1 item per week, I can pretty much relax until mid-March at this rate!

Check it out:

1. Recover from this wretched flu bug
DONE! My throat still gets a tiny bit scratchy at the end of the day if I've been talking a lot (anyone who has ever met me knows that this is most days).

2. Get back to going to the gym regularly
It may seem a bit precipitous to call this one already, but I've been to the gym twice in the last 3 days. I'd say that is pretty regularly.

4. Get back to more healthy meals cooked at home
Not only have we gotten back to cooking healthy dinners, but I've been bringing healthy foods for lunch at work. And tuesday are SALAD DAYS at the office: everyone brings a salad ingredient and we all get to share. This week the salad theme was mexican, and it was delicious and totally healthy, hooray!

5. Bake more bread at home
I made yummy flaxbread on Monday and it has been delicious ever since! My new breadmaker (thanks little sis) makes a much bigger loaf so it lasts a few days even with my eating fat warm slabs of bread the minute it comes out of the oven. Mmmmmm. Warm bread.

8. Continue taking vitamins daily
So far so good...

11. Figure out where to get a turkey in January
Turkey source found and ordered! Wittehaven meats at the St. Lawrence market special orders turkeys for a very reasonable $3/lb.

14. Stick with the blogging daily for the month of January
16. Stick with Project 365: Self Portrait
So far I'm winning at both of these. Fingers crossed I can make it another 2 weeks.

36. Buy a new mop
DONE! We bought this lovely specimen at Loblaws today. Goodbye nasty old sponge mop, hello new rag-moppy goodness!

52. Get a job...
This is probably my best one. Yays!

Wish You Were Here

Wait, I mean I wish I was there... this first few days back in the world of "having a job" have been both awesome and exhausting. The positive, I really like the work, so far everyone I've met has been really, really nice, creative, intelligent and diligent. The negative is that it is seriously cutting into my knitting / crafting time, and I am anticipating even longer hours in my future. I think I am going to have to make a real point of making some "me" time, let alone some time to see my friends and socialize at all!

This is a short and rambly post but I'm feeling a bit brain-frazzled today. After a full day of working I took in a really cool lecture put on at OCAD: Innovation in the Obama Campaign. I didn't really have the spare time to go and I was positively starving by the end of it, but it was worth it. Scott Thomas, the Director of Design on the Obama campaign, gave a great overview of the use of graphic design to support and enhance the Obama brand and shared some materials that didn't see a lot of exposure (at least up here... perhaps more of it was seen on the actual ground at campaign stops). The other speaker was Rahaf Harfoush who is actually Canadian who worked on the New Media Strategy for the campaign, which was what I was REALLY interested in and she didn't disappoint. With the current inaugural flurry of excitement on the news (especially my main source of news... the Daily Show & the Colbert Report) it was kind of exciting to actually see people who were a part of the machine.


Sorry for the relative lack of knitting or photography content today. Its all a part of completing number 14! Oh and today's self-portrait is brought to you by my red-nosed face after walking home in -22° today. I am also dorkily impressed that this is the same temperature in both fahrenheit AND celsius. It doesn't take much to impress me sometimes.

Finished Object: Another Green Hat

It is another green hat! I do love green hats this year, for some reason. This was actually quite a stellar stashbuster project; I've had this little bit of lovely Artyarns Beaded Silk since the very first ever Knitty Roundtable™, and its been languishing in my stash ever since. The 35-odd grams I had were not really enough for anything too large, but a detail spiral stripe on this simple, turned brim hat was just perfect. I used Grumperina's spiral stripe technique to stack single rounds of sparkly green with single rounds of olive green wool. The result is great; nice and cozy and large enough to fit over a ponytail and a scarf when its really cold out there.
Pattern & Modifications
No pattern, I guessed at the cast-on number based on the last two green hats I've knit recently, knit for about 1.5", purled a turning round, and then knit just over 1.5" more. I added the spiral stripe using the spiral technique (see link above) and knit until the sparkly ran out, then added evenly spaced decreases every second round for 6 rounds then every round until I was done.

Needles & Yarn
I used a 4mm (US6) needle to knit more Mister Joe Blanket, a wool/acrylic blend and also for the Artyarns Beaded Silk, a 100% silk with glass beads yarn with lots of sparkle.

Timeline
This was a pretty quick knit, another of my sick days knitting projects when I just wanted comfort knitting and lots of it. Begun on December 28 and completed on December 30, but it would have been quicker if I hadn't re-knit the stripe entirely once (the first draft was a solid band of sparkly yarn, but it didn't look that great).

Blog Profile: Diggin' the Dirt

I read a lot of great blogs, but I've put in a lot of time seeking out quality content. Now it is time to share some of my favourites with my readers, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Picture from recent post on pinwheel refrigerator cookies she made for the holidays. Aren't they lovely to look at?
Sar of Diggin' the Dirt is a kind of a renaissanace woman when it comes to modern hand-work. She grows her own heirloom fruits and vegetables, cans and preserves them herself, and cooks and bakes amazingly beautiful foods from a huge range of ethnic backgrounds. She once made lederhosen for her St. Bernard, Zeus. She's also a talented photographer, knitter and all-around fibre crafter, and she shares all of these things with us on her lushly photographed, well-written blog. The best thing about it is, she shares detailed and accessible instructions so that you too can try your hand at everything she does.

Full disclosure, we've been friends since before she even started her blog -- we met through a knitting group when we used to work together. But in the few months since she's started it I've been consistently amazed and impressed at the variety and quality of content she's published and grown to look more and more forward to her posts. The world needs more quality blogging like hers!

The Love

We got a lot of really thoughtful, beautiful gifts for our wedding. But I think this one is pretty special!

Saturday Meme Time

via Dr Lisa, from waaaay back. I'm having a lot of fun digging up old stuff I flagged but never got around to doing, and a lazy Saturday afternoon seems like a perfect time for a meme. I'm fairly sure I've never done this one before, and it is making me feel very accomplished to go through it!

Bold for stuff you’ve done/are doing, Italics for stuff you intend to do one day, Strikeout for stuff you’re not planning on doing. I've taken it a step further and made separate lists...

STUFF I'VE DONE:
Afghan/Blanket (baby)
I-cord/I-cord edging
Garter stitch
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with yarn made of camel, alpaca, synthetic, sheep's wool, recycled, vintage, silk, soy, bamboo, cashmere, hemp, linen, cotton
Mittens cuff up
Hat
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Slip stitch patterns
Domino knitting (modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Charity knitting
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Slippers
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Scarf
American/English knitting (vs. continental)
Button holes
Knitting items for a wedding -- I'd like to think the dozens of roses I knit count for this!
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cozies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with DPNs
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit -- I taught one of my sister's boyfriends to knit one christmas. I don't think he was that into it, but he was actually better at it than the sister. Sorry Katie!
Bobbles
Dying yarn -- Koolaid & food-colouring only. I have dyed clothing with proper dyes but I would someday love to use proper acid-based dyes and try handpainting yarn.
Knitting art -- I consider most knitting to be art, so I'm going to count that!
Fulling/felting
Textured knitting
Kitchener BO
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching
Long Tail CO
Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Darning
Writing a pattern
Intarsia
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rugs
Knitting a gift
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting in public
Crochet
Cross stitch/Embroidery/Needlepoint -- I haven't done it in decades though. My grandmother used to buy me embroidery kits that I would work on but never finish. My best friend Meredith does beautiful cross-stitch though, which makes me want to try that someday.
Sew (like on a machine)

STUFF I'D LIKE TO DO:
Knitting with metal wire
Knitting with yarn made of wire, yak, banana, plastic bags, cut up fabric
Two end knitting -- I wasn't sure what this was so I looked it up, turns out its twined knitting.
Mittens fingers down
Moebius band knitting
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Publishing a knitting book -- sounds ambitious, but how cool would that be?
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting -- I've put these both here despite the fact that I've done stranded knitting. My understanding is that the terms "fair isle" and "norwegian knitting" refer to specific traditional patterns (wikipedia).
Dying with plant colors
Knitting smocking
Steeks
Entrelac
Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Gloves
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Pillows
Thrummed knitting
Knitting for pets
Hair accessories
Knit a vintage pattern (over 40 yrs old)

STUFF I DON'T INTEND TO DO:
Knitting with your own handspun yarn -- while I love knitting with others' handspun, I have no interest in spinning my own
Knitting to make money
Knitting for a living -- I've crossed these last two out because frankly the idea of just handknitting for a living doesn't seem feasible or fun; however, it would be awesome to earn a living doing something knitting-related, like designing knitwear, working for a knitting publication doing writing, photography etc, or selling knitting-related products.
Knitting on a loom -- I'd like to weave on a loom, but knitter's looms don't appeal
Knitting with dog/cat hair

Finished Object: Rainbow Gym Socks

Whew! I am totally beat after my first day back in the land of employment. Thank you everyone who commented with congrats, I really could not be happier right now and it means so much that you are all happy for me too!

My exhausted state isn't going to stop me from sticking to my daily blogging though, so you get another FO from the past post for now. I think I actually blogged just the photo of these socks before we left for Mexico, but I never shared all the gory details. This is about all I have the brainpower for today.


Pattern & Modifications
No pattern, just a plain stockinette sock. With some yarns it really seems like a waste to try to force them to work with a detailed pattern and a plain vanilla sock makes good mindless knitting, which is why these became my "gym socks". I like to ride the recumbent bike because I can knit at the same time, but anything too complicated doesn't work. So I worked on these!
Yarn & Needles
Noro Sock yarn, which was not a pleasant experience to work with I'm sorry to say. Gorgeous colours, really beautiful, but scratchy like you wouldn't believe. Noro never lets you down when it comes to colours though, and these are no exception. I've always had a weakness for rainbow spectrum yarns so as soon as I saw this I knew I had to knit with it. I knit them on 2mm (US0) needles and even at that it was a pretty drapey fabric, if not the softest. I think it could be knit on even smaller needles for a denser fabric.

Timeline
These socks were over 3 months in the making, mostly because I didn't really like working on them very much. The finished product is pretty lovely though! I started these on June 1st 2008 and finished them mid-November.

No Frogging News Today

I was going to share the details about this picture today; I frogged a certain sweater with plans to make another project that I thought I might have gotten started yesterday.

But instead of starting that project, I crossed number 52 off my list. So, instead of a lovely long knitting post about a fun new project, you get this tiny brief update with too many pictures of my grinning face.