Hello 2013! (And 2012 FOs)

The Husbeast socks, a WIP from my last entry, finished! Sorry for the icky picture, hoping to take a better one once I give them to their new owner! These were made with Wool-Ease (gold) and Bernat Simply Solid (I think?). Wool-ease is always a good thick-sock go-to yarn, but I HATED working with the Bernat in such a small gauge. It was like rubbing plastic together with every stitch, yech.

 

I also knit a bunch of baby socks, for my friends that are all seemingly pregnant at the same time. These are such a quick knit, I'm planning to do at least two more pairs in January. These were made with Wool-Ease in gold and avocado, just mirrored from each pair.

I also knit my bff a set of Kitten Mittens (mittons!), improvised pattern based on a baby-mitten. This was with Caron Simply Soft, and the end result is pretty awesome. For those that aren't aware of what Kitten Mittens are, I suggest watching this video.

The last few years haven't been great knitting years, in terms of yardage used, but 2012, I'm happy to say was a good one. In 2012 I used 3634 yards of yarn, which is literally more than I used in both 2010 and 2011 combined. It's still a very small amount, compared to some people, and hell, even compared to what I used to knit (2009 was my best year, with nearly 8000 yards knit), but I'm getting back in the swing of things. I want to continue to hammer away at my 2013 goals, but not stress myself out about it. Knitting is a relaxing thing for me, and with a very stressful life and job outside of the knitting world, I need to remind myself that if I don't want to knit after working, it's okay.

That being said, I had a good knitting day yesterday (Happy New Year!) and wanted to share a picture of my current WIP, my first pair of Monkey socks (!!) in KP's Stroll Glimmer (in Potion, which is a true green, but looks very blue in the picture). I am modding the pattern a bit, mainly just to save yarn (trying to get a pair out of a 50g ball). Yesterday I got all the way past the gusset decreases for sock #1, and am very much looking forward to finishing them.