blog_bletherings: December 2007

Happy New Year and Happy Knitting to us all!

Nooooo, this is not the first project off the needles for Christmas 2008! I just wanted to post a picture of the more 'manly' cloths completed for my 2 male colleagues in amongst the sea of lace that was my last posting. I'm not sure how clearly this picture has turned out ... but if you have several glasses of wine and squint, you can clearly see Santa's face;) The pattern was very cleverly created by KrisKnits (http://krisknits.blogspot.com/2007/12/that-one-last-gift.html). Kris's photo's show the design much more favourably than my cr*p lighting (doh ... you would think I'd know better than try to take pictures at nearly 11pm on a winter's evening!) and duff photography!

Like many of us in the knitting community, I've been thinking back over the past year and reflecting on the joy of new friendships and skills. The online community, even before Ravelry, has inspired me so much over the past year ... thank you all! This year, I've tackled new skills and tried existing, almost forgotten, skills including:

done a provisional cast on
used picot edging
improved my finishing techniques and mastered mattress stitch
learned the value of swatching (better 30+ years late than never!)
blocked finished garments
tried felting - on purpose rather than by mistake
become reacquainted with cable and lace work
tried mini-programming whilst tweaking at blog format
done a little stash enhancement;)

I wonder what the coming year will bring us all - but want to wish health, happiness and fascinating projects to us all.

Nearly Yo Ho Ho!

Thank you all for words of encouragement with the face flannel challenge - really appreciate them and hope that you're all having success with your own festive projects.

Hot off the needles are the first 11 of the required 16... ready to be wrapped with beautiful handmade soaps purchased from Etsy sellers.