A New Year of Knittnig

It has been a long time since I've posted here, I've been busy with holidays, family, and lots of eating! All of the recipients of my hand knitted gifts loved them which made me very happy since I have been reading horror stories about people not appreciating hand made gifts. My afghans (secret gift that I can talk about now) came out great and I'm so glad I could finish them in time for the holiday!

Otherwise, not much has been going on in my life. I have been enjoying my time off from school and am getting ready to head back shortly. I got to spend some Christmas money on yarn and got some great stuff, and I think I may take the plunge and try socks! For FOs I have finished my GAP-Tastic Cowl and for WIPs I am going to start another cowl for my mom and a scarf for one of my friends.

That's all for now, I'm looking forward to ringing in the new year with my fiance and our friends tonight and looking forward to a great new year. Knitting wise I can't wait to try out sock knitting and I can't wait to use up all of my new yarn :D

Happy New Year everyone!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! My family and I have been having a wonderful Christmas so far and Santa was very good to me and my brother!

I have only given a few potholders out so far (the rest go out today) and I have gotten a great response so far! :D I still haven't given my secret knitting (that comes later today) and I'm so excited to give my gifts to the people I love!

Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas from me and my Brother on my new netbook (the reason for the crappy quality)!

Only 7 Days Until Christmas...

Let's hope I finish my Christmas knitting on time!

I've come to the conclusion that...

I've come to the conclusion that going to the laundromat really sucks. I have to trek .6 miles from my apartment with heavy laundry. I can't wait for the day that I have my own washer and dryer!

On the plus side I get to knit while I wait (good thing I have something awesome to do while I wait or this would be unbearable).

Ps. I think I may have found a knit night to go to! I'm super excited to try it out this week!

Thanksgiving, a Weekend Away, and FO Friday 2!

Unfortunately I haven't had much to blog lately since not much has happened since my last WIP Wednesday. However, I do have some finished objects to share this week!! (Finally)

First off is another Amelia Scarf.

Amelia Scarf

I made one scarf in this pattern a while back for my mom and I decided that I wanted one too. It was super quick and easy to knit and it was nice to get something done so quickly since the other projects I'm working on are taking much longer. I also have a decent number of potholders (11 so far, I have a lot of family haha)  finished so I am doing really well on getting those done for the holidays too!

Potholders in bright navy, sage green, wine, ecru, and jute.

And finally, the big FO of the week... I finally finished one of my secret Christmas gifts and I'm super happy with how it came out!!! Check it out on Ravelry :D This is one of my first big projects and I'm glad that I stuck with it and got such great results, so satisfying!

Aside from working on Christmas knitting, not too much has been going on in my life. I had a very nice Thanksgiving with lots of great family and Joe and I also got to go see some great friends who we haven't seen in a while. While we were away I got some more knitting done and even managed to knit a scarf for one of our friends and she loved it! :) Over the next few weeks leading up to Christmas I hope to finish this and some more potholders too!

Also over the next few weeks I will be finishing up my internship and will be heading back to school (I'm at one of those 5 year schools where you get to have three 6 month internships). I am looking forward to being back in school but not looking forward to doing homework again! I am a bit worried that I won't have enough time for knitting once I get back into the swing of things, but I know that I will at least have time to knit on the bus so that's better than nothing!

Alright, that's all for now. To check out other FOs go here!

It's that time of year!

It's almost Christmas! I am especially excited for Christmas this year because I get to give so many people homemade gifts :D Tonight I spent some time (probably too much) making a crafty advent calendar so I can count down the days until Christmas and have a way to display the stockings I bought for me and Joe last year. I'm pretty happy with how it came out considering I made it out of construction paper, manila folders, and masking tape.

The whole thing! (Disregard the thermostat and the light switch)

Close up of the place holder made with a paper clip and buttons.

The stockings.

Our cute, tiny Christmas tree :)

An ornament that came with it.

Let the countdown begin!

FO Friday 1

So, this is my first FO (finished object) Friday! I don't have much to share, but it's a start. I didn't do a WIP Wednesday this week because it would have been the same as last week. But, I have made progress on both those projects since then (potholders and secret gift).

Here is a picture of a finished potholder:

I only have one on me but I have three more finished at home and a lot of yarn to make many more! They are only garter stitch, but they are quick and easy to knit so why not.


I leave you with a picture that I took this morning while walking to my car. Boston is so pretty in the fall! All of these gorgeous colors are really making me think that I should consider getting married in the fall (mostly kidding, but we'll see :) ).

Sorry for the crappy pictures, they are from my phone!

Poor Joe had to carry all my yarn!

WIP Wednesday 1

So this is my first WIP (work in progress) Wednesday so we'll see how it goes. I'm working on two different projects right now, both of which are going to be Christmas gifts! The first is a project I can't talk about on here so check it out on ravelry!

The second is a combination of potholders and dish towels for various family members. I figured I would make a bunch and just give them to whoever. I am doing this mostly because I needed something that was a bit more portable and quick so I have knitting to do that doesn't take much concentration. Hopefully I can get a decent amount done before the holidays! :)

It's a basic garter stitch potholder made with two strands of worsted weight yarn. I'm using cotton which makes for a nice potholder/dish towel but it's proving to hurt my fingers a bit :( No wonder people don't like knitting with cotton!

Well that's all! For more WIPs check out this blog!

Lisa and Casey make scones!

So I've been doing a decent amount of knitting for some secret Christmas gifts (Ravelry members you can see what I'm working on here) and it has been going great so far! I'm really happy with my progress and I think that I will definitely get everything done that I want to! I am also thinking about making some dishcloths for various family members so that should be good too. I just bought the supplies to work on those yesterday so hopefully I will get them soon. I figured these could be a good knitting in public project since they are small and portable. I think that these, these, and these would be nice.

Aside from knitting, not too much has been going on. However, I made some yummy blueberry scones with my friend Lisa (courtesy of her mom's recipe!). They look like they came out pretty good!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 6 tbl. butter-chilled
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 2/3 cup frozen blueberries (any fruit will work though)

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 F
- Sift the dry ingredients
- Cut butter in with pastry blender
- Mix wet ingredients in measuring cup (for convenience) and then combine with dry ingredients with slightly floured hands.
- Form dough into a ball and spread out onto a glass baking dish or a cookie sheet then cut like a pizza with a serrated knife.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy! :)

Joe's Scarf!

I finally finished Joe's scarf! It took me a few weeks when really it should have taken much shorter but I've been lazy lately. I'm glad I chose this pattern for him, he really likes it and I think it looks good on him :) I tried to take a picture of him to model it and he wouldn't allow it so a photo of just the scarf will have to do!

This scarf is called The Montana Scarf and the link to the pattern on Ravelry is http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/montana-scarf. I ended up using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in a gray color. I used about a skein and a half because I didn't need it to be as long as the one specified in the pattern (Joe only wanted it to wrap around once). It was really easy and fun to knit and I only made a few mistakes :P. I also learned how to switch to a new skein of yarn and only messed it up a bit so hopefully I can get it right next time!

Now I'm going to start working on some Christmas gifts so I probably won't be able to post much. But for now, here's a picture of some cookies that I made the other night (chocolate chip from the back of the toll house chocolate chip bag)!

Muffins and Scarves!

So tonight I decided to try to make muffins from scratch, and I have to say, they look like they came out pretty good! (I don't know how they taste though so it could be a total bust haha) Here's a picture though so you can be the judge :)

Aside from baking muffins tonight, I have been working on a scarf for my amazing fiance Joe! I tried to find as manly as a pattern as I could and I think I did a decent job. I found the pattern on ravelry.com (the best knitting site/resource EVER!) It's pretty easy to knit but I just have been too busy to get it done so maybe I'll get it finished this weekend. But for now, here's an in progress picture:

So far, I'm really happy with how it's coming out and I think he'll really like it! :D Ok, that's all for now! 

Garter Stitch Cowl

My first knitting project was a garter stitch (knit every row) scarf. It didn't turn out too great, so I moved on to another project (this time a garter stitch cowl). I fell in love with the pattern and have since made one for myself and my two friends and am planning on making another one for myself after I finish a few other projects. It is a super easy and quick knit, and it makes a really comfy and chunky cowl. I used really thick yarn for this cowl (lion brand thick & quick) and I found the pattern on the Lion Brand website (http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L0335B.html?noImages=0). I wear mine almost every day now that the weather is getting a bit cooler and I'm so glad I made it.