The rest of 2013

Ok, so I caught up on the pics from several posts before the last one. So that's catch up to bring it current with 2 posts ago. Sort of. Either way . . . time to catch up with the rest of 2013.

So I added knitting socks to my herd of projects. And ok, I admit, I kinda went a little sock crazy. I decided to start a new Christmas tradition of having new socks to wear on Christmas morning and hey, I could make them. That's what started it. Well after my sister, mom, and I each had a pair to wear on Christmas morning, I found a lovely ball of pink yarn . . . perfect for my sister. And oh here's an obnoxious ball of yellow yarn . . . hey this will work for mom . . . so I ended up making a second pair for each of us. And then . . . I decided my friends ought to have socks too. (ok this is getting into 2014, but the sock craze has tapered off so I'll go ahead and finish my story lol) I even made socks for friends who live elsewhere. One pair went to Louisiana and two pair all the way out to California. One of those was my experiment in both using cotton and knitting a pair of men's socks. I'd only ever used acrylic and/or wool, so bakers cotton was different. I've got enough to make a pair for myself, they're a bright turquoise plied with white. And the socks I'd done previously had all been for ladies, so it was a way to see how the pattern works up for gents. Another pair (for my sister) had me trying to make pedicure socks - out of sparkly black yarn. It'll be a while before she can test them out with actual pedicures, but still, she loved them. I was inspired to make "Hobbit" socks, I think they're called yoga socks for myself. Not that I do yoga, but it sort of reminds me of the Gelflings in The Dark Crystal. But my first foray into this was not so well done . . . I'll try again later.

So what is with the knitting? I did some more back in 2013.

I found this neat yarn with loads of twisties in it. It reminds me of when my sister used to do that with her hair and call it "fiddledoodles". I wanted to see how it worked, so I found a free vest pattern with the yarn and made a test piece. I gave it to my co-worker, as her little girl was still small enough to wear it. I did one in blue for my cousin's baby boy.

The other piece I did was called a huggy bear cape. It uses a reaaaaaally soft yarn (I'm pretty sure all acrylic) that I would be happy to pet just about all day.





And of course, I did a lot of counted cross stitch. I had the 2013 HAED BB SAL piece I signed up for to work on and get turned in by a deadline (which I met yay me!) and I had the shoe picture to do for my sister.



This is the one I picked for the 2013 BB SAL: QS Literate Dragon - stitched on 22 ct Hardanger with 2 strands for full crosses. Started 1/7/13, finished 12/2/13. I called him "Colonel Fubster" (yes as in a named character in Harry Potter) and the cat was known as "Besty-the-cat". In retrospect, I might have called him Admiral Fubster, or even Admiral Adama as the glasses are exactly like the ones that character wore in Battlestar Galactica. Oh well . . .

And I started "the shoe" as my sister and I were apt to call it. We spent foreeever deciding what color/count/etc the fabric ought to be. I dyed a piece and we decided that 20 ct would be the way to go. We also had to decide black or hand dyed. I had seen this pattern when it was introduced on the HAED site and thought "I want to stitch that but I don't know for!" and then remembered my sister loves shoes and I've done her several pieces with the pink/green colors.

So . . . HAED's QS Salvatore aka "the shoe":

And to test out the black vs hand dyed, I did a sample part and framed it. I was rather pleased with the little frame. We still have it at home since my sister left it here.

And a WIP pic . . . taken 12/11/13. I started this pattern on 7/7/13.