Renew, Return, Reimagine

Happy new year, everyone! I hope you all received all of the yarn your little woolen hearts could handle. 

As for me, I made out quite nicely.

John and Alex got me quite a few skeins of yarn, including some Three Irish Girls (black an rainbow). The other three are Shepherd's Wool, which I actually ended up exchanging for some other skeins you'll see a bit further down. And did you see those beautiful things in the back?

Mama got her Rosewoods! Yes, I wept a bit with happiness when I opened them up.

This came a few days later at my grandma's, also from John. Sweet Georgia worsted.

All in all, a pretty good Christmas haul for me, even though I knew almost all of the yarn I was getting. I happened to go to Harps and Thistles before Christmas and had a pretty good idea of what I was getting just from noticing what was missing from the shelves. Sorry, dear....

Now that the holidays are over, I can show off the secret stuff that I couldn't post before!

Deathflake hat for my mama. Made with Berroco Ultra Alpaca. Yes, I decide that when I was already stressed out from a looming deadline, I needed to re-learn how to do stranded knitting.

Flannel quilts for my grandfathers. Made with shirt flannel and quilted by simply knotting the corners. I really like how these turned out.

Can't forget to include my signature and the year!

This is the layout for grandpa Pat's I don't have pictures of the finished quilt, though.

A pillowcase doll for my mother-in-law. The pillowcase was embriodered by John's late grandmother.

I could not, for the life of me, find a pattern online to make these things. So I ended up buying a pre-made doll and just making the dress and bonnet.

Grandma Pat and I had a hell of a time figuring this thing out, but in the end, it came out pretty awesome. 

Let's be honest, though. Grandma Albright's embroidery is the real centerpiece.

Speaking of grandma's, here's an extremely crappy picture of my grandma Pat's Christmas present, with bonus Oscar tail. The colors are way off in the picture.

This thing gave me so much trouble. Like, I don't even want to talk about it. All you need to know is that the yarn is Three Irish Girls Felicity in Terra Firma.

John and I also decided to make a couple of changes to the dining room. It's slowly being converted to the game room. And here, there be dragons.

A forest dragon from Isabella Bunny Bennet of Steam Powered Giraffe.

Three dragon hoards from Iguana Mouth. Planning on buying three more for the other side of the windows.

And our commission from Lar DeSouza,a steampunk dragon with a d20, hanging above my bitchin' bar. Yes, I made the bar. It's a repurposed sewing machine cabinet. Lined the inside with midnight blue felt and put mirrors on the back. Replaced the knobs with glass ones from World Market and used a stencil to add the paint. The mirrored tray that the bottles are on also came from World Market. It's probably one of my favorite things I've ever done, despite the fact that we pretty much never drink.

I took a break from knitting to make my own contribution to the dragon room.

Made entirely out of scrapbooking paper.

Each of the scales was hand cut and layered. This thing took me forever! And by forever, I mean about 6 hours, give or take. It's currently also hanging above the bar.

But I know that you guys don't really care about all that. It's a new year, so all we care about are resolutions! Right?

Well, let's be honest, my work ethic leaves little room for actual improvement. Instead, I'd like to list some general "things-that-may-happen-and-if-they-do-I'll-be-happy."

• Get back into yoga. 
• Work on keeping up with the picking up.
• Cook more meals at home.
• Try to write and publish at least one blog post a week.

But that's boring stuff. How about we talk about my knitting goals?

My plan is to knit at least 12 shawls in the coming year. This includes some WIP's I already had. No, I don't consider that to be cheating.

Did I mention that six of these shawls have to be done by May 21st.

I'm also trying to go cold-ish sheep. So, less yarn buying. Which is terrifying.

In case you're wondering...

...this is what almost a year's worth of shawls looks like. I still have an extra skein coming in for Celestarium and the yarn I need to do for one more shawl.

Shawl we see what's in the basket? (heh...)

This is the Flower Market shawl in Malabrigo Sock, Botichelli Red. I started this right after Christmas as a "OH MY GOD! NO MORE HATS! GIVE ME SOMETHING DELICATE AND LACY PLEEEASSSEEEE!!!!" project.

The Voodoo MKAL by Boo Knits. This was supposed to be a Halloween KAL, but I ended up getting behind. This pretty thing is begging to be done, but only when I feel the need to not do anything else but be frustrated with 50 million beads in one sitting.

The Lonely Tree Shawl for my mother-in-law. It was supposed to be a birthday present for her last year. Hoping that it will be her present this year.

This is also Malabrigo. Don't remember which base, but it's the butter colorway.

Passe Partout for grandma Pat. Intended to be a Christmas present, but I ran out of time. Three Irish Girls Springvale DK in one of the exclusive colors.

The next batch of yarn will have no patterns associated with them. Can't let my girls know exactly what they're getting!

Malabrigo Silky Merino.

Madeline Tosh Merino Light in WInter Wheat and Three Irish Girls in their special gradient yarn, Harps and Thistles colorway.

Even more Malabrigo Silky Merino in Peidra.

Like I said, there's some more yarn on it's way for one more shawl.

What are these for? Well, John and I are going to be celebrating five years of marriage and a decade of being together this year. So, we figured why not have a vow renewal! My wifekateers are each having a shawl knit just for them as a thank you gift and to wear during the ceremony.

You realize this also means that I have to make myself a shawl, right?

Enter Celestarium.

I'm already on chart E, but at 288 stitches a round, it's going to take a while. I'm hoping to have it done early, though, because the dye in this yarn hasn't been set properly. My hands turn blue if I work with it for too long, so I have to find someone to help me out with that.

Not sure what shawl this is going to be yet. It's the Dragonfly Pixie that I picked up during the Tour paired with some more Three Irish Girls.

Remember clear back at the beginning of this post when I said I traded in my Shepherd's Wool? Well, this is what I picked up instead. It's a DK weight alpaca blend that is so ridiculously soft! I had planned on making Dream Stripes with this, but I hate how the pattern is written. So, this will definitely be a later in the year project.

But this, my dear friends, is what I'm most excited about. My year-long project of learning, growing, and traveling. 

You know how Yarn Harlot has traveling socks? Well, this gal is going to have a traveling shawl. 

I've picked the Pretty as a Peacock pattern, but have chosen to make mine in phoenix colors. (See how the post title ties in? I'm so clever...) 

Any and all important events and the like, I'll be bringing this shawl along and taking pictures. The plan is to be able to wear this at whatever New Year celebration we attend at the end of 2016.

It'll be a year's worth of memories all wrapped up in lacy wool. 

Here's to a new year, chaps. Let's make it a wooly good one, eh?