Startitis has been making the rounds on the knitting blogs and it’s hit me hard. I’ve spent hours on Ravelry looking through all the patterns to see what I want to cast on. Mittens, socks, hats… everything. I want to start knitting everything! Now that all the Christmas knitting is finished, I can knit something for me. I want to start my Doctor Who scarf but I need to save that for a possible Nerd Wars dissertation. I have some socks still on the needles that I want to get back to but I want to start more. I have so many sock books that I thought it was a little odd that I haven’t knit anything from any of them yet. I keep getting sucked into all the great patterns on Ravelry and then knitting a plain sock instead. Well, no longer! I shouldn’t say no longer, maybe instead I should say “In addition, I will knit out of my books”. I’ve been going through all my sock books and picking out patterns that I like. I’m going to kit them up, toss them into baggies and then I can just grab and knit when I’m ready.

I cast on for a pair of socks for the Sock Knitter’s Anonymous January challenge:

I got the cuff done and it was a bit too small for me, so I frogged it and cast on again with a bigger needle. I have the leg done and it appears to fit, but probably with not enough negative ease so I went down a needle size for the heel and foot and we’ll see how that goes. I seem to need to make socks in one size for the foot and a bigger size for the ankle and calf :/ That’s a baby cow, why does one of my body parts have to be the same name as a cow? I mean, I’d totally understand if I were as big as a… oh, wait. *sigh*.

Anyway, I also finished my hat. Modeled here by the lovely Kit from Knit Night.

As of today, I have one less teenager in the house.

Happy Birthday to my little Chynna Sunshine who has grown to be a beautiful woman, full of talent. She loves birds. She’s a great artist. She makes friends wherever she goes.

She’s not afraid to try new things.  Like the time she wanted to dye her gorgeous red hair black in 2007. 

Or when she wanted to learn how to make her own Daft Punk helmet for an Anime Banzai convention. She got a lot of attention at the convention for it.

She is also incredibly kind, like when she drove several hours to come home during the Anime Banzai convention just to help a friend finish making her helmet so her friend could have all the fun attention, too. 

She also likes to wear the odd things I knit for her. It is so awesome to be her mother. Happy Birthday, Sunshine.

I’m going to be participating in a fun group on Ravelry. It’s called Nerd Wars. You join a team based on your particular brand of nerdiness. Usually a TV show, video games or movies. The team sign ups haven’t been finalized yet for this round and I’m hoping for Team TARDIS (Doctor Who), Hellmouth (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Stargate (anything in the Stargate family). I’ve been watching Rachel from my Knit Night group participate last year and it sounded really fun. Every month there is a knitting challenge that has to do with your team. You can also choose to do something in a three month time frame called a dissertation. I like the idea of getting ideas and incentive to knit more. I plan on participating as much as possible. My inner nerd likes this plan. She’s proud to be a part of it.

The hat I had so much trouble casting on is coming along nicely. I just love the colors. It’s a skein of Red Heart Soft that I grabbed at Robert’s during it’s going out of business sale. I’m still sad about that. I shopped there a lot. The store policies were so much friendlier than Michael’s and Hobby Lobby. Don’t get me wrong, I like both of those stores and still shop there, it’s just that Robert’s was my first choice and the store was a lot closer to me.

How many times does it take to cast on for a hat before it’s okay to go?

So far? Five.

The Christmas knitting is done, I didn’t do as much as I wanted but it’s done and all turned out well.

I got this to help support and organize my knitting habit: I guess I should take a picture of my own, and I will once I get all my stuff into it and arranged the way I want.

Danica gave David and I matching Beanie Babies:

Danica’s lovely friend Amanda is in the Navy and serving in Japan. She brought me this lovely purple yarn home from Japan. She tells me it comes from a craft store that is large, like a mall and four stories high. I think I would love to see such a place. I’m going to have a tough time deciding whether to make something for her out of it, or something for me.

The halls were decked, the presents opened, the mess cleaned up and almost all of the decorations have been put away. Finally, I have some time to knit for me. You probably can’t tell, but it is just a tiny bit bigger.

We didn’t get a white Christmas, but I imagine there are a lot more people around here that are happy about it rather than sad. The season was full of its usual ups and downs, pros and cons and while I mostly enjoyed it, I’m really glad it is over. The year started out swimmingly enough but kinda lagged there at the end. I am still a very blessed person with a wonderful life, but I’m glad this season is over.

I don’t know that I have any real New Year’s resolutions, but I’d like to expand a few things in my crafty existence. I plan on plying my spun singles. I would like to knit more pairs of socks. And I would like to knit a sweater. I don’t know that I’m up to trying one for me, but a baby sweater or two would be nice.  I think a Doctor Who scarf for myself would be nice too. Once again, I will try to keep up with my journal. I start a new one every year and I often go back to the old ones to try to catch them up from old emails. I apparently like the idea of a hand written journal much more in theory than in practice. I’ll keep it online this year and hope the descendants don’t mind.