Haouli Makahiki Hou!

or Happy New Year...
Well it's a brand new year. Amazing, I always get a thrill on New Years Eve no matter how good or bad a year has gone. A time for a new beginning, chances to make new resolutions, to change, to grow.

Funny, I'll be 39 this year, it sounds so old to me. I used to look in the mirror and wonder if I'd ever look like a woman and not a girl. Now I look and see the wrinkles and want to look like that girl again. Never satisfied.

Knitting. I've been knitting a bit. I'm almost done with my Tangle Yoke Cardigan. Well I'm almost done with the knitting. It may take another while longer for the buttons, we'll see.




I've started this new sweater, a seamless yoke, for which I'm using a standard pattern for and will try to design my own yoke. I don't know if I'll finish it, I feel like I never finish the sweaters I don't have patterns for. I like to know what it's supposed to look like before I finish it. And I have this feeling that it will be a lot like when I draw...never turning out quite like I saw it in my brain.

I suppose this is something I need to push through and just do, and not worry if it doesn't fit me or if it looks perfect. An exercise, a challenge, maybe good for a brand new year.

I finished my Morning Surf Scarf, which I love, love, love. I didn't love knitting it so much. At first it was interesting and new, and then it was boring. It reminds me of the Kelp Aquarium at Monterey Bay Aquarium. It's soft and beautiful.



I plan on doing more dyeing this year, and trying to branch out creatively. It seems like it's so hard, like I've shut that part of me out, while I've been mom and wife. It's a constant battle to remember who I am and be that person. Not just the picker upper, grocery shopper, laundry do-er, etc. I suppose everyone has these same battles in one way or another.

I started spinning some beautiful Black Blue Face Leicester that Kristine overdyed with Indigo...





It's amazing to spin, you too can get some at A Verb for Keeping Warm....

Happy Halloween!

It's a day late, but here is my ninja monkey and my prisoner monkey ready for Halloween.

Well, one of the troubles I've come across with spinning yarn for a project, is when you can't knit it until you spin more yarn. I guess there are those people who have the patience to spin up all their yarn before they start knitting. I am not one of those people. So my Swallowtail Shawl is on hold. Which is so hard because I've come to the end of the first repeats and now onto something new and different, but can't continue.

The Tangled Yoke cardigan is coming along nicely. I so wish the second sleeve or second sock for that matter were like the drive home. Familiar and faster. But they're not. They're boring. I have finished both of them, and am up to the yoke now, which is why I'm typing and not knitting, because it takes a certain amount of attention which I do not have right now. I'm excited about this sweater.





I started a new scarf,

it's the morning surf scarf. I had this yarn I had spun up that I thought would look great in this pattern. I'm still not sure about how many yards will look like what, but it's fun to knit anyhow. Maybe I'll have a mini scarf, or a hot pad or maybe it will actually be scarf length.

I finished my BFF socks,


They are knit with the Neptune colorway of A Verb for Keeping Warm sock yarn available on Etsy. Size 2 needles. The only change I made is that I did 4 repeats instead of 9 on the ankle part. I loved the yarn and the pattern and would recommend both.

And last, but not least I've been doing some spinning.....




Besides the fact that I've eaten way too much candy in the last couple of days, that's all for now.