Gearing up for 2011

My New Years Resolution is to write on this blog. Man it's been neglected! I've still been knitting, just somehow not blogging about everything. 2011 is the year of the knitting blog come back.

Christmas 2010 has come and gone. I surprisingly ended up making most gifts even though I didn't really try that hard. I cut back drastically and didn't stress about making too many things. What I did make, however, I wanted to be just right and exactly what people had asked for.

The real star of the show, however, is my little niece Miriam. She is almost 10 months old and 2010 was her first Christmas. I think she was really the only gift anyone in my family needed this year. It was good to see her. She lives in Philadelphia and rarely gets up to Maine and or Boston for that matter.

I have a few pictures of the knitted gifts I gifted this year. I wasn't as good about getting pictures of items with their owners as I usually am. I blame Miriam for stealing all the picture taking thunder...even my knitting can't compete with her cuteness.

I made my Dad a pair of "Waffle Stitch Mittens"

  

This shawl I gave to my Sister in Law - pattern is called "Adamas"

These "Slip Jig" socks I gave to my mom. One of only a few pairs I made this year.

Now that Christmas is over with I am starting a large project for myself. This is a yearly tradition with me...finish all my gifts then knit a gift for me. This year I immediately cast on for a large and complicated cabled sweater pattern that I've been wanting to make for over a year. I already had all the yarn for it and it's been waiting.  I have been intimidated by the sweater for quite some time. It's a Vogue Knitting pattern (that in itself is intimidating enough) but it's also a coat sized sweater designed my Norah Gaughan. While her patterns are usually well written, they also have "interesting" construction and complicated patterning. Put all that together and I feel like I can't do it.

Pictured at the left is the start of the back. I have the two bottom pieces done (back left and right) and I have joined them and about half way through the top decreases. It looks odd already and can't imagine that all the pieces are going to go together well. This back piece looks tiny but matches the specs from the magazine. I guess we'll see!

I plan on blogging about this entire sweater making ordeal. I'm planning on a challenge so it should be interesting :) Stay tuned for updates. My Ravelry project page is here: http://ravel.me/sawyerlm/3cc (and it should be accessible to all). The pattern is available on the Vogue site.