I’m going to the gym with the bro and also sometimes with my upstairs neighbour.  It’s definitely a good plan to have gym buddies.  We’re planning to go to pilates, too.  Should be fun!

In knitting news, I’ve finished my first project for 2011: the Snapdragon Tam for my sister-in-law:

Pattern: Snapdragon Tam by Ysolda Teague [Ravlink]
Yarn: Elle Family Favourites DK in Gold.
Needles: 4mm metal circulars.

I am pleased with it, and it was fun to knit, too :-)

As Long As It’s Black
Pattern: That Chocolate’s Gone Straight To Your Ribs Hat by Leonie Connellan [Ravlink]
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Black, and James C Brett Autumn Bliss in Dark Blue
Needles: 4mm metal – 40cm circulars and DPNs
A slightly belated Christmas present for the brother.  A nice straightforward ribbed hat that he wears even though it’s got a stripe of blue in it! ;-)

Mum’s Christmas (’09) Mitts
Pattern: Basic Mitten Pattern by Ann Budd [Ravlink]
Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Claret
Needles: 3.75mm metal circulars
Another belated Christmas present, this time for Mum – she asked me for some mittens in the same pattern that I’d made for her charity shoebox, but I didn’t have time to get them done in time for Christmas itself.  I did get them done in time for the snow, though!

Rocky Butte Socks
Pattern: Rocky Butte Socks by Elli Metz [Ravlink]
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Hug in Scrum
Needles: 3mm Addi bamboo circulars
I’d been wanting to make some thicker, squishier socks for a while – this pattern was a lovely quick knit and I like how it worked with the yarn.

Clapotis à la Toscana
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert, from Knitty: Fall 04 [Ravlink]
Yarn: Posh Yarn Eva 4ply in Tuscany
Needles: 4.5mm Boye interchangeable circulars
I started this back in October ’07.  I only knit as far as the first “straight” repeat before putting it down again.  I finally picked it up this year and knit through it really quite quickly to the finish.

Fireworks Socks
Pattern: Slight modification on Timberline Toes by Lucy Neatby [Ravlink]
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Bonny in Oct 07 Club: Fireworks (& contrast red)
Needles: 2.5mm Brittany birch DPNs.
This is another project I started back in Oct ’07.  I worked slowly on them a few rows at a time, as they were my “waiting rooms” project.  When I hit the foot of the second sock this year, I sat down and knit through them to finish them off.

That’ll do for now – I’ll show of the rest of the finished projects for the year soon.

The scarf for Mum was the Branching Out pattern [Ravlink], and I knitted it in a lovely Merino / Tencel blend that I spun on the wheel – the first time I’ve knit with my own handspun.  I just left it as a single, and it worked really well (imo, anyway!) and I like the way the colour repeats came out.  Mum says she really likes it too, which is the main thing!

I also joined two Christmas swaps, one through the Limegreenjelly group, and one through Plurk.  The post was / is still being less kind where those are concerned.  It seems to have eaten the parcel from the latter altogether, but I have now had my LGJ parcel from Cal, and a fabulous one it is too:

Two braids of LGJ fibre (one Merino/Silk, one Merino, yum!), a beautiful skein of Posh Yarn Elinor, an Orange Blossom perfume stick which I think is from Lush, mini Green & Black’s choccy bars (om nom nom!), a set of Knit Pro interchangeable needle tips and a cable for them (which spookily I’ve been wanting for ages), and an adorable Lego keyring. :-D  I just hope she likes her gifts from me as much as I do mine.

Pattern: Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante [Ravlink]
Yarn: The Yarn Yard Bonny in Byron Bay & Art Deco solid, and Wendy Sunbeam St. Ives 4ply Sock Wool in Dark Grey.
Needles: 4mm metal circulars.

Creative Fibres Hand Dyed Mohair in "Pukeko"

The name of the colour comes from a New Zealand bird which has plumage in the colour of the yarn.  Oh, and it’s a lovely 100g hank of bulky-weight mohair… I’ve been thinking about what to make with it, but I think I’ve settled on a shawl of some kind.

Setting the twist

(excuse the rubbish photo), and also marvelling over how the Xandermog can go from FULL ON PESTER mode to fast asleep, you-can’t-wake-me in under five minutes flat.  Still when the result is this little face:

N'awwww!

how can you complain?

Travelling Woman "Gap Year Travels" shawl in progress

I’m planning to finish it and leave it blocking before I go to bed. Yay!

Other than that, I’ve also been (still) working on the “Gap Year Travels” Travelling Woman shawl… and I can’t remember if I mentioned this, but I’ve called my particular version of it Gap Year Travels because the colourway of the yarn I’m knitting it in is called Byron Bay.  Which is somewhere I visited while travelling in Australia on my gap year.  Anyway, I’ve nearly finished the shawl – ten rows or so to go, and I don’t think I’m going to have enough of the yarn left.  Fortunately, I do have some solid blue that goes with it well enough that I can use it to finish off.  I hope!  If that doesn’t work, well, I put in that lifeline, so it’ll be easy to rip back without dropping any stitches.  If a bit of a nuisance.  But then I’ll definitely have enough yarn to finish off the edging chart.

In other news, marmite rice cakes are delicious.  That is all.