A New Post for the New Year

January is almost half over! That didn't take long. I think I left off right before Christmas. The Holidays were good to the Dreams in Fiber household. We were able to spend time with family and the minions were able to tear open many a package, not necessarily all theirs :) Here's a little mosaic of some of the festivities. It's rather difficult to take a good picture with all of the activity!Little miss was not overly thrilled about having her pictures taken so she ended up hiding and/or sulking off by herself for part of Christmas Eve. The other photos include my Grandpa B, my cousin D, my cousins J and R posing for the camera, little man, and my nephew T.

Early last year, my friend J and I decided that it would be fun to do a birthday swap and a Holiday Swap. In the package I received was a fabulous crocheted afghan
and my very own Dalek!
Also included in the package was a crochet answer book and some various edible goodies and fun stuff from Florida. It was perfect really, because I have had crochet on the brain lately! Part of the package I sent her included a secret keeper bag and an assortment of books and coffees.
All in all, my knitted in '08 list was pretty respectable. I ended up with 15 completed pairs of socks, 4 single socks, 5 hats, 10 mini sock ornaments, 3 scarves, 1 pair of mittens, 1 blanket, 13 round ornaments (which I still have yet to photograph!), 13 felted bowls, 2 pairs of fingerless mitts, 3 pairs of wrist warmers, 3 bags, 2 cowls, 1 oven mitt, and 1 mini thong. Plus a few projects straddling the years that I don't count in the overall totals. I should probably show you a few more of those completed knits!

Do not adjust your screen, these are two of my single socks. The sock on the left is for my MIL and the sock on the right is for my Mother.
Here is the pair of wrist warmers for my SIL A
and the pair of camo fingerless gloves for my Brother.
When I was knitting the scarf for Grandma D, my MIL mentioned that she liked the colorway I was using and since I had plenty of that particular yarn left, had asked if I could make one for her. I decided to use a different pattern. Pardon the bad photo, I was trying to get one up for my Ravelry Projects page and haven't taken a full view photo of her Scrunchable scarf.
My FIL is as difficult to knit for as he is to buy for. I told him that if he didn't give me a project direction he could end up getting whatever I came up with, including a rainbow thong. He chose a scarf. Again, sorry for the photo... I'll get a better one later.
Wrapped up in his scarf was a tiny little rainbow thong.
I drew my Hubby's Aunt K in the Chicago Family Christmas swap and chose a silvery gray Malabrigo. On the right is a simple cowl and the left is a pair of mittens. Originally I had a different mitten pattern in mind and halfway through the first mitten I noticed that it was going to be a tad too tight but would fit me just fine. I decided to create a new pattern for her mittens. I have always loved the textured patterns in the fisherman's sweaters and thought that a simple all-over pattern would work well for the Malabrigo. I'm working on a pair for myself in brown. I'll finish the original mitten pattern one of these days.
So what is in store for the new year? I'm not really one for making resolutions; I know what I want to accomplish, I don't need a new year to start to make any needed changes. I am working more from my stash and even destashing a bit. I'm not going to say that I wont buy any yarn in the new year because I know I don't have the needed yarn for some of the projects in mind for 2009, but the stash enhancement will probably be minimal. I mentioned before that I have crochet on the brain and I am doing my best to finish up some of my WIP's/yet to be started projects on my list before I get to work with a hook but rest assured, there will be crochet in my end of 2009 project tally! Coming up in Early February is the 3rd Annual Des Moines Knit In where I will be donating some of my hand dyed yarns and meeting some local Knitters. And I have started to attend a Knitting Group which should be fun :) I haven't been dyeing much this Winter seeing how it's a bit difficult to open up all the windows and ventilate the house but come Spring you will be seeing new skeins on my Etsy site. I have been working on a list of colorways and themes for the upcoming Spring/Summer/Autumn which I am excited to get working on. In the meantime, I am exploring some different non-yarn products to list on Etsy. I will also be designing some new projects for my friend J's upcoming Wizard of Oz Sock Club. And of course, there will be more fun and photos with the minions! So... it's a bit late, but Happy New Year everyone! With any luck, it will be a good year for all :)