Quilt Fridays

In January I joined a quilting group that my mom belongs to at University Lutheran Church in Seattle, WA. I felt like with the large amount of free time that my random work schedule allows, that I should spend some time making things for other people across the globe. Through joint efforts with Lutheran World Relief, the quilts we make get shipped to much-deserving countries all over the world. The quilts get made throughout the year and then we have a "Quilt Sunday" at the church to bless them and send them on their way. Here are a few pictures from the quilts that were sent off this week:

Rainy Day Knits

Aah, the beautiful Seattle weather means curling up on the couch under a blanket on one of March's forever rainy days. Unfortunately, I must curl up on the couch and do work. Oh, what a world ;-)

I would love to go crazy, start tons of new projects, and get my stash down a little. Something about the count on my ravelry page makes me want to start more projects. Only 30 projects... that's just not right (especially counting all of the presents that I never got pictures of or the projects that aren't worth photographing). My only problem is the inability to finish projects if I have too many started. But yet, to try and not spend all December knitting, maybe this year I will start Christmas presents early. Oh well, I can always use a good excuse to start a new project.

Reclaiming Sweaters...

This morning I attempted to start reclaiming the wool of a sweater I have had for years. The arm cuffs are shredded from use, yet something was stopping me from giving it up. The first pull of the shoulder showed a much larger issue than I expected. Not only is it going to be the most difficult sweater to take apart (seams everywhere), but it is also knit as two lace-weight threads per stitch. So far I am through the first sock's toe and onto the foot going toe-up for knee socks. Hopefully this crazy project will work! If so, I might have to look at Goodwill to reclaim and make myself a new sweater!

Knitting with Harry Potter

Aah, what a lovely day for knitting! Here I am on President's day with a full day ahead of me! I am continuing to push myself to finish the unending pair of knee-high socks. Maybe with 6 movies ahead of me, I can put a good dent into my progress! Oh, wouldn't it be nice to have self-knitting needles like Mrs. Weasley!

Fingerless Gloves Frenzy! (part 2)

Whew, what a challenge getting projects written out and posted everywhere they need to go. I am hoping that the first project is the hardest, and will eventually become quite a snap. As promised from previous posts, the pattern for the fingerless gloves is available either through my ravelry page (in process, not there yet), or my website:

www.christychristine.com/extras_02.html

Check it out, and feel free to cast on!

Resolutions

Every year at New Years, I attempt to make a grand jesture resolution. Up until last year, I didn't really think of good ones or picked things that were unreachable (including the year I tried to get rid of that nectar of the bubbly gods - soda). Last year (2009) I decided to expand my brain in a way that seems odd to the digital standards set in this decade - I was going to read books. Yes, books! By setting myself a goal of 20,000 book pages to read in the year, I intended to read more books than buy. I am lucky to have many opportunities to buy books, but my shelves were filled with books I hadn't read yet. There I was on 1/1/09, reading like a madwoman, and there I also was on 12/31/09 reading like a madwoman.

It was a success! I read 20,065 pages last year! I kept it to relatively light books as well as many series. I am still working on finishing Terry Pratchett's discworld novels. It feels good, though, knowing that I read way more books than I had ever read in one year. This year, I plan on keeping a similar goal, but will be a bit more picky in my selection. I have decided that 2010 is the year I will read at least 100 of the top 200 books selected in the BBC Top 200. By making my resolution this way, I can avoid truly bad book choices and can have a bit of a selection. Also, because number 1 is The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (and that's a lot of pages in itself). One stipulation is that I can count any books previously read (currently at 33) towards the total. Regardless, that's a lot of books.

Here's to reading more books!

Fingerless Gloves Frenzy!

This year for Christmas, I decided to go a little nuts about knitting. I wanted to take on knitting projects, but I also needed to keep reading to finish my New Year's resolution (to be discussed in the coming days). I decided that to make something for every girl in the family (Mom, Katy, Becky, Anne, Emily, and Orinthea), I'd have to plan it out a bit. Thus started the monthly knitting goals. One pair of fingerless gloves every month from July through December. I ended up making my goal only by finishing the gloves into the late afternoon on Christmas Eve. It was worth every stitch and end to tie in. The bounty was plentiful: