More projects from 2012

Just to prove that I have actually been knitting :)

I'm usually a very selfish knitter, with the exception of projects I've given to much loved friends and family members. However, in June I put some of my selfishness aside and took part in a friend's effort to create a comfort blanket for the psychiatric care unit of her local hospital.

She wanted fairly fine gauge wool squares made with machine-washable yarn, so I spent one of the days of my summer holiday knitting a square on the bias, using various sock yarn leftovers. I don't think I have a picture of the finished square, so you will have to make do with this partly knitted square for an idea of what my effort looks like.

 A fellow Raveller and Facebook friend went through an awful and devestating loss at the beginning of June. To show our condolances, one of the groups I'm an active member of decided to make a blanket for her and her family so they could wrap themselves up in our hugs and good wishes when the sorrow is overwhelming.

 I'm definitely not a crocheter, but I made an exception and did my best to crochet something resembling a granny square. It's not the prettiest of granny squares, but my intentions were good.

And before you all start believing I've complete forgotten about my selfish tendencies, fear not. I did actually finish a shawl for myself too.

 The Henslowe pattern is genius. It starts off simply enough with a garter stitch triangle, but the end result is fabulous!

Still here...

The first few months of 2012 have just flown by. I can hardly believe that May is almost halfway through, and I've yet to post a single thing on this blog.

Like every year, I began 2012 with lofty ideas of using more of my ever expanding stash, and buying yarn only when I need it. However, that idea didn't really work, as I managed to amass a fair amount of yarn even during January, when I was supposed to be on a semi-yarn diet. Alarwyn and I had agreed that with the exception of birthday yarn, all yarn purchases in January had to be approved by the other.

 I have managed to finish some projects, so it's not like the only thing I've been doing is increasing the size of my stash.

This shawl is my first project of the year. I used the increase pattern from Ysolda Teague's Damson shawl, but otherwise it was purely a project of my imagination.

The shawl is surprisingly warm from something knit in a laceweight blend of wool and silk, so it's been used a great deal so far.

My version of the Eternal Spring Shawl was finished next.

Most recently I finished my Cladonia.