Lately I'm uninspired. I only bought two knitting books in 2004 - that is easily 10% of previous years. All of the really popular yarns today make me gag. The last issue of a knitting magazine I received (Cast On) was almost immediately tossed into the garbage. I can't remember the last time I saw a pattern I really had to make. sigh



I wish knitting magazines and publishers would start coming up with new stranded patterns. I've knit most of Nancy Bush's designs. I've knit all of the Nordic Fiber Arts mitten kits. I've It seems even Dale of Norway is producing fewer really lovely stranded designs these days. I often consider actually writing Nancy Bush, Alice Starmore, and Anna Zilboorg and asking them to please design more complicated stranded colorwork knitting projects. I'm withering away here...



Some of the responsibility is mine. In 2004 I spent way too much time doing knitting I wasn't interested in. I didn't challenge myself enough and I didn't do a single project with many colors (i.e., over a dozen). Whenever I knit with that many colors I find myself completely enchanted with the project.



I was looking through my projects for the previous years and have found they absolutely dwarf the projects for 2004. So this week we'll be taking a tour of past projects and why they turned me on. Perhaps that will rid me of my malaise.



Here we have the Dale baby sweater with the bunnies and ducks. Okay, so it needs steam blocking and the yarn I used was quite slippery and the ends kept working their way loose but I loved every second I worked on it.







Here's my very first Spontaneous Scarf and my favorite. It is hard to see in the photo but this is an example of the pure and vivid colors you can get when you do tone on tone colorwork. (Pattern is from an old issue of Spin-Off and each seed stitch row uses a different yarn.) I need to do another tone on tone project.







More tomorrow...

Joanne asked me what yarns I've used for the designs in Folk Knitting in Estonia. I have substituted various fingering weight yarns with success except for those designs using Tuna for some reason. Those projects turn out smaller than expected when substituting fingering weight yarn. Here's the list:



2 pairs of Laila's Socks in Brown Sheep Wildfoote



Tiit's socks in Wildfoote



Sander's mittens in Virtual Yarns Hebridean yarn and size 3 needles to size up pattern to adult



Landra's Gloves in Stahl Baby Merino (old Elann closeout) and size 1 dpns



Meida's Mittens in Richesse et Soie (cashmere/silk) and size 0 dpns



Kristi's Mittens in Elann's baby cashmere and size 0 dpns - turned out small



Kalev's Mittens in Nylamb (old fingering weight wool/nylon baby sock yarn) and size 0 dpns - I only did 5 1/2 chart repeats to make them fit



Helgi's Mittens in Nature Spun fingering weight and size 1 dpns - gauge was off and they turned out smaller



Liidia's Gloves, Nylamb (see above) and size 0 dpns



We had a lovely walk today around the University of New Mexico campus. Albuquerque weather really sucks in July but it is always nice to be able to get outside and do things in January. Today it was about 50 degrees and sunny.



UNM is an architectural masterpiece so do walk the campus if you're ever in town. 40 of the buildings were designed by John Gaw Meem who is renowned for his Spanish-Pueblo building style.



Here is Meem's Zimmerman library. DH says it is quite difficult to build adobe walls that slope inward like these.









Here you can see the Sandia Mountains in the distance.









Here are the soccer fields in front of some dorms.

Still knitting but no FO pictures. I need to rent some long movies this weekend to finish up some things. I'm not sure this will happen as we're going to Nob Hill for a long walk and fantasy shopping on Saturday and having a Scrabble party on Sunday.



Speaking of fantasies, I keep thinking I have Peaches on a diet. Then I look at photos like this where the plump brown one is surrounded by food.

Sorry I've been so out of it lately. You'd think after I nurse an extremely grumpy DH for a week that things would improve but then I became ill as well. Married couples should NOT EVER get sick simultaneously. It isn't pretty at all. I was somewhat surprised that continuing to do my daily yoga (although not always the proper ujjayi breathing of course) really helped. I think I improved more quickly as a result and also managed not to murder DH. I got about 10 new yoga videos for Christmas from my father and am anxious to test them all out. Anyway, I'm finally better and trying to get caught up on everything. I'm way behind on blog reading but I'm now up to date on email at least.



Sara finished her pretty version of the Norwegian Star Hat pattern from Stranded Color Knitting. Go check her version out! I had originally decided to only mark down the price on the booklet until the end of 2004 but the booklet is selling better so I'm keeping it at the lower price of $8.99. As the local produce market says, "A Fast Nickel Beats a Slow Dime." Also, there are some new reviews of the booklet at the web site if you're interested. So far the booklet has made nearly $600 for rabbit rescue. Thank you all for your support!



I'm unsure what my fiber resolutions are for this year. Maybe I'll come up with some knitting designs. Maybe I'll try to reduce the size of the stash. I do think I'll continue to see how many more of the designs I can knit from Folk Knitting in Estonia. So far I've knit 9 of the 25 designs and the pages in my copy are almost completely separated from the binding. This week I plan to start Avo's Mittens in this Peruvian Baby Cashmere from Elann. I dearly hope this is enough yarn. I should have ordered more but I was sick when I ordered it and for some reason even thought the yarn color was green.

Yesterday was this blog's 2 year anniversary! Pop the cork on those champagne bottles! Break out the party hats!



This household is infested with flu germs and I've been working on the same silly Dale of Norway hat for what seems like years. In lieu of any FO photos, here is a photo of the most breathtaking quilt my college friend Gracie is making for me. I am completely stunned by such a beautiful gift-in-progress. Aren't the curves and colors beautiful? It reminds me of butterflies. This is certainly the coolest gift anyone has ever given me.

I've already said that socks are my comfort knitting. Here are a pair of basic socks (only 1 would fit in the scanner) done in Dale of Norway Sisik. The yarn came with a sock of the month mailing and I'm not that impressed. I'm starting to think all Dale yarns are overpriced. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these socks yet.

Here is a photo of former Four Corners Bunnies/House Rabbit Society rescuer Debby Widolf and Sophie the bunny. Sophie is Peaches' identical twin. For years Debby worked tirelessly, caring for all the rabbits from the county shelter at her own expense. I set up the Cafepress Four Corners Bunnies shop and published Stranded Color Knitting to help her efforts. (Now the money goes to the Colorado House Rabbit Society in Denver which maintains a shelter and many foster homes.)



In October Debby landed her dream job as the Bunny House Manager at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah. We miss her terribly but it is wonderful that someone so deserving got this opportunity. She has a staff and several hundred rabbits to care for. Debby and the rabbit staff were highlighted in an article, "Wascally Wabbit: The Fine Art of Bunny Love", in the current Jan/Feb issue of Best Friends Magazine.







Anyway, in the first photo you can how large Peaches is. She is tiny though in comparison to this UK house rabbit, Dory, who recently saved her owner's life.