A New Year ... and more knitting ahead of me in 2012.

Well I hope everyone had some nice memorable holiday cheer last year. A happy new year is ahead of us now along with ... yup, more knitting of course.  First I'll just give you the update on what I finished for Christmas gifts in 2011.  Of course I got a pair of fingerless mitts done for my DH. So he won't get cold hands while he reads the Kindle I got for him for his big Christmas gift this year. [he gave me a Touch Kindle so I could be read to with text-t0-speech while I knit.]

And I also completed the fingerless mitts for my dear daughter [DD] who knew they would be a little late getting to her. Oh ya, there's a story behind these

Hourglass Mitts by Anastasia Blaes.

I love the way they work so well being worn over a pair of leather gloves too. Keeps you hands extra worm on those very cold days.

But I did say there was a story behind them didn't I?  Okay, I'll admit to not always being the perfect knitting machine that I seem to be at times. Dare I say that I don't believe in being "perfect" anyway? Well the pattern for this traveling stitch design comes with a 60 row chart. That's sixty rows mind you. So I knit up the right hand without a hitch and was on my way to completing the left hand up to a few days before we were to go up to New Hampshire to see the kids for our Christmas get-together. I'm on row 59 late into the evenin' and I'm determined to get 'em done & have them on the blocking board before going to bed. They may still be damp when we leave for NH in a couple of days but that's okay, they can dry in their new home. All I have to do after this last row is the 4 garter stitch boarder and then the thumb ... the Thumb. There was NO HOLE for the thumb. I forgot to do the gusset and hold off the stitches for the thumb. Where was I suppose to do this? Well way back on row 17. That's right; row seventeen.

I've knit over 40 pairs of fingerless gloves and mittens in the past few years and never once did I forget to do the gusset for the thumb. Now someone made a very good suggestion of using EZ's afterthought thumb. BUT, I had already done the right hand correctly and the left had to match because it was a gift right. So yup, I frogged back to row 17.

It's all in the process isn't it? So I'm over it now. And I'll never forget the gusset again!

One last pair of fingerless mitts for a gift went to the munchkin, JD because she wondered where her's were. [inspite of the fact she was the only one who got a sweater] At least she loves my knitting right? Well she's only 5 1/2 and I needed to "size up her hands" I told her. So I had her measure her's with mine to give me an idea of how small to make her mitts.

And they seem to fit her perfectly.

So now I can knit for myself!  And with that in mind I went crazy casting on ...

but I also completed a couple of hats and a pair of mitts for myself by Christmas.

Urban Knitster Slouch Hat by Melissa Leapman. It's in her new book; Stashbuster Knits. A fantastic book by the way!

Autumn in Garrison by Kate Gagnon Osborn 

And a revised version of Susie's Reading Mitts.

I used  Aslan Trends Invernal in both of the last two knits. Lovely yarn to work with BTW.

And now I'm on to the many other projects that just suddenly jumped onto the needles before I knew it. OCKD or Startitis?

And next week I'll tell you about ....

So little time and so much knitting to do!