Knitting | As Kat Knits

A Year of Reading (with a side of knitting!)

by Kat | Dec 28, 2016 | General, Making

First up – an update on my Christmas Bulb-a-thon: Paperwhites are going gangbusters while the Amaryllis is going nowhere? The bloom and two leaves shriveled up and fell off. The remaining leaves have greened up some, but there is no new growth at all. I am not hopeful that this will be successful, but it has been a learning experience. Now, I am cheering on those Paperwhites, despite the smell that I have been warned about! LOL

Now, on to the reading of the post!! 2016 was a fantastic year for reading at Casa del KatKnits!

I finished 54 books this year and thanks to Summer Book Bingo, I stepped out of my “reading comfort zone” and read some books I would have not normally picked up – but did and I loved them! I might be able to get one more book read this year, rounding out the number at 55. I just got The Nix from the library, but it is unlikely that I can finish it before the New Year – we shall see!

Of the 54 books I read this year, some stand out still in my mind. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Paris Architect, A Man Called Ove, The Book Thief, and The Underground Railroad made a tremendous impact on me and I have thought about them all many times since I have read them.

I read books that made me yearn to visit other places – The Year of Living Danishly, and James Rebanks tales of his sheep and his land in England were excellent books to give you a different perspective on life on this planet.

I became enamored with Inspector Gamache and Three Pines as I worked through mysteries with him. And, Inspector Gamache is the perfect companion for my love of Nordic Noir novels – I filled my shelf with a good number of Scandinavian mysteries.

All this reading has inspired me to really step up my goal for 2017 and I have a well-stocked reading list to get me started!

The knitting this week saw the finish of gift socks, and the start of the first of two Rob Roy hats. My swatching has begun – in the form of the band of the hat. My gauge varies dramatically from flat knitting to in the round knitting, so this is the best way for me to swatch!

I also have almost finished my Peace Cowl.

2017 will be the year of the sweater – I have a couple in process that will be back in active knitting rotation now that the Christmas knitting is over!! And, there are plans for a couple more to be cast on in soon! I will be swatching this gorgeous Sheepspot CVM as soon as I get it wound into a ball! Yes, lots of knitting to usher in the New Year!

How did your year of reading and knitting end?

As always, I am linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along, where you can find knitting and reading inspiration!

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Mission Accomplished!

by Kat | Dec 26, 2016 | General, In This Moment

Socks for the Large Footed One complete – although they were not done until Christmas night.

However, Sock Joy has overtaken and he is wearing them today before they even had a wee soak and a bit of blocking.

Happy Boxing Day, Gentle Readers!

P.S. Photo outtakes with Sherman bombing – I think he wants in on the Gift Sock extravaganza!

P.P.S. Sorry for the ill-lit photos – grey, rainy days are not the friend of this photographer!

Christmas Knitting, still?

by Kat | Dec 23, 2016 | General

I hope not. I have a few more inches of Christmas Knitting to complete, but the end is in sight and it will be done later today.

That is a good thing because I am ready to do some deadline free knitting.

Well, sort of…

There are some KAL’s coming in January and February that could be fun:

Last year I did 12 Days of Casting on with the now closed Natural Stitches, but I am not aware of any group doing this during the 12 Days of Christmas (there is a group that started before Christmas which was bad planning IMO) But, if you are interested in 12 Days of Casting on – rules are simple, cast on one new project every day from Boxing Day to Epiphany. End result – 12 items for your knitter’s gift basket… Or perhaps 12 items to jump-start your 2017 FO list… The goal is not in the completion, but rather the casting on. Last year, I cast on multiple mitts and a cowl or two and had things to gift most of the year. If you need some ideas – Gale’s Trip Mitts are super fun and a fast knit!

Now on to the KAL’s:

Kathleen Dames is leading a KAL for An Aran For Frederick. If you want to knit a sweater, or you want to knit cables – this is for you!

If your sock drawer is lacking, here are two quick MKAL options for a couple of pairs of socks in the first quarter!!

1 – MKAL – Kotukutuku Solid Sock’s – 1 clue a week beginning January 1st

2 – MKAL – On January 1^st Kirsten Kapur will announce her winter MKAL Sock knit along. Knitting will begin February 1^st – you can sign up for her newsletter here.

Need to ramp up your shawl wardrobe? Winter’s Whisper might be what you are looking for and this is free until the MKAL begins on February 1^st.

Are you looking for a challenge? Want to learn something new? You can join Louise Tilbrook in her January Brioche Challenge!

And, last – although this is not an official KAL – I would like to invite you to join Juliann and me as we knit Thea Coleman’s Rob Roy together in a mini-KAL. Who does not need another hat? And, if you don’t – you could always add it to your gift knitting for next year!

And, finally – I would like to wish all of you a most blessed holiday weekend. See you back here on Monday!

P.S. A huge thanks to my friend Karen for her assistance with some of this linky goodness!

Peaceful Knitting and Reading

by Kat | Dec 21, 2016 | General, Making

21 days of Peace Knitting have brought me to the bind off and, as you can see, I am going to do the suggested i-cord bind off. It is by no means a quick bind off, but I am enjoying the pace of this knitting tremendously – I will continue the bind off in the peaceful fashion that the cowl has been knit. Stay tuned for the matching i-cord on the bottom of the cowl. I am not sure how peaceful picking up 318 stitches will be, but I will let you know!

I really love the texture of this cowl!

I also FINALLY bought Slow Stitching, and WOW! I am almost finished reading it and my head is FILLED with ideas on how to incorporate this into my life. This is especially exciting because I did not do well with my resolution to stitch daily last year, however 2017 will bring a renewed purpose with stitching into my days. I hope to incorporate many of the techniques talked about in the book – I am really inspired and will spend some time between Christmas and New Year gathering things that I have in the house to begin this exploration.

David of Southern Cross Fibres has always been an inspiration as well, and when I saw this posted on his Instagram feed earlier this week I had a bit of an ah-ha moment!

I am excited to start this new journey in the New Year.

My reading this year has been nothing short of phenomenal. There are two people who significantly improved my reading this year – Carole and Bonny! Carole inspired me to join Summer Book Bingo and Bonny is always reading something interesting which inspires me to add another book to my “I want to read this” list on Goodreads. A huge thanks to both of them!

I began and finished Behind Closed Doors on Saturday (it is amazing what an electrical outage will do for your reading!!) and was excited to get an email from the library that Michael Chabon’s Moonglow is ready for me to pick up! This year I have read 52 books and with any luck I will be able to get that to 55 before year end!

Jeffrey Brown of PBS Newshour released a compilation of 31 books that you should add to your holiday reading list. There were several books that I will be adding to my want to read list for 2017. So many books, so little time.

As always, I am linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along. Happy Wednesday everyone!