I don't seem to have any brags for my pets this year, it's been a quiet year; but I suppose that might be expected as everyone is old and getting older.
Mouse has seen another decline in her overall health, I'm waiting on the results of blood work to find out if her thyroid has failed. She shows the same symptoms Squish did when his failed so it's very likely. Still, at 17 this is not entirely unexpected as thyroid failure is very common in older cats and she could live for years on medication like Squish did.
Soccer's health continues to decline, last Spring I wasn't sure he would live through the summer but he rallied in the end. I'm just enjoying the time we have left together. At 14 and with failing kidneys this was likely his last Christmas. I will be devastated when we say goodbye.
Ahab is still trucking along, he's the youngster in this group at only 12. Just a little arthritis in his joints, although this did force his retirement from Scent Hurdle in August. He earned four titles during the 2.5 years he played. Not bad for a life-long tri-pawed.
No changes with Eclipse, she certainly likes retirement.
And now for the knitting:
First up was socks for Dad's birthday. Not unreasonable I suppose, for a January birthday to be finished first.
Next was a baby blanket. I did a number of these this year thinking I might sell them. However, having gotten a new job this has stalled for now. Used a stitch called Diagonal for this one.
Followed by socks for my Nephew. He's still rocking the green.
Another baby blanket. This one with a nice Basket Weave stitch. I tried to work a stitch of some kind into all the blankets I did this year.
Next up a wee little candle. These small items will eventually go into a Christmas Advent Calendar. This little candle is one of Frankie Brown's designs. Her patterns are very, very cool.
Then I discovered the joy that is enterlac. It's possible I went a little overboard with this, first was this Camo Blanket in dark brown camouflage.
Followed by one in turquoise. This one I sold to a friend of my Mom's who needed a baby shower gift.
And another blanket in Basket Weave. I do rather like this stitch.
Another contribution to the Advent Calendar, 2 down 22 to go. Started adding the pen for scale in the pictures of these wee items. Pattern is by Frankie Brown, a lot of these little things will be from her, she's good at designing these things.
And a Wee Mitten. Added a button so it wouldn't be so terribly plain. The button came from the Multi-Generation Button Bin. This is another Frankie Brown pattern.
I could not find a pattern for a Wee Hat for the Advent Calendar so I improvised one. I will say that making a pom-pom this small is challenging.
What is Christmas without pudding? Normal for me, don't care for it but the pattern was cute. Another Frankie Brown pattern.
And a tree, yup Frankie Brown again. This was the last of these little patterns I did this year for a total of 6. I guess we'll see how 2019 goes for Wee Christmas Things.
Finally, finally finished my Scottish Sister's Lempster sweater. This project was the entire reason for "Finishing" being the 2018 Word of the Year. The honey comb stitch nearly did me in. It looks gorgeous but I don't know if I would ever be willing to do another one of these ever again.
Followed that up with some striped socks for my Neice. She asked for pink and blue, not colours you typically find in the same colourway; so she got stripes. Not sure if I'm a fan of manual stripes; maybe I'm spoiled by self-striping yarn.
Heard a rumor that my Wee Niece was playing with the first dragon I made for her. So she got a second one. I called him Sunny but he may have a different name by now. I went with button eyes because there are no infants around in their family any more so no worries about choking.
Another baby blanket, chunky yarn this time and threw in some cables for the fun of it. The holes are for a seat-belt in the car seat. Tried to flare the bottom of the blanket to help keep little toes warm. Not sure if it really worked as planned.
A purple blanket. Nothing very interesting about this one, just a little diamond pattern for texture.
There was plenty of yarn left after making my Sister's Lempster so my Wee Niece got another Wallaby. Mom and Dad took both blue sweaters and Sunny the Dragon with them when they went to Scotland in the Spring.
Some socks for my Mom for Mother's Day. I had purchased this yarn for another project but it worked just fine as socks. Mom's sock drawer is getting full, her words not mine, so this may be the last year for two pairs of socks.
Another baby blanket, this yarn is called Rum Raisin. The names Caron Cakes give their colourways will give you a nice giggle. Or leave you snacking.
Continuing the enterlac theme, another blanket. This time in a dark navy and camo, I'm totally against babies not being allowed dark, strong colours.
Some Father's Day socks. Dad also claims his sock drawer is getting full so I will likely not make too many pairs in 2019.
I have made my Niece and Nephew socks for their birthdays' for years so this year I started to include my Wee Niece as well. Unfortunately, I have to say that I will not be using "Dad's Courier Service" again after they sat on the table for weeks before Mom and I took them too the post office and sent them to Scotland. Sigh. They arrived in the end I suppose. And I did get a picture back of her wearing them. On her hands but whatever; she's three.
My boss had a baby this year, well actually his wife did most of the work on that; so I seized the opportunity to make more dragons. He has a two year old daughter so I made her a pink and purple dragon. I didn't give this one a name although I suspect she has one by now.
I have been wanting more vests for ages and I finally got around to making a few this year. Made this from kitchen cotton as the office I work at is quite warm and the budget is a little tight. Loving the neck line with the buttons.
And then a tragedy, this poor vest was a complete disaster. Oh, the vest itself turned out just fine but it got dyed in the wash and now looks like it should be evidence in a murder spree. I'm very sad about this and I have no idea what to do with it.
And the second dragon for my boss' kids. Made this one in blue as the baby was supposed to be a boy, at the time that I made this they only had the ultrasound to go on but it turned out to be correct. Sent these dragons and a baby blanket off to him through the inter-office mail without mentioning it and after they arrived he called me, what with call display and all I answer the phone with his name, and the first thing he says is, "they are so cute!" Too funny; I knew exactly what he was talking about.
Knocked off a quick pair of cotton socks for Summer wear. In the Fall but whatever.
The dragons for my boss resulted in my first commission. Three dragons for someone I know through dog sports. First one was navy and orange.
A second in green and yellow.
And a third with stripes.
And a third cotton vest, I like the version with buttons so much I couldn't resist doing another, this one in blue.
This yarn is soooo cool. The pooling is wonderful, plus it's soft and woolly. These socks went to Mom for her birthday.
I liked the purple yarn so much I did a blue pair for myself.
Socks were flying off the needles at the end of this year, this pair went to my BiL in Scotland.
And on the subject of finishing, I finished a very long term project, my Sock Yarn Granny Square Blanket. This had been on the hook since 2012 but as it is made of the left over bits of sock yarn throughout the years it was expected to take a long time to finish. It's bigger than the picture below but I keep forgetting to take a new one. This is also this year's only finished crochet project.
Continuing with socks, the knitter's sock drawer needs to be kept up too. Kept these for myself.
There was plenty left after making Mom's purple socks so I reversed the colours and made these. They went to Scotland for my Sister. Funny thing about these socks - the yarn is from Kent in England and I sent it back over the ocean to Scotland. Well traveled yarn.
For Christmas this year my Nephew got a Reading Rest to set his iPad Mini on. (Pictured with my Samsung tablet.) Who knows if he'll actually find it useful or not but it was a really neat project. If you undertake it though I recommend that you look through the forums on Ravelry for help getting it sewn up as the shaping is tricky to visualize and understand.
My Niece also got a Reading Rest for her iPad Mini.
Wove the ends in at last and finished this yellow car-seat blanket. No idea why this took so long, it was crumpled up so long it clearly needs a wash to get straightened out.
Socks continued to fall off the needles, here are Dad's birthday socks done long before his birthday.
And a final Christmas gift, a sweater for my Wee Niece. I forgot to take a picture after adding his whiskers. Managed to get this and some socks for my Sister and BiL to Scotland in time for Christmas in spite of the Canada Post strike.
And finally, I'm on such a sock roll my Nephew's socks are done even though his birthday isn't until February. I'm not worried if he sees this as he knows he's getting socks for his birthday. Plus, how many near-teenagers read their aunt's knitting blog?
Whew. That seems to be it for 2018 knitting. Shall we recap?
45 projects completed
11 blankets
9 pairs of socks
6 little dragons
6 wee Christmas ornaments
4 vests
3 sweaters sent to Scotland
2 iPad rests
1 dye disaster
1 crochet project
2019
For next year I believe I will try the word-of-the-year again, it seemed to be much better than any new years resolution. I never bothered with resolutions anyway.
The word for 2019 will be - Active.
Current Weather
3C and partly cloudy. A Chinook blew in last night; it was -20C when I went to bed.
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