In finishing mode: Update on my year of projects

I decided to join the A Year of Projects Blog-Along on Ravelry >> - you can find details here >>

So here is my update on what I achieved this week and the week before (as I did not post an update last week).

There was a lot of  "just before the holidays" finishing stress the week before last which is why I did not post an update last week. But since Dec. 16, I do officially not have to go to work for the rest of the year as we have to take all the leave for 2018 in this year - yeah! Nearly 3 weeks of free time which means - a LOT OF KNITTING!

Finished my star pillow just in time!

Finished: My advent knitting project 2018, the star pillow

I have to admit: This pillow thing >> was way more tedious than I would have thought! All this fiddling around with tons of DPNs and cable needles and live stitches on hold - aargh! I do not see a lot of these in my future, definitely not! 

But thanks to all the support in the lovely KAL-Group on Ravelry >>, I was able to finish in time. My pillow will be a gift (not a christmas gift, but something else which is celebrated on the 26) and has been shipped to the north of Germany already.

Very good progress on my Cria christmas cardigan

As I had quite a lot of knitting time and as I am able to knit and read at the same time on this, balancing my ebook-Reader on my knees, I made very good progress on my Cria cardigan >> (sorry for the blury picture!)

My Cria cardigan: At 43 cm body length in this picture

As you see, I tried it on and I really quite like it! It is 43 cm long in the picture, and as I want it to be on the shorter side, I plan to make it to 55 cm, 7 cm of which will be the bottom cuff/band. I want it to be as wide as the button band which is 7 cm as well.

Though the rows are verrrryyyy looong, it is really nice knitting this while reading cheesy christmas cozies! I just finished "Every Time A Bell Rings" * >> (Yes, it is inspired by the movie "It's a wonderful life" * >>) and I now read "Christmas in the snow" * >> This ritual is really the best part of the holidays for me - see here >>

Yarn shopping and sock knitting on the Monet socks

It was my birthday last week and I always get a gift voucher for my local yarn shop >>. So I obviously HAD to go and spend that voucher and here is what I got- the new sockyarn collection of Opal, inspired by paintings of Claude Monet * >>

Opal sockyarn inspired by Monet- got it from my gift voucher

I got 5 balls (there are 8 colourways in total) and I had a really hard time to decide which I should take as they are all sooooo pretty!

Of course I had to cast on a plain vanilla sock immediately >> One of my goals is to finish 1 sock a month, so I still have to knit my December socks. It is so much fun knitting with this wonderful yarn and I absolutely do not need a stitch pattern, as the self patterning yarn keeps me interested.

By the way: We got the little Buddha cookie from our Yoga teacher in class last week -isn't it cute? And it was delicious as well!

Spontaneous hat knitting - the Garter Ear Flap Hat

In the comments to this blog post >>, one of my readers mentioned that she knit several of these hats. I liked the look a lot, enough that I would not shy away from knitting garter stitch in the round which I normally to not like so much. 

I grabbed two yarns from stash, one fingering and one laceweight hold together, and of I went. The laceweight is Lana Grossa Splendid * >>, it has little pearls in it, but you can hardly see those.

It was quite fun knitting this hat, though it is a little on the large side. I added 10% as I was using only size 4 instead of size 5 needles, and I have a big head. Turns out the normal stitchcount would have been enough - well, next time. Though I might only do the cuff in garter stitch and knit the rest in stockinette...

My Garter Stitch Ear Flap Hat, knit from Drops Merino Silk and Lana Grossa Splendid

No progress on the Lama, but plans for 2019

I did not crochet anythin on my lama >>, just was not in the mood for it. But as the KAL for the star pillow helped me so much to get it finished, I decided to join a similair activity for 2019, started by the German Youtuber  Jenny of "Wolliges Geplauder" >>

Every two month, she will roll a dice and participants have the following two month to finish that of their 6 projects they numbered before and finish them. I luckily do not have a lot of UFOs, so I will plan mainly projects from yarns in my stash with patterns in my stash. We will see how this goes - I am not really deep into planning here. The first dice roll will be on December 28.

So, this is it for me - how was your week?
Do you have any plans for 2019?
Please let me know in the comments below!

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