New Year crafting

Happy 2009! Hopefully most of you are still enjoying your Christmas break. I cut my holiday short this year and went back to work on Monday since I'm finishing up for good next week. From next Tuesday I'll be an unemployed student for the first time since 1999. I've been accepted into the postgrad primary teaching course at Victoria and I start in a couple of weeks' time. I can't wait!

I promised some finished knitting projects in my last post, and here they are - my first pair of socks and another stripy baby hat.



The socks are knitted using this great pattern and soy yarn (I've christened them my "tofu socks"). This was my first attempt at using vegan yarn - it knitted up really soft, but the yarn was pretty splitty because it has a lot of strands and is loosely plied. I'm not sure what you can do to stop this as I'm guessing that a tighter ply (if that is the right technical term) would lessen the soft smooshy feel of the finished product. Anyway, I'm happy with how they turned out. I would highly recommend the pattern for first time sock knitters - it has a great short row tutorial to show you how to shape the heel and the toe. The only tricky bit is doing the kitchener stitch on the toe, but after consulting my knit aid book, I managed to fumble my way through that OK, with a minimum of swearing and ripping out.



This hat is another in the series of stripy baby hats I've made from the wonderfully soft Merino et Soie yarn. This was sitting almost finished in my knitting bag for a couple of months, and I finally got around to seaming it up. It's the last one I'll make using wool I think - I'm trying to use vegan yarns from now on. I'm not sure who it will go to, but our friends just keep on having babies, so I'm sure I'll find someone to give it to.

And finally, here is a picture of my beautiful niece Ella modelling one of the dresses I made her for Christmas. I was worried that they might be too big, but apparently they fit perfectly!