the blog languishes

I've not been blogging. It's hard to get back into the habit.

I did, however, finish Billy's sweater. 1 down, 11 to go!

Sweater #2 is in progress. I'm knitting an Iced from Knitty Fall 2010, which I have knit before. I'm using Polar in brown for the bulk of the sweater with some Manos for the collar. Pics to come!

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I really need to knit for B more

His 26 inch chest makes for fast knitting, especially at 19 st/4"!

I finished the back on Friday night and cast on for the front ribbing at his swimming lesson on Saturday. The intarsia starts right away. I've done this section twice; I missed a row the first time. It looks much nicer this time, as well as being the right size.

I'm not sure if he realizes I'm knitting the sweater he asked for, but he's asked for another one. He wants an Irish flag sweater. He loves flags. We spend time on google images looking up flags a lot.

mini-post

Billy's sweater is growing. I got a lot of knitting done on the bus ride in this morning. I haven't been knitting too much this week. I've been reading and last night I was exhausted so I went to bed right after B. (Which is why I knit on the way to work instead of taking my ususal nap.)

I hope to get the back done this weekend. It looks really narrow to me, but I measured him this morning and he's got the right chest measurement. I need to make it much longer.

The best part of this whole idea is the planning. I spend lots of time thinking about what yarn for who and which pattern and which month it would best fit. Google docs is my friend!

12 in 12

So, my ambitious idea for this year is one that's been done before. Knit 12 sweaters in 12 months. I've never done it before. I usually get 4 or 5 done each year. Mostly I knit the 4 sweaters for our parents, maybe one other and then lots of socks and things.

Last month while working on my Christmas gifts, I thought how great it would be if I did more than just little gifts for my family. Our parents all have multiple sweaters I've knit them. But, I've only ever made 1 sweater for one sister and nothing more than socks or hats for my brothers-in-law.

So, I decided I should knit them all sweaters. With the parent sweaters that's 11 (plus 1 for me). I've got a semblance of a plan and hope to get at least half of my Christmas gifts made throughout the year (parents will still get their sweaters for birthdays). I haven't set any rules, really. The only rule is that all 12 have to be done this year. I hope to use a lot of stash yarn (which I did last year with the parent sweaters and most of my Christmas gifts). I hope to do some sweaters that are a little challenging, but I'm looking at consisten effort here to get me through the year.

First up, is Billy. He asked me to knit him a Trickster sweater. He went as a Trickster* for Halloween and now wants a sweater.

I didn't have anything in stash so I ordered some worsted comfort from KnitPicks in red and yellow and cast on yesterday.

I hope to have it done to give to him on his birthday next month.

So, I'm being ambitious this year. Posting might be interesting if anyone actually reads this blog (especially anyone I'm related to).

*in case you haven't watched all the episodes of Destroy Build Destroy on Cartoon Network like Billy, a trickster is one of the teams that competed and they wore shirts like this.