New Year, New Projects

For 2012, I have some resolutions (yep, I made some!) and some new projects on the knitting needles.

First of all, my resolutions. The usual ones: lose weight; eat better; exercise more. But there are also some new ones: either finish projects that I start or frog them; finish up some old projects; keep practicing spindle spinning; and the big one, open an Etsy store.

Etsy.com is a great site for crafters that sells all sorts of things, everything from photographs to candles to pottery. They sell finished items, vintage items, and supplies for making crafts. I would have my own "store", with a unique website address, and I would be able to list things to sell. The advantage to this is that a lot of the things that I make are unique and one-of-a-kind, so it's kind of hard to stock a traditional store. Etsy would allow me to sell these items. I will have jewelry, maybe some knit or crochet items, stitch markers, and project bags or other sewing items. I've already starting making some things for my inventory! I'll definitely have an announcement on my blog when my store is ready to go.

Over on Ravelry, among the many groups, there is a group for Harry Potter crafters called the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC). Students are sorted into one of the 4 houses (a group of students) from the main school (Hogwarts) in the Harry Potter books. They then follow a series of prompts for classes, and turn in their knitting, crocheting, spinning, dyeing, or weaving as homework to earn points for their house.

I'm part of the Hufflepuff House, and I love it there. According to Wikipedia, Hufflepuffs are known to "value hard work, tolerance, loyalty, and fair play". Each term is 3 months long, with one month off in between terms. Homework should generally take one month or less to complete, and following the books, there is a more difficult "test" called an O.W.L. In the Ravelry group, an O.W.L. is a project that takes nearly the whole term to complete. Students turn in a proposal and then are either approved or asked to revise the proposal. Once approved, they can start crafting!

For the Winter 2012 term, my O.W.L. is a project using a pattern that really caught my eye, the Lexi Cardigan by Cheri Christian. Here is my Ravelry project page for the cardigan.


I was able to turn in my proposal and get approval on January 1st, so I cast on and have been working on my cardigan in between other projects. I'm using a darkish brown color, and I think this will be a cardigan that will go with nearly everything. I think it will be great for the mild Georgia winters. Now I just need to complete it on time!

I was also able to get a dishcloth finished yesterday and turned in for homework. It looks like a miniature sweater! Along with the dishcloth, I also finished a pair of socks, which were a test knit for a Ravelry friend. I love her patterns! So it's been a pretty productive first week of 2012. More importantly, I'm enjoying what I'm making.