January knitting

First post of the new year! I hope to start it off with some good knitting :)

Over the break I accomplished a couple of my December goals:
--Finished the "little silk shrug"-- I wove in the ends on the day before school began again. It looks pretty good, IMO. I'll have to take some pictures of it sometime. I feel that one danger of me wearing a shrug like this, however, is that if it isn't properly stretched across my shoulders, I could come off as having football-ready shoulders. Also, the bottom back edge is a little too wide, so I must keep pulling the shrug forward so the edge doesn't bend out strangely. All in all, though-- good for a first non-mitten, non-scarf project!
--Finished the felicity beanie. Now that was a quick knit! I really want to do this one again. I saw several really cute projects people did using hand-dyed yarns on Ravelry. Felicity is a really good candidate for displaying amazing yarn because it's all plain stockinette with an interesting shape-- great canvas for special varigated yarn.
I like how the back bunches up like that. I had serious doubts about how this was going to look on me, but it turned out okay! Note to self: on M1, be sure to knit through the back of the stitch. That way, you don't get holes.

In the January/Winter 2009 queue:
--Japanese slouchy crochet beret: I have to frog this baby and start over. I accidentally increased way too rapidly and even though I then attempted to slow the growth early on with each row, it grew out of proportion. Now when I try it on, it looks like an animal is engulfing my head. So... it must be destroyed and remade.
--Lace ribbon scarf: my first time working with fingering weight yarn. I'm a bit intimidated by size 3 needles and it'll probably take forever. I've done about 4 inches since Friday (2 days), so if I think this is going to be 60 inches long, then it'll take me at least a month to knit (and that's assuming I work on this everyday).

Love the color, don't you? Too bad it's called "prune." My first time working with an alpaca mix. It's good but it can be a little splitty on difficult stitches. Also a turn off was that I had to rewind the skein into a ball of yarn so I could actually knit it pain-free. I wish all yarn companies wound their yarn into usable skeins so that customers could start knitting with the stuff immediately.
--Flap-top mittens: I've tried this pattern (in Melanie Falick's Handknit Holidays, by Kim Hamlin) before but always got stuck at the "prepare flap" instructions. Thanks to user eleanorw for clarifying them for me! So now I've gotten past that step and am thinking about knitting fingers into this instead of just ending at an open mitt.
I'm looking forwards to knitting in class this quarter!