Luca is not your typical cat. For one, he doesn’t have a bushy tail. And he doesn’t like cardboard boxes. I don’t know why. We tried coaxing him into boxes of all sizes but he wouldn’t get into them. Although he did sit for a long time on top of this box which is now making its way to the kids. It’s filled with all kinds of stuff that they asked for, Joseph’s Playstation 3 included. But I won’t show you what else is inside the box, it’s a surprise for the kids. Instead let me show you some stuff I finished knitting this year so far.

My third pair of Shur’tugal socks. This time done in Alice Yu’s own hand-dyed Sokkusu yarn. Alice, if you didn’t know, designed these socks. It’s a simple, easy to follow, free pattern which features the amazing double long-tail cast on for the cuff. It gives it a bit more stretch that your normal long-tail cast on. Excuse the modelled shots, my usual sock model is out of the country.

I am not quite done with this pattern yet. I still love it, despite the time it took to make this particular pair. I’d like to make a longer pair next time, maybe with a solid colourway to showcase the beautiful textures better. The heel flap is one of my favourite features of these socks. The centre column of the flap flows directly onto the cup of the heel. I don’t usually like pointy heels but this works so well with the pattern. Raveled!

This next project was finished a while ago but I didn’t get a chance to sew on the buttons and tke a photo until now. It’s a Little Sister’s Dress for my soon-to-arrive grand daughter. I enjoyed knitting this, first time too! It’s something that can be worn to start with as a dress and as the baby grows it becomes a tunic. The yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot which I love, but the colours bled during soaking and it turned into a murky muddle. So the yellows are not as bright as they were pre-soak.

I’ve seen a lot of my knitting friends make this cardigan and I never really had interest in knitting it thinking it’s fiddly and boring. It’s not! It’s seamless, takes very little yarn and time to knit. It’s the Offset Wraplan knitted out of a bamboo blend. I still have to sew in the buttons. I am only putting two buttons though as busy mothers cannot be bothered with undoing six buttons when they are in a hurry!

That’s it for now. I am rather proud of my start this year and I hope it continues and I don’t lose steam in finishing projects.