Love your Library- January/ FO Friday

Ooops. I'd forgotten about this thread. The end of January has really crept up on me.

I dont have a huge number of knitting books and patterns. (I know someone who would say that I have too many but that simply ISN'T true!)

My Love your Library project for January came from this book:

I decided to make an elephant for my baby. To be honest I finished the knitting weeks ago and started to stitch him together. That was when I realised how much I hate the stitching part........ and the elephant project ground to a rather pathetic halt. He has spent the last few weeks looking like this.  How sad. I'm ashamed of myself.




So when I realised that January was over and that I really needed to get Nelly finished.


and here he/she is.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really pleased with it. I'm actually surprised at how like the pictures in the book it has turned out. Crazy I know but I am.

 

AND..... it's the first bit of knitting that Hubby has really shown an interest in. I think because it's for his baby and now just another scarf or something to clutter up the house.  So success all round ! :)

 

So I guess that's January's project done :)

I know what February's will be...... but watch this space.

 

I'll post about February's project as soon as possible. But pop over to snapdragoncrafts to see the other Love your Library posts.

 

I'm also linking up with Tami's FO post a day late but hey....

 



 

 

13 for '13

In cruising around some of the WIP posts from the various linky parties I hooked up with on Wednesday, I stumbled across this blog and more specifically, this post. Now obviously you're going to pop over and read it but to save you going now I can tell you that it links to this Ravelry group called 13 13's in 2013.

I quote:
'What is 13 13’s by 2013?
13 13’s in 2013 is a group for people who like to use up their stash, organize their projects and yarn and love to do the 13 different items/challenges 13 times.'

(at the bottom of the Ravelry page it says this: 'Please make one thread for your 13 13’s in 2013 that you update as you need to.' Can anyone explain what this means..... one thread....? Does it just mean a label???  ETA: I've just worked out what this means, it means at the bottom of the group page on Ravelry, you start your own thread. Genius.)


And I quite liked the idea of this. Well, I like the idea of 13 things in 2013, not 13 of each of them SO much, as I struggle to finish 1 of most things so I think it needs some careful consideration before committing forever for all to see in blogland.

But I joined the group anyway and I started thinking...............

If you read my last post you'll see that I'm making an elephant so maybe 13 stuffed animals??
I'd quite like to set myself the target of actually reading 13 books this year. I get the impression I'm going to have a lot of sleepless nights ahead of me and I find that reading from the Kindle app on my phone or iPad helps me get back to sleep so maybe 13 books???
13 items of baby clothing???
13 nights of undisturbed sleep would be nice ;)

mmmmmm

so many options.

And then I came across this blog and this post which talks about loving your library of craft books and patterns and making 13 things from them in 2013. I figured that as I'd just bought 3 new knitting books I really should try this challenge too. Somehow, after a little more clicking (you know when you have too many tabs open and you just keep clicking on links and then you can't remember how you got there in the first place?!?!? yep??? that was me!) I found this group on Ravelry which also talks about making 13 projects from 13 books. So I joined that too!

I thought this would be an easier challenge than the first, but that also it could be PART of the first! :) GENIUS!

So so far I reckon I have:

1. 13 knitted stuffed toys
2. 13 books read
3. 13 knitted items of baby clothing
4. 13 projects from 13 books
5. 13 more stockings for my advent garland (I need to make another 17 so 13 will do for now)

hmmmmm I think I need to go away and think some more. I'm not being lazy, I just want to be realistic and actually achieve the goals I've set myself. It's going to be a busy year so there's no point setting myself targets that are just going to depress me everytime I remember how far away from achieving them I am.


If any of you are still reading, thank you for bearing with me in a rather rambling pictureless post. You are FAB!