Resoluting

So what are your resolutions for 2012? I made a list of semi started quilt projects to finish in 2012. I have a quilt group that we put $2 in the "kitty" (  a plastic jar )  for each unfinished object we hope to complete by the following Dec. If the project was unfinished the money stayed in the kitty . We went out to lunch in December and  it was  hilarious to listen to  " hmmm, what project was that ? " Yeah, resolutions  can go astray.

 Have you made a resolution to get fit in 2012 ? Of course with fitness we can all just order a device that makes our midsection contract as we walk around , work on the computer etc. I can just imagine cutting out a quilt  while this belt makes my abdominals contract. Of course the person on TV was smiling and happy every time she got zapped.

 As to  other resolutions , I want to explore making complex cloth. That sounds rather lofty , it means drawing ,painting and wadding and dyeing  the fabric , hopefully liking the result enough to make something out of it.   I have a stack of Quilt Magazines in which I have dog eared  the techniques  I plan to try.

I have a  knitting project that  I would like to finish , before the spring thaw  ; fingerless gloves , sans  pattern. My  friend ," A" , who has knitted since birth,  is extracting the "how to"  out of her  head and explaining to me how to knit the gloves . So far, I have ripped mine out 4 times but I finally  made it past the thumb to the pinkie . I am using sock yarn and I wanted a tight fabric, so I am using  a size 2 needle  .  I started with 50 stitches ( about 10 stitches less than I would use for a sock )  and ribbed about 2 inches, switched to just knitting ( stockinet) and by looking at my hand , I decided to knit a few rounds before starting a gusset  (increases)  for my thumb. The gusset is formed by adding a stitch every other round  at the beginning and end of the round , moving the increase over one stitch each time. I did find that putting a stitch marker on the 1st needle helped me remember to do the increase on the last needle , as I would see it as I came around the last needle and not have to rip back and do the increase. "A'' said the number of increases needed was about 1/4 of the total.  Note, I said about. I increased 11 times and it looked big enough. Then I used a  piece of cotton yarn to place those extra stitches on and continued knitting in the round  until I reached  the pinkie. The pinkie is set lower down so after leaving those 10 stitches on a holder , I knitted 4 rounds and will then divide the remaining stitches for my other digits. I am taking notes so I can make the other glove exactly the same. ( I hope so anyway, my note taking skills leave something to be desired) .  I will be picking up the stitches of each digit and knitting a tiny tube of stockinet,  ending with some seed stitch to keep the tubes from rolling inward. As you can tell , I needed to challenge myself on the knitting front.

Fav. knitting tools , the red and blue thingy is a project holder and the needles are square, light weight metal by Kollage.  

Fingerless glove finished past the thumb.

The same glove with the pinkie stitches on a holder of cotton yarn

Well off to do those exercises that keep me  able to knit and quilt  , 'cause I don't have an ab. zapper .