What a Long, Strange Year it has Been.

First off, let me say that I do not like writing these Year in review things. Frankly, no one really cares that Lindsey Lohan went to jail for the umteenth time this year after being caught with drugs yet again, (you want to shock me, tell me when she gets cought with a book) and if you follwo this blog, you pretty much know what is going on in my life. However here is an EXTREMELY brief synopsis of how the year went for me:

News Year Day, Madrona Fiber Arts, son turned 5, Sewing and Stitchery Expo, Husband's Birthday, signed up for the Hazel Knits sock yarn club, Disneyland and Universal Studios, new spinning wheel, Oregon Flock and Fiber, Snowmageddon four hour commute home, Thanksgiving, work sucks, Christmas, OMG! Final batch of yarn club shipment.

With that all said and done, I now give you the final shipment of the Hazel Knits Yarn Club for 2010!

As you can tell, Wendee has once again outdone herself, and included a great suprise in this shipment in the form of a project bag printed with a blue sheep to match the yarn colors. I had so much fun this year that I plan to sign up for this club again next year, as well as the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Sock Club. Awesomeness!

In other news I have the final totals for my year long challenge to see it I could burn down my stash by knitting 10,000 meters in a year. Well, it was a great challenge to see if I could keep from buying new yarn throughout the year, and I slipped up a few times, but I managed to do it and then some.

The total is (imagine a drum roll here): 12,047 meters of yarn knit in a single year!

I have a few ideas for next years challenge, but haven't completely decided on what to do. I will post it early next year though.

Until then, Happy New Year! See ya'll on the flip side.

Christmas Ornament 2010.

As you may remember from a prevoius post, every year I make a Christmas Ornament for my tree using beads and other interesting bits and pieces. However, unlike last year, I try to make five different color variations (Last year's ornament contained some hard to find vintage beads, and I could not find other colorways that I liked).

And now, the colorways.

Traditional: Red and Green are often the most common colors associated with Christmas, and I couldn't resist just making one like this, accented with 24 carat gold seed beads, and red and green Swarovski Crystals set off by bright white Swarovski Crystal Pearls, This on is definately a keeper

Nick: Sometimes I have no choice but to drag my little boy along with me on trips to the bead store, but he never seems to mind. So for this one, I Let the little guy pick the colors in this one. Of course he went for his favorite color (purple) and a rich emerald green, I decided that this one would be a bit diffrent, as I used Crystal Copper Swarovski drops for the corners of the netted fringe. This one is kind of my favorite because of the rich colors and the beautiful contrasts between the colors.

Carribbean: I was not sure how this one would turn out, but i fell in love with the Carribbean Blue Opal Crystal beads and I love the drops that I used in the corners of the netted fringe (Crystal Golden Shadow). This one actually turned out better than I thought it would, and I ended up really liking this one after all.

Lilac Summer: When Swarovski announced this pale lavender and light green as their new colors, I could not resist making another purple accented ornament. So this one was born, however to take some of the overwhelming gold out of the equation, I used the 14 karat gold seed beads instead of the 24 karat ones.

Vintage: This was another color selection I was not to sure about, but turned out wonderfully. I thought about making an antique inspired ornament and decided on a pale rose matched with the Palace Green Opal Swarovski beads, giving this ornament a bit of an Asian look with the jade greens. I went with the Nickel plated seed beads in the netted fringe here and really ended up liking the pale jade and pale rose seed beads in the body of the ornament as well.

Anyhow, that is the ornaments ffor this year. Perhaps next year, I will really go crazy!

Happy Holidays!