Caution: Swamp ahead!!

I need a signpost that says that right now haha!

Here's what I have (mentally) committed to for 2010:

~a lace KCAL (Knit-/Crochet-Along, for my casual readers).  Pattern is my choice, yarn and yardage is my choice.  I will be crocheting this (I ganked this pic from the Finished Object gallery for this project) in black crochet thread, size 10:

and quite possibly lengthening it into a knee-length dress.  The skirt would have more motifs gradually added to create a flare effect.  The pattern itself is in Portuguese but it is fully charted.  It will be my first time crocheting from only a chart!

~I currently have in progress the shawl for my swap partner.  It will look something like this:

but in that light pink color I posted a pic of a few entries ago.  I am about 1/4 done with that project.

~two of my cousins are having babies sometime this year.  One is having a girl, the other they don't know the sex of yet so I am waiting to hear so that I can make blankets.  I am in the process of selecting a pattern for the baby girl I know about.

~I will be crocheting 10 shawls in 2010.  I found a group on Ravelry and so help me I joined and am going to do it.  I have not yet picked all 10 shawls but some of the candidates in the race are:

 

and last but certainly not least, and this will DEFINITELY be in the 10 that I make this year, this beauty:

I'm sure there will be more shawls appearing, too as the year goes on and more patterns are designed.  But whew, I need to get myself a little more organized than I am now, and get my nose to the grindstone so I can finish everything!

The ins & outs, ups & downs.

I'm in a worldwide shawl swap on Ravelry.  I know I've mentioned it here before.  Well, it got started and I totally thought I had everything picked out.  I got it started and it wasn't...it didn't feel right, working up.  I don't know how else to describe it.  So, I scrapped that one (thank goodness I wasn't very far into it) and have been hunting and hunting and HUNTING for a good pattern/yarn combo. 

Finally found a good yarn...

Okay.  Personally, I abhor pink.  ABHOR.  But it is my downstream's favorite color.  And this shade isn't too obnoxious.  Plus the yarn is maddeningly soft and squooshy.  In short, while I don't love the color, I love love love the base.

Now to hunt down a pattern.  There is a disgusting shortage of CROCHETED lace shawls...and a disgusting overage of knitted ones!!  Don't get me wrong, they're absolutely lovely, but I feel like us crocheters have been left out in the cold when it comes to lace shawls.  Maybe...maybe I'll screw my courage to the sticking post and try to design one. 

I know I just posted yesterday, but...

Now I have pictures!  Here is my nephew's vest, completed.  Sorry for the wash out, the flash on my Powershot is obnoxious.  The pattern is actually for a hoodie, but I finished a few rows of it and finished a skein and thought, it looks darn cute this way!  So I left it.  I found the perfect wooden buttons for it that match the tan shade in the variegation.  It was my first time sewing buttons onto any kind of crocheted garment!  I was proud of myself.

This vest is actually quite versatile, as demonstrated by my sister (who is 21, I could not believe she actually got it onto her body):

and my cat (he tried it on before I washed it.  Notice the peeved expression.):

Next up is a picture of my commission!  Overall, I'm pleased.  I omitted the ruffles along the bottom of the jacket because I ran out of yarn and didn't want to charge my friend for a 3rd skein of yarn of which only a few yards had been used.  The picture is blurry, my apologies.  If I used the flash, the purple looked blue/indigo when it's really closer to that lovely shade, just a tad darker.

I'm hoping the sleeves aren't too ridiculously long.  I had to play with the sizing because the pattern only went up to 12 mos!  Here is a close up of the nifty buttons:

In all probability it will be shipped tomorrow.  I'm glad it's done and I hope the people for which it's intended will like it!  Maybe I'll even get a pic of it being modeled!  That'd be nifty XD