Giant Knit Cabled Intarsia Sweater

So here we are! Happy Monday! Happy New Year! I truly love the new year. Making goals, resolutions, and measuring progress from the previous year is satisfying and invigorating. And I am SO excited for 2016!

2015 brought a lot of good things. I built a lot of healthy habits into my life (everything at once - sleeping more, drinking more water, eating WAY healthier--as in zero Taco Bell and LOTS of new veggies--, and actually enjoying exercising regularly!) and hope to continue to make improvements there. I also made a lot more room in my life to be creative, and it's been so incredibly rewarding to be making things again. August brought me the cutest niece in the whole world, and the joy she has brought my entire family has been a true blessing. I got to meet her in Alaska in September, and it was so, so good to visit my brother and sister-in-law in their yurt (!) on the mountain they live on (!!). Aside from wishing I weren't so far from my whole family, I'm really happy in my personal life, and  satisfied (but still hungry) in my creative endeavors. 

So speaking of creative endeavors, here is another bulky intarsia sweater! I love making these. This was really fun to figure out, combining cables and intarsia. I am really into the abstract nature of it! It was a surprise to me as to how it was going to turn out. I used Knitpick's roving for the green heather, and some new roving I purchased from Dharma Trading Company for the white. Dharma's roving really impressed me, and I can't wait to order more from them. As always, I was delighted with the Knitpick's roving -- this heather is a beautiful combination of blues, greens, and yellows, giving the color so much depth. The fibers are very long, which makes my loose spinning technique easier, and gives it a sleeker handfeel.

It started to snow right as I was setting up to take these photos, which I figured was a very appropriate setting for such a fluffy, heavy sweater! 

What are your New Year's goals and resolutions? 

Mine include:

- Take more photos for fun

- Make better use of my evenings and weekends

- Take time to enjoy my mornings rather than rush out the door

- Write more, both blogging and journaling

- Use up more of my stash!

Hope your first week of 2016 is going well so far!

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Moments

Here are some moments from the last couple weeks...

My father made me hand-carved cable needles for my giant knitting. Here is one in action.

My brother and me in the matching hats I made for us.

Papa, heading up our epic sledding hill, axe in hand, ready to harvest the Christmas tree.

My brother and Pronto, watching the birds together. Pronto LOVES the birds at my parents'.

He also enjoyed the Christmas tree. :)

I was home for a week, and it snowed just about every day! My favorite thing in the winter are heavily laden trees, and we had plenty.

On Christmas Eve, my mom and I went out to take photos of the nearly-full moon, since it lit the frosty world like daylight. I used a manual shutter setting and am so excited I was able to catch some of the sparkly wonder that the world was that night. Such a wonderful memory.

How was your Christmas/New Year's/holiday season? Thanks for letting me share some tidbits. I'll be back soon with the finished sweater from the first photo!

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