Looking for Motivation

I finished the baby blanket for my nephew, which was actually quite paralyzing to me, since I wasn't working on any other projects when I finished. The blanket has been my go-to project for the last 7 months, and I reached for it any time I was feeling aimless in my knitting. I have purchased the yarn for several new projects thanks to a super sweet surprise gift card to Rosie's from my mother-in-law. She immediately won the role as my new BFF. So any of you desiring that spot in my life, you now know what it requires. So, with my yarn purchase, I easily have two go-to projects that will take as long as the baby blanket, if not longer. So, while I have been working on only a few projects, I have actually been reading more about knitting lately than actually picking up the needles myself. I've been looking to these sites for motivation, and it's working.

I'm fascinated with several talented knitters including Susan B. Anderson, who is the author of Itty Bitty Nursery and Itty Bitty Hats. She has an Itty Bitty Hats Knitalong that includes topics far beyond baby hats. She writes some of the cutest patterns I've seen - how cute is this?

Another fun website is Purl Soho, which is a tiny knit shop in Manhattan that I visited a few weeks ago while looking for an apartment in Brooklyn. It should come as no surprise that I was particularly enthralled by their Granny Square Project, which shows countless crocheted granny squares in various types of yarn, colors, and sizes. While my crochet is coming along, I haven't actually completed my project, nor have I taken on a project with anything but single crochet in the pattern.

Another of my favorite knitters is Brooklyn Tweed (Jared), who is as talented at photographing his projects as knitting them. I'm not his only fan, by far. There is a link to his website from almost all of my favorite knitters' website. He's a pretty busy guy, pursuing an arts degree, from what I can gather from his blogs. So in spite of living in the same city as him, I'll likely still have to visit his website to check out what he's up to. Not to mention Brooklyn's population is 2.5 million. Plus, he spins his own yarn, so it's unlikely I'll even see him in a yarn shop.

A site as sewing and fashion-centric as the above are knitting-centric is the artfully named Angry Chicken. She has a few tasty recipes worked in, too.

Not a knitting website, but almost as good, Mostly Dogs is a photography-only site that isn't updated nearly as often as I would like. Her pictures are absolutely beautiful.  You can see all of them if you click Browse on her home page.

Anyway, I'll post some of my knitting projects soon, but in the meantime, check out some of these great sites!