HRP hats

Boy am I proud of these. My own design, one-of-a-kind, double knit beanies for my World Of Warcraft guildmates.

 
To quickly summarise: the HRP on the front is the initials of our guild's name. The colours are the in-game colours assigned to different types or "classes" of character (e.g. rogue, warrior, shaman), and everyone's character name is on the back.

The slightly odd-looking one in the middle is mine. It was a prototype, and it wasn't perfect but it wasn't bad enough for me to not want to wear it either.
We meet regularly, so I handed them out at our New Year's party. I didn't tell anyone I was making them, and I was genuinely touched by how cool everybody thought it was. So far, I've made ten of them, though not all of them are finished.

Gamers take note: if you'd like custom-made clan/guild beanies (or indeed wristbands) like these ones for your clan or guild, drop me a comment or email. Max order fifteen (for my sanity).

Haruni Shawl

Original Pattern: http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Haruni_Shawl_Pattern__D50869220.html

My first shawl, and my first attempt at lace. This took months and months to finish. It was a gift for a professor who'd helped me a great deal while I was at university, so I wanted to invest some time in making her something beautiful that matched her style.

My original intention was to give it to her at my graduation, but it was nowhere near finished by then so I ended up sending it to her in the mail. Because of my weird mental block around crochet, I did the edging in a slightly...unconventional manner, but it was very well-received nonetheless.

Tempting Green Jumper

Original Pattern: http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTtempting.html

Modifications: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Catherine/tempting

My first "big" project! AND my first attempt at cables! I can't tell you how many times I burst into tears of frustration, threw it on the floor, stamped on it, screamed at it, gestured menacingly at it with a pair of scissors, and started other projects to avoid working on it.
The end result, however, was this:

Because it's ribbed, it's stretchy and fits nicely. For those not on Ravelry, the cable pattern (see closeup pic below) around the top is a lovely little modification by Catherine.

The weird thin line of a slightly lighter green around the top is because I didn't buy enough yarn and didn't want to buy a whole other ball just to do the cast-off row. That's also the reason the sleeves are so short, I had intended to make them 3/4 length. Looking back though, it was fun, easy (I made it much harder for myself with my nooby mistakes) and relatively quick to make.