2012 Knitting Recap

It’s really fun for me to look at all my projects from this past year.  Compared to 2011, I knit a few less items, but as a whole, I’m impressed with what I accomplished.

Starting from the top left here are the links to their project pages.

1. Super Simple Baby Tunic  2. DNA Scarf  3. Honey Cowl  4. Bow Headband  5. Cozy Cap  6. Augustine Shawlette  7. Owlie Hat  8. Nittany Lion Hat  9. Short and Sweet Earflap Hat  10.  Sunday Market Shawl  11. Inspira Cowl  12. My So Called Scarf  13. Dolores Park Cowl  14. Knitted Reading Glasses Lanyard  15. Dolores Park Cowl  16. Owlie Sleep Sack  17. Lady Godiva Cowl

As for those goals I set up last year, I’m never doing that again.  Two of the three things on my needles are still on my needles but I am not ready to frog them just yet.  And of the four items I wanted to knit, I managed to do one of them twice. I’m much better at deciding as I go because what I want and who gets gifts sort of gets decided along the way.

Update on two finished projects

I recently finished two projects that I’ve not yet posted pictures of here.

The first was a Sunday Market Shawl for the Secret Santa with my Bring Your Own Craft friends.

This pattern is awesome and I will probably use it again and again.  You get so much bang for your buck and it’s quick.  One skein of worsted weight Araucania Nature Wool and two weeks later it was done.  And it might have gone even faster if during those two weeks we weren’t traveling for Thanksgiving and our trip to Charleston and Savannah.  I just can’t say enough about this pattern.

The second finished project is my Lady Godiva Cowl made from yarn I got in Charleston. The pictures aren’t great but it is a nice, festive looking cowl.

By the way, I am never buying novelty yarn ever again.  Or at least not for a very long time.

Finished: Inspira Cowl

I finished my Inspira Cowl this week.  Monday night the knitting was completed and then on Thursday I weaved in the ends and gave it a light soak to soften it up a bit.

I really liked knitting this cowl.  It has great texture and I am pleased with how the two different Noro Kureyon colorways worked together.  I had plenty in my stash to use up and it worked with just the two colors — no need to use some Silk Garden to fill in as I had worried about before.

It’s so colorful and I love it.  I was reading comments on some of the project pages for this pattern and one person said it looked like clown collar and didn’t like it.  I get it, I do.  But it totally works for me.

Here is a very poor photograph of me wearing it to prove that it doesn’t look that weird on.

 

Knitting in Color

After I finished my Augustine Shawlette this week, I knew I had to knit with more color.  I love the results but if you look at my Ravelry project page, you can see knitting with a creamy white is not typical for me.

I looked at my knitting goals for the year and I probably could have made a commitment to finishing that Fishtail Lace Scarf because that has plenty of color. But instead, I did what every crazy knitter does and started a new project with even more color.  And it’s making me so happy.

I decided to cast on for an Inspira Cowl.

I cast on using some Noro Kureyon from my stash. I’m knitting the Mesa Rock version and cast on 180 stitches on US 10.5 needles.  I want it to be big and cozy and fit around my shoulders.  I suspect I might run out of the 154 colorway partially through but I have some bits of Silk Garden laying around that might look okay. Or I guess if I have to I’ll buy another skein of a similarly bright colorway of Kureyon because it doesn’t look like I’ll find any 154.  But I really want to avoid buying any because the point is to use up yarn.

I already love the way it looks.  It’s totally filling my need for color.

Finished: Another Dolores Park Cowl

I really enjoyed knitting my first Dolores Park Cowl.  But this time I loved it!

I made this one for my friend Abby and used the Malabrigo Chunky recommended in the pattern. I have a few skeins of Malabrigo in my stash but this is the first time I actually knit with it and it is so soft and easy to work with.  I’m so happy with the color I chose and it just knits up so nicely.

I love this cowl so much better than my first one. The pattern is great and I highly recommend it.

Finished Honey Cowl

Last night I finished my honey cowl.

I love the way it turned out and I really want to wear it.  It seems doubtful that this year will be cold enough again to wear it but I’ll try to make it work.

I loved this yarn so much.  It was a gift from my friend Ali and it was so soft and the color was amazing. I was a little worried it wouldn’t work for this pattern but as I knit, I realized that the colors looked great with all the slipped stitches and it almost looks striped.

I really recommend this pattern.  It’s easy and the results are great.  There is a seam where the yarn is joined but it doesn’t really bother me much.

WIP Inventory

In the spirit of actually finishing some of my projects, it was time for an inventory of my current works in progress so I can really see how far I’ve come and how much knitting I’ll be doing to finish them.

Last night I decided to frog my second pair of toe up socks. I love the Mini Mochi but I think it will be best used on a different project maybe a Spectra (if only my hands could knit as quickly as my brain plans!).  The only thing I really loved about this particular project was the name Our Stock Would Plummet because they were toe up. Get it?

Anyway, I have another sock project still on the needles that I will finish one day (can you sense my lack of enthusiasm for socks?).  Right now, they are 25% complete.

I also have this Fishtail Lace Scarf that I started last April that I’d like to prioritize and finish. It’s 30% complete.

I love the color of this Kauni yarn and can’t wait to see it finished and blocked. This one requires a bit more attention so I prefer to knit this while I’m watching mindless TV.

I have my Honey Cowl which is half way there and could probably be completed within the week or so depending on the kind of knitting time I have.  This is great for movies.

And finally my One Row Lace Scarf which I’ve mostly been knitting on airplanes and long car rides where I’m the passenger because it travels so easily. It’s an easy lace pattern and it doesn’t take up any room in my bag.  It seems like I’m traveling so much but mostly I’ve been driving which makes knitting impossible.  It’s 40% complete.

All of a sudden, I feel like I can finish these projects and get started on new things. Taking inventory and frogging that half a sock really made me feel great. Hopefully I can get in a lot of knitting today.

Progress and a goal

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on my two most recent projects.

My Honey Cowl is coming along very nicely.

As I knit the first few rows before the pattern and was a little worried that I selected the wrong yarn but the color changes make the pattern even more interesting.

I’ve also completed over three repeats of the pattern in the DNA Scarf.

I predict that I will have twelve pattern repeats (maybe fourteen?) by the time I near the end of my yarn.  I’ll probably weigh my yarn when I finish this section to be sure.  My goal is to have this completed and blocked in two weeks.  My parents will be visiting and I want to give this to my dad. I’m hoping by writing this out, I take this goal very seriously.  We shall see!

Like I Needed Another WIP?

In the past two days I worked a couple more pattern repeats on my DNA Scarf. This pattern looks so cool but it requires paying attention to what you’re doing since all thirty something rows are completely different and not memorizable.

Last night, Mike and I decided to watch a movie and since all of my current WIPs really require me to pay some kind of attention (okay, not the socks that just need a simple ribbed pattern on the top but they’re in a long hibernation), I figured I might as well just start something new.

About two months ago, my friend Ali sent me this beautiful yarn in a Secret Turkey exchange among a group of friends.

The yarn is Fleece Artist Blue Face Leicester DK and it’s from Nova Scotia.  A few weeks ago when I was organizing my stash, I realized that it would be the perfect yarn for a Honey Cowl.  I guess I’ve had that in my mind since then and watching a movie seemed to be the perfect excuse to get started.

I didn’t get far because I had to ball the yarn (I don’t have a swift or a yarn winder so I do this by hand over my legs) and cast on and get started.  But I love how it’s started and it is such an easy pattern.

I cast on 160 stitches to make the in between size cowl and I suspect it might not be as wide as the pictures.  But I can tell this is going to be warm and pretty.

Butler really seems to like it.

Or maybe he just likes that the shade is open and he can see the snow from a safe distance.

And here’s a bonus of both of them. Because Chica was there too.

 

Finished: Dolores Park Cowl

The Dolores Park Cowl is an easy, well written pattern and people’s results are beautiful. I love the way this project looks on the designer’s page. And it was one of the projects I wanted to complete in 2012.

Look at how beautiful it turned out on Knitorious.

And then there’s mine.

It’s not really bad and the yarn I used was fabulous. I used the Schoppel-Wolle Pur I got at Rosie’s Yarn Cellar. The colors are gorgeous and the yarn is so soft and easy to knit with.

But I am just not in love with the finished product. My knitting looks a bit sloppy to me. I’ll wear it of course, but I am not 100% in love with it yet.