Knit Meter

Monday, December 31, 2012

Year End Round Up

So just how little did I knit this year? According to Ravelry there were 35 projects on my needles in 2012. Although this number is half of 2011s it is more in line with previous years and I have a very large shawl.

Of these 35 projects, 3 were frogged, 2 are carry overs from last year, one of which should be frogged, and there are 4 others still on the needles. Of the finished projects there were 6 pairs of socks, 5 dishcloths, 1 pair of gloves and a pair of mittens, 3 scarves and 2 shawls, an adult sweater, 4 sections for WCOBBS blankets and a complete blanket, 1 section for Warm Up America and a dress for a teddy bear. Only the sweater has not been photographed.

I was surprised that I had actually made 6 pairs of socks as I completed just one pair in the first 4 months of the year so I still have sock yarn but I don't feel owned by it and even if it does not get all used up in 2013 I am aiming to reduce it significantly. I also knit more (just) than I added to my stash. I have a plan for the yarn I bought in the 2011 year end sales although I have not used it all yet, and I have just one left of the three different yarns I bought in the summer just before we left Calgary. I have used all yarn I dyed in 2011 but still have one skein of yarn left from the yarn crawl in 2010.

On the book front, I read 49, which is not surprising as reading was low at the start of the year and in the fall. As usual my reading has been across the board. We are lucky to have a good library system where we now live.

The changes on the personal front have been recorded here. The most significant being our move from Calgary to Southern California and saying goodbye to our cat. And, of course, all of this has happened because a number of years ago I married my wonderful husband. Happy anniversary darling.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Done in December

I'm not a fan of the word done as I feel writers use it instead of a variety of words so you end up with a sentence like this: the picture done by Monet done in the impressionist style and done in oil was done by sunset. But as I am aiming for alliteration and I need to have this post written by the end of the day (because, surely, I will write a great post tomorrow) done it is.

And done it is, because I finished quite a few things this month. Which is a relief after not having any finished items since the beginning of October. This month I have five finished objects to show you.

Firstly, two small items to show. Our knitting group decided to have a dishcloth gift exchange and make sections for Warm up America.





These were both quick to make and they used stash yarn. The good news is that I have used up most of my dishcloth cotton. The bad news is that it has been suggested that we have another exchange so I am going to have to buy more cotton. The pattern for the section for Warm Up America was from their website which I adjusted for the yarn I used.

I finally finished my road trip shawl. So named as I started it when we were on our moving road trip. I was really glad to finish it especially as I did such a good job with the amount of yarn and beads. I had 5 grams of yarn left and about 1/10th of a pot of beads. (This was a big relief as both yarn and beads had been purchased in Calgary so I didn't want to run out.)

There are two photos of the shawl. One is more of a close up and the other is to show the size.



So, of course, one shawl a month is not enough and I finished one of the shawls I started in October. This was the shawl that had much unpicking as I changed my mind about the order of the colours.



The yarn is my hand-dyed as seen in this post and the end of this post. I used up all the yarn and am really pleased with the end result.

And finally for the month I finished a pair of socks. The pattern was the mystery for November and the yarn was Wollmeise, a gift from one of Calgary knitting friends.



I am looking forward to tomorrow when I count up what I have done/completed/made/achieved for the year.






Monday, December 10, 2012

Nothing Finished November

I can't believe that another month has passed with no finished items. I was so hopeful for this month but obviously 30 days was not enough. But so close.

One of the shawls I cast on in October would have been finished if I hadn't changed my mind about the colour sequence, which I changed my mind about again. If I can stick to the current arrangement it will be finished very shortly. I was also hoping that the road-trip shawl would be completed but that also snuck into December for finishing.

And I cast on a pair of socks. I decided to start the mystery sock for November from SKA on Ravelry. I finished all the clues on time and have started the second sock so am hopeful that will be a December finisher.

Overall it doesn't seem fruitful but December's round up should be full of photos of finished items.