Here we are again, a round up of everything (an exaggeration) that has happened in my life this year. Also for a change I'd thought I'd combine the year in review with plans for next year.
And for a change I am going to start by saying happy anniversary to my lovely husband and thank you for another great year.
On the knitting (crochet) front I had 46 projects on the needles; of which 7 were frogged, including a project that I mentioned this time last year. Of the remaining 39, 5 were carried over from 2012, including one that is always being carried over, and 9 are still on the needles. That is way too many, although one of those is the aforementioned never-ending project and one is a project that stays in the car and one just needs the ends sewn in. There's also the project that got put to one side as I needed contrasting yarn and now I need beads so I have decided to finish another beaded project before going back to this one. Most projects got pushed aside when I started making baby items. By year-end I have made, 1 hat, 3 dishcloths/washcloths, 5 shawls, 4 pairs of socks, 2 baby blankets, a skirt, 3 baby jackets, 3 pairs of booties, a baby hat, a sleeveless cardigan, a scarf, a baby dress and cardigan, a sweater for a teddy bear and 2 sections for oddball blankets. 16 items were gifts and 3 for charity.
As well as having a new look for my blog this year, I added 2 yarn counters. One shows the amount of yarn I have knitted and crocheted. It is from Knitmeter.com and although it looks cool I'm not sure if it serves any useful purpose. it would probably make sense if I had counted the meterage in this year. So I'm not sure if I will continue counting in 2014. Also I added a count of balls of yarn in and balls of yarn out as an encouragement to use up stash. In fact, if I hadn't had to make baby clothes and therefore had to buy suitable yarn, the yarn out would have exceeded the yarn in.
Which brings me to my plans for 2014. Which is to use up my stash. OK I know I say that every year but having gone through my stash, it is really doable. The only spanner being the babies, as I can't not knit for them and although I have yarn left over from this year's projects, it is not enough of any one thing to make something useful. (Although it will be enough for booties and hats for the next round of babies.) So knitting for the babies will cause me to buy yarn and stop me from using stash. But I would like to make a serious dent into my stash so that I can buy at the next yarn crawl.
Wishing everybody a fantastic 2014
Knit Meter
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Presents Revealed
Now that Christmas is over, I can reveal the items I made for gifts.
Socks for my hubby. I decided to knit a pair of socks for the November challenge for Sock Knitters Anonymous. November 2012 was the last time I completed a pair on time and I have only knit one pair that fit the challenge since then. These socks that were the mystery pattern for March.
One of the challenges was designer RoseHiver. I have knitted a number of her sock designs and she has so many designs that are are free This seemed like a good time to get back into the challenges set by the group. Because I still have sock yarn.
So here is the finished pair.
The yarn is Comfort Sock by Berroco and looks way better as a sock than in the skein. I had to sneak into my husband's sock drawer to match the size against other socks I have knit for him but I was still concerned that they wouldn't fit so I didn't sew in the end at the toe - just in case - but they fit fine.
The other knitting was a dress and shrug for my great niece. I started off buying yarn according to a dress pattern and ended up designing my own patten and having to buy more yarn.
The yarn is Tecido Trico by Cirulo. It is fabric (gauze) with holes at the top. the cream yarn is Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK by Sirdar. The comments on the original pattern that I was going to use indicated that the dress was not long enough so I purchased more of the fabric yarn so that I could make the dress longer. (The original pattern had a fabric skirt and bamboo bodice.) It looked awful; too frou-frou. So I made up my own pattern. This meant I did not have enough yarn to complete the shrug. I had to order it but it arrived quickly and I was able to finish the shrug and get everything mailed off.
I was going to make 2 dresses, one for each of the little girls in my life but having to write my own pattern and complete the first one in a hurry, I took a rain check on making the other one.
The final Christmas present was a sewing project. My son's girlfriend asked if I would mind making her a "Hello Kitty" quilt. I was non-commital because I didn't want to be under pressure to make it but I decided that it would make a good gift that would be a complete surprise. The end result is about a queen bed size. I really like it and she does too,
Socks for my hubby. I decided to knit a pair of socks for the November challenge for Sock Knitters Anonymous. November 2012 was the last time I completed a pair on time and I have only knit one pair that fit the challenge since then. These socks that were the mystery pattern for March.
One of the challenges was designer RoseHiver. I have knitted a number of her sock designs and she has so many designs that are are free This seemed like a good time to get back into the challenges set by the group. Because I still have sock yarn.
So here is the finished pair.
The yarn is Comfort Sock by Berroco and looks way better as a sock than in the skein. I had to sneak into my husband's sock drawer to match the size against other socks I have knit for him but I was still concerned that they wouldn't fit so I didn't sew in the end at the toe - just in case - but they fit fine.
The other knitting was a dress and shrug for my great niece. I started off buying yarn according to a dress pattern and ended up designing my own patten and having to buy more yarn.
The yarn is Tecido Trico by Cirulo. It is fabric (gauze) with holes at the top. the cream yarn is Snuggly Baby Bamboo DK by Sirdar. The comments on the original pattern that I was going to use indicated that the dress was not long enough so I purchased more of the fabric yarn so that I could make the dress longer. (The original pattern had a fabric skirt and bamboo bodice.) It looked awful; too frou-frou. So I made up my own pattern. This meant I did not have enough yarn to complete the shrug. I had to order it but it arrived quickly and I was able to finish the shrug and get everything mailed off.
I was going to make 2 dresses, one for each of the little girls in my life but having to write my own pattern and complete the first one in a hurry, I took a rain check on making the other one.
The final Christmas present was a sewing project. My son's girlfriend asked if I would mind making her a "Hello Kitty" quilt. I was non-commital because I didn't want to be under pressure to make it but I decided that it would make a good gift that would be a complete surprise. The end result is about a queen bed size. I really like it and she does too,
Monday, December 16, 2013
Charity Knitting
I have not knitted anything for charity since we moved last year. Doesn't really matter why I haven't, I just haven't.
After rearranging my stash a little while ago, it is now in drawers instead of a box, I decided that I should look into knitting for charity. First stop Ravelry.
I searched the groups to see what was out there as I liked the idea of knitting for a purpose. I joined one group and felt bad because I was welcomed by name to the group, my intention was just to see what the group did before getting involved. I was careful for the next group and put it on watch. This means I can see what is going on in the group but am not a member. In effect I can do that with any group on Ravelry, (as an aside I don't know why people set up private groups on Ravelry that can be read by anyone) but by putting it on watch the group is marked and easy to find.
Finally I decided to join a group which made oddball blankets similar to the group I belonged to in Canada. There are some slight differences with this group. For example each person only has to knit 4 inches.
Here is my first contribution. The name of the blanket is Anchors Aweigh so this pattern I found in one of my stitch dictionaries was very appropriate. I wasn't too sure how it would come out but it is showing up better than expected. The yarn was left over from the blanket shown in this post. So nice to be able to use up yarn.
I was the last person to work on the main blanket - the next person will work the edging so this group likes the last person to use the needles and cast on a new blanket. So I did. Also using yarn leftover from that blanket.
There have been some finished projects but nothing I can post about yet as they are presents.
After rearranging my stash a little while ago, it is now in drawers instead of a box, I decided that I should look into knitting for charity. First stop Ravelry.
I searched the groups to see what was out there as I liked the idea of knitting for a purpose. I joined one group and felt bad because I was welcomed by name to the group, my intention was just to see what the group did before getting involved. I was careful for the next group and put it on watch. This means I can see what is going on in the group but am not a member. In effect I can do that with any group on Ravelry, (as an aside I don't know why people set up private groups on Ravelry that can be read by anyone) but by putting it on watch the group is marked and easy to find.
Finally I decided to join a group which made oddball blankets similar to the group I belonged to in Canada. There are some slight differences with this group. For example each person only has to knit 4 inches.
Here is my first contribution. The name of the blanket is Anchors Aweigh so this pattern I found in one of my stitch dictionaries was very appropriate. I wasn't too sure how it would come out but it is showing up better than expected. The yarn was left over from the blanket shown in this post. So nice to be able to use up yarn.
I was the last person to work on the main blanket - the next person will work the edging so this group likes the last person to use the needles and cast on a new blanket. So I did. Also using yarn leftover from that blanket.
There have been some finished projects but nothing I can post about yet as they are presents.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Not Secret Knitting
There are two or three things that I have made for other people for gifts, so I am not going to post pictures here yet just in case they are looking. But I did knit a dishcloth the other day. Although it was knitted for someone else it is not a Christmas or birthday present.
A dishcloth. I still have a small amount of dishcloth cotton in my stash; in fact less than I thought I had as I nearly bought yarn for this project. the only thing that stopped me was that Michael's did not have the right colour of blue so I decided to go ahead with brown.
A dishcloth. I still have a small amount of dishcloth cotton in my stash; in fact less than I thought I had as I nearly bought yarn for this project. the only thing that stopped me was that Michael's did not have the right colour of blue so I decided to go ahead with brown.
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