Knitting: My Year in Review

Projects completed, based on my Raverly projects page (I may have forgotten a hat or so when putting them in:

• 2 colorwork hats (We call them pirates for Lo and Fish for Steve)
• 5 lace pieces (alpine lace for Lo, stripes and torchon lace for SIL; melon for Laura, large rectangle for me, test knit for Mama Llama)—4 of them from Victorian Lace Today.
• Husband Sweater
• 6 pairs of socks, complete (red socks for me, STR socks for me, jitterbug for Lo, 2 pair for T, sockapalooza pal pair)
• 3 pairs started (waving lace, claudia’s handpainted, snicket)
• 1 secret unmentionable test-knit sock
• Finished perfect sweater #2
• Fetching, 1 pair for Aunt K
• Brother sweater 60% done
• Started Ramona from Sensual Knits

Things I’ve learned, or improved:

• Colorwork
• Provisional cast on
• Magic loop (my favorite new technique)
• Sock knitting (this is improved, rather than new)
• Seamless hybrid/EPS
• Russian and spit-splice joins (these are running neck-and-neck for second favorite—fewer ends to weave in!)

Projects for 2008:

Short term:

• Finish brother sweater (Jan)
• Lengthen husband sweater (Jan)
• Lengthen perfect sweater #1 (Jan)
• Ramona (Jan)

Longer term:

• Husband sweater #2 (Feb/Mar)
• Tangled yoke cardigan
• Baby nephew blanket w/cables (Feb/Mar—he’s due in April, and while we’re worried he’ll come early, like his big brother, I don’t want him to not have a blanket. I’m aiming for done in mid-March, which will put him at 35 or 36 weeks)
• Orange socks for T (done soon, but maybe given to him when his baby brother gets his blanket)
• Honeybee stole or another large lace project, w/camel yarn

New skills I’d like to learn:

• Cable w/o a needle

All-in-all, it’s been a great knitting year. This is the first year I’d call myself a Knitter, rather than someone who knits. I’m getting braver about trying things, and much braver about ripping them back out. I knit the collar on the husband sweater 3 times before I was happy with it, and had no trouble picking the stitches back up and fixing mistakes I’ve made. I’ve accumulated a lot more stash—I’ve probably doubled the amount of yarn I have—but most of the new yarn has a project associated with it; I have enough yarn for 3 sweaters, but plans for all of it. Some of the lace yarn isn’t really earmarked, but I’ve learned to buy enough for a good-sized shawl. I’ve tried a lot of new yarns, too, and discovered how nice it is to have a portable project for in my purse.

I’m not planning on buying any more yarn for a while—I find that when I buy more yarn
I tend to ignore the stuff I’ve already stashed in favor of the new. And I’m excited about the projects I have for the yarn I’ve already bought, so I’m aiming for finishing some of them before I make any more trips to Webs (which I must admit to having done on Friday, which is where the yarn for Ramona, Husband sweater #2, the nephew blanket, and several pairs of socks for T came from . . . ). I’m not ruling out new yarn, just trying to enjoy what I have.

I also want to be more realistic about deadline knitting; I should have started the sweater for my brother back in October when I bought the yarn. But I put it off until December and didn’t have time to finish it when I realized that I’d made a mistake.