Category: Knitting

Autumn has arrived along with the requisite switching of the closets.  Generally this is a good thing as summer dressing is my least favorite and I I find joy in my reacquaintance with jeans, sweaters, boots, wool, and velvet.   I actually love this weather with mornings int he 40s and daytimes in the 60s or 70s.  But I don't mind looking forward to colder days with warm sweaters and toasty fires.

 

But what, you may ask,  about all those knitted tees I have made this past year?  Actually, they are perfect for the kind of weather we are having right now.  It is not yet woolly sweater season.  But the temperatures are perfect for layering and for thicker tees, which brings me 'round to yet another addition to my growing hand-knitted tee collection.

 

 

Presenting Arizona Sandstone.

 

This was a deep stash project.  The yarn, from a long since closed store called ArtFibers in SanFrancisco, was purchased before my grandson was born.  Named Fauvé, the yarn is a knitted tape, with alternating sections of beige cotton and a purple/lavender/bronze nylon blend.  The yarn is complicated enough that it seemed best suited to a simple tee, so to start I simply began playing with stitches.  Half-linen stitch is an old favorite for hand-dyed and novelty yarns, and I really liked the way the yarn knitted up in half-linen stitch, forming striations that reminded me of the patterns and colors of sandstone in the Arizona desert.

 

 

I didn't remember what my original plan was for the yarn  so once I got a gauge I liked, it was simple enough to make the calculations for a simple tee.  I wasn't initially sure if I would include sleeves, simply because I didn't know how much yarn I would need.  So I started with the idea of a sleeveless shell, and figured I would ad lib from there.

 

Well, I did have enough yarn, but I dilly-dallied a bit before actually starting on the sleeves.  I finished the body of the sweater on September 11th, but didn't pick up the yarn again to knit the sleeves until October 1.  The sleeves only took a day to knit, but did that mean that I was on a roll and finished the sweater forthwith? No, it did not.  

 

Cooler weather and the advent of autumnal colors started to seep into my head, eventually reminding me to get this project seamed and finished.   And now I have a new light-weight tee.  I think it will see a great deal of wear.

 

 

Technically the colors are a little on the warm side for me.  But they are also muted, and I can lean more toward muted warmth than I can toward clearer warm colors, so this tee actually works well with a great deal of my wardrobe.  

Somewhere along the line I apparently decided that I needed some simple tees, warmer weather tees perhaps, although these are mostly transitional weather projects, not suitable for the heat of full summer, at least not in Tennessee, not for me, although I can admit that after living here for over 10 years now, I am getting a little more cold-natured than I was.  Not sure that this transition has anything to do with Tennessee, but is probably more the affect of age and the aftermath of cancer/heart issues.  

 

All this to say that the purple/yellow tee I showed you two posts back has been finished.

This all came about rather serendipitously.  While I was knitting the lilac Noro tee (two posts back), I was volunteering at the welcome desk at my church, and knitting, when I had a conversation with another knitter.  We talked about our love of Noro yarns and she told me about a simple tee pattern she had recently discovered and really loved.  The pattern was Olori Sweater Tee by Lanre Ojikutu, which I immediately looked up on Ravelry, purchased and dowloaded even though at that point I had no immediate plans to knit it.   After I finished that tee, I had a little over half a skein, or 316 yards, of the light purple Noro yarn left over. I had been eyeing a skein of the same yarn in an acid yellow/green and it occurred to me that the two yarns would work well together.  However it took me a couple of weeks to make up my mind and actually buy the second (yellow) skein.  But eventually I did, and this sweater was born.

 

I hadn't knit a top down raglan sweater in quite some years, and I had never knit one that was intended to be even slightly fitted.  The pattern is meant to have 1" to 2" of positive ease.  Mine is closer to 0 to 1", at the bust, a little looser elsewhere.  I didn't make a gauge swatch because I had just knit a stockinette sweater using the same yarn, but I should have.  Not surprisingly, my gauge when knitting in the round is slightly tighter than when knitting flat, although the difference is not large.  Since I was trying this on as I went, it was not an issue.  Actually all that trying on was in order to finagle the raglan shaping just a bit to accommodate my uneven shoulders.  I am happy with the result, it is acceptable, but I do think I could have adjusted the stitch counts slightly and have made a note of this for the future. I am not sure these notes translate directly to the next project due to differences in gauge, weight, spin and fiber content and they way all affect the actual knitted fabric, but the process was a useful learning project.

 

Best of all I am very happy with the result.  The only real change I made to the pattern was to add a little extra room at the hips, where I needed it.

I used up the remainder of the purple yarn (316 yards) and 7/10ths of the skein of yellow yarn (370 yards) for a total of 686 yards.  My sweater is longer than the original as I am tall, but that is a minor adjustment.

 

The big surprise was how well this sweater goes with a pair of yellow chinos.  This was not planned.  I am a firm believer in serendipity, and the idea that what one loves tends to be harmonious.    Anyway, I've worn the yellow chinos for years with white, or black, sometimes with soft pinks and greens, but I've never had anything that actually "went" with it.  And frankly I didn't think I had anything in my closet that would match this sweater.  I just thought the colors were pretty and I could always wear it with jeans, or especially with white jeans or cords, both of which I do own.

 

Happy serendipity.

 

 

 

I finished knitting a sweater in early August and I forgot to share it with you.  I didn't forget the sweater itself, a tee, and have been wearing it frequently since the weather started to cool.  In fact, I think it will see a lot of wear.

 

This sweater came about on a bit of a whim.  I had been admiring the pretty purple yarn in my lys, when I also saw the Noro spring summer knitting book that includes this pattern.  This is the same book that had the pattern for the green cardigan I posted two weeks ago, although I knit this sweater first.   The yarn is called  Akari Solo,and it is a silk/cotton/rayon/mohair/wool and nylon blend from Noro yarns.  I knitted the tee on a size 6 needle, which gave me a post-blocking gauge of 16 stitches and 24 rows to 4 inches.  This is slightly looser than the recommended gauge of 18/26, but this yarn at this gauge felt stiff and tight to me on the needles even though the final fabric is soft with a gentle drape.  I do not think I could happily knit it any tighter, and I think a more open fabric is often preferable in a summer knit.  Anyway, it was easy enough to do the math required to adjust the pattern to my gauge.

 

Even so, I did mess up a bit although not with the maths. I modified the pattern slightly to adapt the fit to my own shoulders, and I intentionally knit it is a more closely fitting sweater than the designer had envisioned. However I also ended up modifying the pattern placement inadvertently.  There are supposed to be three motifs across the bottom of the tee, and then two only following the first full repeat.  I did not notice that in the photo, and, as I read the pattern quickly, with an idea already in my head, I misconstrued part of the instructions.  That was completely my fault, although I am somewhat dyslexic (despite my heavy reading) and I do sometimes get instructions scrambled.  At any rate, by the time I discovered the mistake, I decided I actually like my slightly eccentric placement, and forged ahead without ripping.  I've always preferred that were a little off-kilter, or slightly off-proportion anyway, so this suits me perhaps even better than the original.

 

The resulting sweater is soft and comfortable.  Perhaps not suitable for the hottest and most humid days of August,  but perfectly fine when the humidity is lower or the temperatures in the 70s to even low 80s or below.  It is also a good weight for layering with jackets and cardigans throughout the Autumn and Spring months, so I do believe this will see a lot of wear.

 

I used slightly less than 1 1/2 skeins, of 749 yards to knit this sweater.  Inspired by my joy in this top perhaps, and spying the same yarn in a pretty yellow, I decided that I could combine it with the purple to knit another tee, in progress now, and shown below.

It ends up that I no longer object to simple stockinette knitting, and I like having a relatively mindless project on the needles for those days when I either am distracted or just tired (quite suitable after a tough day in the garden for example).  I apparently also like knitting simple tees that I will wear, although I haven't yet moved onto simple stockinette on small needles.

 

I surprise myself sometimes, often-times really, but that is neither here nor there.

When I was knitting the Elisabetta Shawl earlier in the summer, I noticed that it coordinated perfectly with a favorite summer linen dress.  The shawl works well with quite a few things in my wardrobe actually, but it does in fact coordinate perfectly with that dress.  And that coincidence, as neither the yarn nor the dress were procured with thought of the other in mind, prompted some mental plotting.

As I was finishing up Elisabetta, I was looking at the new Noro Knitting Magazine, #22, Spring/Summer 2023.  There were several projects I could see myself knitting and wearing, including the cardigan shown above, "Nantucket" by Deborah Newton which is knit in Noro's Asaginu, a fine linen/paper yarn.  

Much as I am intrigued by Asaginu, and I did buy some for another project, I decided that I wanted to knit this cardigan to wear as a topper over a particular green linen dress.   

Asaginu comes in many beautiful colors, but none of them worked with the dress I had in mind.  Instead I chose this fingering-weight linen from Quince & Co. called Sparrow.  The color is #215 Banyon.  Asaginu is classified as a DK weight yarn whereas Sparrow is fingering, although Asaginu is slightly lighter in weight due to its construction and materials.   I knew my sweater would be different, airier perhaps, perhaps heavier, but I thought I would like it nonetheless.

The knitting is fairly straightforward with a simple 4-row lace pattern and stockinette, although I admit that it took me most of the sweater to keep the alternating rows of the lace pattern straight.  I blame this on dyslexia and a lifetimes struggle with right and left.  I had to concentrate to remember if I was on the  K2tog, yo, K2tog, yo, K1, SSK row or the yo, SSK, yo, SSK, K2tog, yo, K1 row.  For some reason the SSK-dominant rows were easier for my mind to grasp than was the alternative.  Anyway I eventually got it.  I did have to knit the left front twice as I inadvertently knit two right fronts.  That too is a mental thing.  I can intellectually comprehend the idea of knitting the left like the front, reversing the shaping, but in order to actually do it, I have to specifically write the instructions out before progressing.  

Even as I knit the left front twice, I still made a mistake on that second knitting, one I did not pick up until I wore the sweater, even though it was right in front of my eyes the entire time.  I have no problem with deconstructing, ripping and reknitting projects, and have done it many times, but not this time.  It has been an emotional year, an even more emotional summer in some ways, as I transition from being a person who struggled with life-changing health issues, to being a self that is on a slightly different path than the one I was on before.  I left that little bump of mis-knitting as a reminder that life is never perfect, that there are always bumps along the way, and that perfection is itself an illusion an illusion that often holds us back.

I got the exact dimensions of the small/medium, which was my intention, although my gauge was slightly different.  Although I am not small, the smaller sized was plenty oversized for me.  The shapes are simple:  basic rectangles with a little bit of neck shaping,  The pattern does call for back neck shaping, which I like as it makes the cardigan lay more nicely, but I did alter the neck and shoulder shaping ever so slightly to accommodate my particular shape.  And yes, the fronts are exactly the same size, only the shoulder shaping differs, and that only slightly.

The sweater is wider than it is long, (27 x 22)and I think it looks somehow more appealing on the blocking board than it does assembled and flat.  This is not a garment I would necessarily find appealing sitting on a shelf in a store although I do think it is very flattering on the body.  Although the impetus for knitting this cardigan was narrowly focused, it will, in fact,  work with many things in my wardrobe. 

The finished cardigan is the perfect little summer topper.  Linen works for Tennessee humidity.  It is loose, light and airy, almost weightless even.  I used slightly less than 4 50-gram skeins of linen, or 194 grams to be exact.  I even found the perfect buttons in my stash.  

Summer is almost over, but warm weather should hang around for a while.  I can see myself wearing this with not only white but many neutral colors, and the sheerness will play nicely with contrast.    A happy knit.

Hello Blog!

In the interim I was plagued with a bad summer cold.  Then I took a driving trip to Texas. No photos or thoughts on that but I have been journaling regularly again, so I remain convinced that blogging will fall into place in its own time.

 

In the meantime, I have finished objects! Two finished objects!

 

First:

 

 

I finally sewed up a sweater I finished in March.  The pattern is called Anise by Katherine Mehls. It was published in Noro knitting magazine #20.  It is just happenstance that I knit this sweater in the exact same color way as is shown in the pattern.  I had originally purchased the yarn, Noro Uchiwa in color Tokyo for another project but did not like the way the yarn was working in that project.  Luckily the store had another skein, giving me enough yarn to make this sweater, which I love.

 

My progress was not a shining example of thoughtful, intelligent knitting however.   The pattern is written as an oversized tee, and although I like the look, it wanted something a little more close-fitting.  So I decided to make a smaller size and did the math to make the sweater work with my own gauge.  Then I started knitting, and started second-guessing myself.  I thought perhaps I had made a mistake and the sweater would be too small.  This probably had nothing to do with my math, or even my initial decision-making process but with some body issue or another I was going through at the time.  So I decided to make the sweater bigger and added extra rows to the sweater as I was knitting the right front.  The sweater is knit from side to side.

 

Unfortunately, after I had done the center shaping and was working on the left front, I 'forgot' that I had added extra rows (even though I had written this down) and continued according to my initial calculations.  I knitted the back as originally calculated.  Only after I finished the knitting did I actually notice that the right front was a good 1 1/2 inches bigger than rest of the sweater.  Not a good look.  But there was no way I was going to rip back almost half the sweater and reknit.  Here the fact that this sweater was knit side-to-side had an advantage.  I could simply cut the sweater, unravel the excess fabric and invisibly join the sweater back together and no one would be the wiser.    I threw the sweater in the bottom of my knitting bag and contemplated this for a week or two before actually undertaking the process.  It all came out fine, and the joining was actually fun, but I like Kitchener stitch.

 

Then I blocked the sweater.  Since it was cool and the yarn is mostly cotton, it took a while to dry.  Big Ears Weekend and Easter Week came and went and I was still tired.  The sweater languished, once again relegated to the bottom of the knitting bag.  I finally sewed it up while I was in Texas.   I like the finished result.  I like the fabric created by the yarn, I like the weight, which is light and drapes for aran-weight.  The only thing I would have done differently is perhaps start and finish the pieces differently, so that rather than seaming the side seams at the cast-on and bind-off edges, I finished with either a (visible) three-needle bind off or kitchenered the pieces together (invisible join), only seaming at the shoulders and the brief underarm/cap sleeve.  Note for future if I ever make this again, although a second iteration would be for the more boxy version.

 

I wore it this week while the weather was bit cooler (70s).  As a more fitted cotton sweater in an aran-weight yarn, this is not a summer sweater for the bulk of the Tennessee (or Texas) summers.  Perhaps it would be more versatile as a boxy layering piece, but I suspect it would then suffer from being too heavy to layer.  The resulting top can be worn as a more fitted vest or as a solo layer under a jacket, and I believe it will see a lot of wear.

 

Second, socks:

 

 

I was given the yarn, Laines du Nord Watercolor Sock, in color 137, for Christmas.  Initially I thought the color was a bit staid, and the beginnings of the first sock felt almost boring.  But things picked up as I progressed through the skein.  In the end I really like the socks, I like the light fingering yarn and the resulting fabric.  These were knit on size 1 needles, using 60 stitches and they fit well.  

 

 

For the sock knitting nerds among us, I used a boomerang heel on these rather than the fish lips kiss heel I used in my last pair of socks.  I think I like both techniques equally, although the fish lips kiss would be more appropriate if I were using a contrasting color for the heel. 

 

 

I also modified the toe shaping from the standard technique, doing one-sided shaping that fits my foot better and creates distinctly right and left-footed socks.  I am trying this because I have had occasional issues with neuropathy in my big toe since chemotherapy and I find that socks pulling across that toe can be particularly painful.  Rather than opting for looser socks, which then bunch up if I wear boots, I thought I would try a more fitted approach.  We will see how it works out.

 

 

I promised finished objects.  Finally.

 

 

First something simple:  

 

The headband was started on a whim.  I was attending a brioche workshop.  My single-color brioche swatch was progressing well, and when the instructor mentioned this pattern — Headband with a Twist — I just ripped out my swatch and cast on the recommended number of stitches with no thought to gauge or anything else.  It is a pretty simple project, and I am happy with the results, although I do think I could have done this a bit differently.  

My headband is a bit wider than I might prefer.  This headband was knit in Rowan's felted tweed in color Boulder, one of the partial skeins left over from the temperature blanket project.  Although I love felted tweed, and I love this headband, I think I would like a headband in a more tightly spun yarn even better. If I do knit another headband in Felted Tweed, and I might, I also think I would use a smaller needle, and possibly cast on fewer stitches, making it slightly less wide.    I do however love the headband I knit and I will wear it when the weather inevitably cools again.

 

Luckily this is a fast, fun, mindless knit and I can see myself making a few of them.  I wonder if they would be potential gifts.

 

There is one error, shown here, which I noticed a few rows after I had made it.  There is a bar across a column of knit stitches, where I forgot to wrap. It would be more obvious in a less fuzzy yarn. I intentionally decided not to tink back and fix it, decided that one error was itself an important statement, a reminder of the imperfection of life, and it is on the inside of the headband anyway.  I can't say that I made no other errors, but I did fix them all.  This is another reason I like this pattern, it is just enough to use as a practice piece, to master brioche until it becomes like second nature, and short enough that I don't become bored with the process.

 

Second project — a baby blanket (my last blanket for a while)

 

This is knit in Blue Sky Sweater Worsted yarn in three colors.  It is a gift for my baby brother's first great-grandchild, Sloane.   Here it is spread out to block, with blocking wires running in every direction to make sure the lines and angles are true:

 

 

It is a thicker, more substantial baby blanket, what with a worsted weight yarn and the garter stitch, but I like it anyway and hope it will be received well.   It has a great feel and nice drape, despite its weight and I think it will be sturdy.  One thing I do note is that the yarn created a substantial amount of lint when washed prior to blocking, and upon looking it up on Ravelry I see that others have noted the same thing.   Today I will de-lint, remove the wires and wrap this up for delivery later this month when I will be in Texas.

The Temperature blanket is finally complete!  Although I did not finish it in February as I had originally hoped, I did finish before the end of March and that counts as a success in my book.  This means that it took me slightly over a year, almost 13 months, to knit the blanket, which is is pretty much on schedule, or would have been had I knit one garter ridge a day — also the original plan.  Of course waiting for a yarn order also slowed things down, and by the time the yarn arrived I was wrapped up in another project…. 

 

I love the results.  Admittedly I would have liked a little more color variation in the middle of the blanket, just as I would have liked a little more temperature variation in those middle five months.   Generally however, the blanket turned out well, and the excitement of seeing what the next color would be was both motivating and a bit of a lesson in combining colors as I found myself entrance by color combinations that would not have occurred to me otherwise.

 

I purchased 21 colors of Rowan's Felted Tweed for this blanket and I used 20 of them.  Surprisingly the color I did not use was the warmest color, Rage, which was to indicate days where the high reached 96 degrees Fahrenheit, or greater.  We usually do get a couple of days a year that are that warm, but the highest temperature in 2022 was 95.  Now, we had 5 straight months where the average high was over 80, a bit of a long stretch for us, and 90 days where the temperature was over 85, which puts us right at the top edge of the normal range for this area in terms of heat index.  The extended prolonged heat was actually harder on my garden than the cold snap in December.  So I have to say the blanket was nicely balanced between being relatively mindless while also being fun and educational. 

 

 

I was inspired to knit this by the temperature blanket post at Modern Daily Knitting, and I started roughly, as they suggested with Kaffe Fassett's Garter Stitch Striped Shawl.  Basically that means I used the needle size he recommended and knit the shawl in garter stitch. I knew that my gauge would be looser than the gauge recommended in the pattern because I have knit this yarn before and have knit patterns by Rowan and this designer.    My gauge was 18 stitches and 34 rows to 4 inches (as opposed to the Kaffe Fassett pattern which got 24 stitches and 44 rows to 4 inches.  I liked the fabric created at my gauge, and I love the weight and drape of the blanket.  It does not feel too loosely knitted, in fact it feels quite ideal for my use and my preferences.

 

The finished blanket is 60 inches wide by 96 inches long.   According to my records I used 23 1/2 skeins, or 4509 yards.  I had originally estimated, from my gauge swatch, that the blanket would take 19 or 20 skeins, and I estimated that the border would take 3 1/2 to 4 skeins and both ended up right on point.  Overall I am happy. 

 

 

As you see, it fits perfectly on my queen-sized bed as a topper, and it is the right size for a solo sleeper.  It is not large enough to share, but, having been married to a blanket-hog, I long ago decided that separate blankets are the way to go both for comfort and maintenance ease.   I would rather fold or drape multiple blankets over the bed anyway, and I wouldn't be surprised if I end up knitting at least one more of these blankets during my lifetime.  I have certainly been thinking about the possibilities.

Another glance over my shoulder perhaps, this time looking at my knitting progress in 2022.

Let's get the statistics out of the way first.  In 2022 I finished 10 projects and used up 71 skeins of yarn totaling 10,909 yards.  On first glance, it looks like I knitted less than the previous year in that there were two fewer finished objects, but the objects were larger and used more yarn.  Technically, it is not about yarn use, although that was one of my goals, or number of finished objects, but both of methods of accounting serve a purpose.

More specifically, the project breakdown was as follows:

• two blankets
• one soft-sculpture (toy)
• four shawls
• one pair of socks
• two sweaters

Now let's look at that more thoroughly.

There were no photos taken of the two blankets or the toy.  The toy and the first blanket was started in 2021 but never really photographed or blogged.  This was probably because I had mixed feelings about them from the get-go, but I was too pig-headed to give up, rip out, and start something new.  Instead I forced myself to finish both and promptly gave them away. The second blanket was one of those crazy ideas where I decided at the last minute to knit a baby blanket, finished it in a desperate rush, and immediately presented it to the new parents.  I really liked that blanket, but I was too overwhelmed at the time to deal with record-keeping. 

 

After that experience I decided I would never force myself to finish something again.  I would admit defeat or I would rip and repurpose. Luckily, my remaining projects of the year turned out to be far more satisfying, although admittedly there were some false starts and some ripping out.  Each false start then became a challenge and an opportunity.  Not all of those opportunities have yet been realized as projects, but I have found a certain satisfaction in the simple act of swatching, in letting a yarn tell me what it is, even if that initial exploration does not yield immediate results.

 

But now that the disappointments are out of the way, what about the successes?

 

I knitted four shawls, the first three of which were blogged (shown above). Shawlography, (pink, purple, green wool) was started as part of Stephen West's 2021 MKAL.  It was challenging, often fun, and sometimes maddening.  None of the techniques were particularly difficult in and of themselves, but West did put things together in ways I would not necessarily have thought of if left to my own devices.  Knitting this shawl was both fun and a constant struggle.  This was partially due to the fact that my fingers, beset with lingering chemotherap-induced neuropathy, struggled to maintain tension, and partially because I was constantly fretting about my color choices. Half the time I was convinced that the resulting shawl would only be suitable for a clown show, and it was not until I knit the final border that I could admit to being happy with the result. Even so, it gets the least wear of the three, primarily because it makes the boldest statement.  Still I think it was the accomplishment I was most proud of.  I learned a great deal knitting it, mostly because the brioche was not kind to my hands.  The brioche was ripped twice and reknit, even with the ripping and reknitting, I struggled.  The sense of accomplishment I feel for this shawl is primarily due to that brioche section.  Not only did I come to love brioche, I taught myself how to drop down to repair individual errors in brioche without ripping back and entire section, an accomplishment of which I am still proud even though I can honestly say that if the mistakes are many and frequent, it is still easier to simply rip back. Skill-wise, this shawl was my greatest accomplishment of 2022.

 

The cream striped Nantucket Summer shawl was the biggest shawl I knit in 2022, at 22 x 120 inches.  It is almost a blanket and it has admittedly seen me through many cool evenings on the patio as well as early mornings watching the sun rise, coffee and hand. The yarn was originally intended for a cardigan, but as I have a long-standing aversion to heavy cotton cardigans, I feared it would be a cardigan I would never wear.  The shawl is wonderful and I wrap myself up in it all the time, a perfect choice for me.

My absolute favorite knit of 2022 was the Artyarns silk wrap I named blue wave.  This was an absolutely fun knit, full of short rows and changing colors.  It required attention but was not particularly difficult and it was so exciting that I raced through it.  This shawl was completely fun to knit and the results are absolutely gorgeous. Using 766 yards of Artyarns beaded silk and sequins light, knitting this wrap is an indulgence but well worth it.  If I could justify having two versions of such a distinctive wrap, I would happily knit it again.  It was that much fun.  

 

 

My final finished project of 2022 was the fourth shawl, seen above.  This shawl was knit in Noro Kakigori, a mostly cotton and silk yarn, using the "Stormy Sky" pattern by Ksenia Naidyon.   Originally purchased for use with another yarn in a different project, it became evident upon swatching that I hated the two yarns together and felt that this yarn was completely unsuitable for its originally intended use.   Upon further swatching I decided that I liked the fabric the yarn created and that it would be lovely as a relatively simple shawl.  It is a not particularly large shawl, with both drape and a touch of crispness, which I think will prove very versatile in Knoxville's climate.  I would happily knit with more Kakigori, because it creates a lovely fabric, although the yarn itself tends to want to twist up on itself while knitting, so it does require a bit of patience.

 

 

The one pair of socks knitted in 2022  have proven quite satisfactory.  I intentionally knit them longer than my usual, perhaps a tad too long, but they still get worn. The Mominoki Finnwool, used for the body of the sock, is 100% wool without the nylon usually added for sock yarns.  It was a remnant from Shawlography and put to good use here.   I actually prefer socks that are pure wool without nylon, but they don't tend to wear as well, and so, as it true for so many things in life, represent a trade-off.  These are holding up well, except for a bit of wear at the back of the ankle above the heel.  I suppose it is a bit early to see that much wear after less than a full year's wear, and that area will be mended when the time comes.  I love the socks nonetheless.  

 

As I look in my sock drawer, I see that I need more socks, and I am loathe to purchase them.  It seems that there must be sock knitting on the horizon.  I have thought of exploring breed specific wool, looking for hard-wearing wools that hold up better for socks and I may well do that.  In the end, however, I will probably mostly use nylon reinforced sock wool, which comes in many pretty colors.  Although I may struggle with a brightly colored shawl, I have no issue with wearing carnival-colored socks.  The first pair of socks I ever knit are still going strong, after 13 years, knitted with KnitPicks simple stripes, 75% wool yarn, a ringing endorsement if ever there was one. I will admit that the tutti-frutti color palette of that first pair is not one I would chose today, but those socks simply will not die. That specific yarn has been discontinued, but I would think KnitPicks' sock yarn would still be a good economical and hard-wearing option if that is a consideration.  But longevity is not my primary criteria when knitting socks.  I am all for knitting, and wearing, what one loves and we each make the compromises that best suit us. I am fine with balancing practicality with comfort in my sock wardrobe,  but also admit that there is nothing quite as nice as cashmere socks on a cold evening, even if they are not practical for everyday wear.  Perhaps my sock wardrobe needs a touch of softness, as well as an indulgence in frivolous colors.

 

 

Even though I was once almost exclusively a garment knitter, I only knot two sweaters in 2022.  The first, a cardigan finished in June, was not really worn until fall, when the temperatures had cooled.   Although it is not a winter cardigan, being knitted with cotton/nylon/polyester novelty yarns, this was not a sweater for hot humid summer heat.  It may have been had I followed the pattern as written, which was for a cardigan with more ease and drape..  After knitting my swatches however, the hand of the resulting fabric reminded me of the kind of light drapey boucle that is often used for soft Chanel-style jackets, and I decided that a short, more fitted cardigan was required.  I altered the pattern accordingly, individualizing it by taking in some of the asymmetry I was finding in my sewing pattern sloper development.  There was some fudging, and some ripping and reknitting, which is not easy when three rather snaggy strands are held together while knitting.  But I am absolutely enamored of the finished cardigan.  This is not a hard-wearing everyday sweater but more of an occasional item.  I need to take care not to catch the rather fine sequined filament that runs through the sweater on buckles, latches, or even rings and other jewelry.  This cardigan wants to be the star of the show in its own understated way.  It is a sweater I can imagine myself wearing for a long time. 

 

 

The second sweater was for a wool shell or vest, knitted to be worn as a layering piece.  The pattern was Carol Feller's Trellis top, and I used the recommended yarn, Stolen Stitches Nua Sport.  Even thought I used the designer's yarn I did not quite manage to get gauge, My gauge was slightly tighter in stockinette, but the same as the recommended gauge in the pattern stitch.  Since I wanted to make my sweater a bit more close-fitting than the pattern, this was easy enough to manage.    Aside from size issues, I more or less knit the pattern as written with the exception of the shoulder shaping and the finishing.  The original design is looser and more casual, with  button bands in lieu of seamed sides.  As I was seeking a more classically close-fitting silhouette that could also be worn under a jacket, I simply seamed the sides.  I am very happy with the result and this sweater has already proven to be a favorite.  I wore vests frequently in my 20s and early 30s, did not wear them in the intervening decades, and find I now reach for them again and again, something to consider as I contemplate future knitting.

 

As to 2023, who knows.

 

My plan is to begin the year by finishing the temperature blanket I started at the beginning of 2022.  This started as a whim, but I have mostly stuck with it.  I put the blanket aside during the hot months and picked it up after Thanksgiving, trying desperately to catch up.  When the year ended, I had knitted the blanket through the last day of September, or three-quarters through the body of the blanket.

 

I am determined to finish this blanket before finishing anything else this year.  Since January 1 I have knitted 47 garter ridges, which finished out October and put me half-way through  November.  I should finish the body by early February and then I need to pick up and knit the borders, As you can see from the blanket, spread out on my bed, the borders will be long, and I am thinking now that I do not want them to be particularly narrow, although I am considering the idea that the side borders may be wider, perhaps, than the top and bottom borders. I haven't yet calculated what color the borders should be, but if I am serious about finishing this, I should figure that out and make sure I have the yarn in house before it is needed, simply to avoid further delays.  I do know that should I put it aside, it will be difficult to pick back up again, so best to keep knitting until it is finished.  The blanket itself is fun because I love watching the color patterns unfold.  The border of course will be more tedious, but the reward will be in the joy of curling up under it on chilly evenings.

 

Also on the schedule for this year is to finish a modular, log-cabin style blanket I started knitting out of Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grande,  I do think I will take a short break between blankets, finishing something smaller.  I have another sleeveless cotton sweater on the needles, although I am not devoting much time to it at the  moment.  The cotton sweater is my portable project, but the blanket remains my main focus and the center of all my crafty energies at the moment. Expect that knitting updates may be few and far between at least for the first quarter of the year.