A year later: Looking back at my knitting

It's now been just over a year since I feel I could truly call myself a knitter instead of someone who would occasionally (and quite randomly) knit something. The mental marker for me is Chicago TARDIS. Last year, I was working on my first pair of socks, which won me a Ponds button for being able to talk about something that isn't cool as though it is cool. I believe Husband was trying to hide his face in embarrassment at that point. I've done a lot since then and feel it would be good to recount it as a way to remind myself that I have actually done a lot.

First Socks

This was the first pair. I had bought this yarn years ago with the purpose of  making arm warmers. That was a thing for me for a while. With how stupid cold it's gotten again, it may become a thing again. October 2012 found me wanting to knit something. Apparently I was bored. I didn't want to make arm warmers though. I pulled out this yarn and decided since it was sock yarn, maybe I should make socks with it. A year later, I see little things that I could have done differently but I'm still happy with how these turned out. They were the gateway into becoming a "serious" knitter. This was one of my last projects made on cheaper yarn. The yarn had been bought at a Jo-Ann Fabrics. When I was first starting, I couldn't tell the difference in how things knit up. I certainly can tell the difference now. And I know it won't be the last project. Some things call for cheaper yarn, like knitted toys.

Purple and Blue Socks

I started these socks at the end of the year with the high ambition of being able to finish them before the year was out. The ball of yarn, which came with a sock knitting kit, wasn't enough to make the pair of socks, so I purchased more yarn (from Jo-Ann Fabrics again; I didn't know any better at the time!) to finish them off. With a bum ankle from some wall running, I wasn't going to be doing much for New Year's Eve. The plan was to stay up all night to finish these socks. It didn't happen. I have learned after these socks, to be much pickier about my yarn choices. Thankfully, my oldest bonus kids bought me some yarn for Christmas and Husband gave me a gift card to a local yarn shop. He also gave me a book on Derby inspired knitting.

Hat Knitting

In January, I went to a local yarn shop to join in with some Minnesota Rollergirl skaters who were making hats for charity. I brought Husband along to get him out of the house. He sat over in a corner and worked on a drawing. I worked on making my first ever hat. I had received a bunch of smaller double pointed needles and interchangeable circular needles for Christmas, so I was very excited to try them out. The skaters had patterns and yarn, so I picked some out and started the hat. This was an amazingly frustrating process. I was trying to figure out gauge and it was a mess. The first hat was enormous! I made another hat with the same pattern, which ended up being toddler sized (no photo of it though I did gift it to friends with a young boy who was going through a phase of loving hats).




I used up more of this gray yarn from Husband (left over from another project) to make another hat that was actually decent sized. An adult could actually wear it. It was also my first time contacting a designer because I didn't understand the pattern. I still managed to drop a few stitches and screw it up a little but I was overall happy with how it turned out.


Derby Leg Socks

Once again casting on with Jo-Ann Fabrics yarn, I knit these leg socks using the magic loop method. It was a fun and quick project and I really enjoyed making them. I loved having all my derby friends ask me about them. This does remind me that I need to get back onto my skates soon....












Cookie A Socks

 Knowing that I had enjoyed my sock knitting experience, my mom signed me up for the Cookie A Sock Club, which she had already joined. I had no idea what I was getting myself into so I was excited. I remember an early post about it on facebook and having friends who have knit for much longer than I have responding in awe that I was going to tackle her patterns. It's probably good that I didn't know what I was getting into. I have learned a lot from these projects though.

Things I've specifically learned from the Sock Club

• How to pick up dropped stitches in a pattern after a needle breaks and you loose a bunch of stitches.
• How to read charts. How to follow a chart when there's also a decrease in the chart.
• How to let a project sit after messing it up instead of continuing to work on it and making it worse.
• How to dye yarn (I wanted to have my Tiberius socks in the "right" color for Kirk).
• How to do a short-row heel.
• How to knit two socks at a time using magic loop.
• How to become addicted to really, really nice yarn.
• How to make all kinds of cookies.

I gifted one pair of socks to my mom. She's made me tons of socks but she's never received socks before, so that was special for her. I entered one pair of socks into the state fair and scored a 94/100. Of the 12 sock patterns we've received this year (though let's be fair, I only just got the last 2 this past Monday), I've completed 3 pairs. I've been distracted with other projects lately. The patterns from August didn't really jump out at me and I wasn't up to the complexity of either of the October patterns. And I had a space suit to make.

Gifts

 I appear to have made quite a few gifts this year. I made, in less than a week, an alpaca scarf to send with my bonus son to Japan as a gift to his host family. It turns out that the father of the family was a ski instructor in Europe... Good thing I (really Husband did it) convinced my bonus son to take the scarf with him...

 My youngest bonus daughter likes things that she can put other things into. Boxes, bags, nut shells.... So back in April, I bought a kit to make a beaded bag for her. This was my first time incorporating beading into a project. The best part was that the kit included the needle to get the beads onto the yarn. They really did think of everything. I then placed an old heart-shaped silver box into it to give to her as well. She does like her containers. She was so happy and surprised by it that she was actually silent when she opened her eyes.

 Last January-ish, I posted a facebook pay-it-forward gift thing. The requirement was that the first 5 commenters would receive something handmade by me during the yarn. I'd tried to do something like this once before and pretty much failed. To be fair, so did the person I had commented on to receive something from. The thing is that if you comment on someone else's status, you then post this on your own wall. This year, I've managed to gift 2 of the 5, which is better than in the past. One was to my mom (her socks) and the other was to a friend who I don't see very often. It was the first time I did a test knit and that I made socks for someone that I didn't have there with me to have them try them on. She loved them when she got them and they fit perfectly! 

My husband asked me to make a pair of socks for a friend of his as he knew she would appreciate them. I pointed out that she was more of a shawl/scarf person and I should make her one of those. We don't get to see her very often these days but earlier in the yarn when she was visiting, I showed off my yarn collection to her. It wasn't very sneaky of me but I managed to find one that she really loved the color and the texture of without giving away what I was doing. She just received the shawl last week and she loves it. She really loves unique things. I told her that this scarf has several unique things to it.

• Every purl stitch and yarnover was done incorrectly but it was off the needles so I wasn't going to redo it, especially since Husband told me I was done. This means it's different than the others out there.
• The yarn is a limited edition color, club member only color from Indigodragonfly.
• The yarn is a merino, seacel blend which I haven't found very often.

Husband asked me to make him a pair of socks to walk on the wire. I made them out of yarn from a yarn exchange and it's an acrylic and wool blend but knowing how hard he's going to be on them, I though that this was the best option. As much grief as he's given me on my sock obsession, he was amazed with how well these socks fit and with how much it improved his wire jumping. He's had classmates notice the socks and ask him about them. I'm sure he beams when he tells them that his wife made them for him.

And his recently finished cowl. I was going to surprise him with it but he saw the supplies in the car one day when I went to bring him a lunch at work. I love that he tells me that I don't have to knit him anything. I know that I don't have to knit him anything. I enjoy making things for him. He takes care of them, appreciates them and tells everyone I made them for him.



The Tally
In the last 12-ish months, I've made:

• 2 pairs of vanilla socks
• 3 hats
• 3 pairs of Cookie A socks
• 1 pair of wire walking socks
• 1 pair of test knit socks
• 1 pair of leg socks
• 1 beaded bag
• 1 scarf
• 1 shawl
• 1 cowl

for a grand total of  15 finished objects. Not too shabby for only getting into this a little over a year ago!