When I decided to line up all of my knits last year in a single post, I remember being chuffed that there were so many of them — more than I had realized. This year is the exact opposite! I mean, I’ve been aware of having a lot less knitting time available to me, and there’s the highly relevant matter of having worked on a single project for the past quarter, but I’m still floored to discover I apparently only finished six things this year. Six! And two of them barely count. But here’s what’s more important about them—
— My Acer cardigan was knitted throughout 2013 and only finished in January of this year. But I’m constantly aware of how much that sweater taught me about knitting. And what a sweater!
— Then came the quick pair of Super Simple Mitts I made for my sweet niece.
— The Gorro Montanhac was a peak experience. It’s Rosa Pomar’s amazing, amazing pattern and I knitted it Portuguese style, as taught by my friend Brooke, which was a total thrill to learn and do. Then there’s the fact that it was knitted partially in the pleasant environs of Claddagh yarn shop one afternoon in the company of Ann Shayne and begun on my roadtrip with Brooke and Saremy to Seattle for Vogue Knitting Live, where I also got to do the photo shoot for …
— My Trillium cardigan, which was my Tag Team Sweater Project sweater. A project that left me with a fantastic sweater, which I now wear all the time, and more important, with a very dear friend in Anna. That whole project (not least the hilarious photo shoot with Kathy Cadigan, another great friendship in the making) was definitely one of the highlights of my year.
— The garter-stitch hat I knitted from my friend Rebekka Seale’s incredible handspun alpaca she gave me, and one of her Camellia Fiber Company patterns — a really simple, soothing knit that accompanied me on my trip to Indianapolis for the summer trade show and onward to Nashville. My friend DG and I visited Rebekka in her studio on that trip, where I took this picture of Rebekka in the unfinished hat, and now DG does all of the Fringe Supply Co. shipping in our studio right across the hall from Rebekka’s.
— And last but not least, Togue Stripes, my Pam Allen mash-up, which I began at Squam with Anna and finished on my migratory drive with Bob from California to Nashville.
That’s pretty awesome, right — not an insignificant, tossed-off thing in the bunch. I don’t know about you, but I feel a lot better. (Even though my last finished knit was in July! Oy vey.)
I did do a token amount of weaving and mending this year, I should add. And then there’s the tale of all of the stuff that’s still in the ol’ knitting bag—
— Amanda, which is obviously epic as a project, a garment and a blog event. It’s been thoroughly amazing, and I should be wearing it very soon. (If it fits.)
— Channel, which promises to be another true gem to make and to wear, but which I sadly had to frog back to the ribbing. I’m so eager to get this going forward again!
— Fort (ish) for Bob is a bummer on so many levels. Taking away Fort’s beautiful texture has made this seem like a really sad project to me, on top of my existential sadness at not having supplied my husband with a sweater this year. I loved the swatch, but don’t like this color at all in stockinette. So it needs to be frogged and rethought.
— Perkins Cove, the worsted version, I fully expect to be a good and useful garment, if not the most thrilling thing to knit. But after Amanda and Channel, something a little less thrilling has its own sort of appeal.
All told, not a bad batch of work. Thank you all SO MUCH for reading, commenting, sharing, egging me on (and shopping!) this year. It’s been simultaneously one of the best and worst years of my life, and the “best” part of that equation is owed almost entirely to you and this blog and the community that’s cropped up around it. I wish you all a magnificent New Year’s Eve and the best possible 2015!
And now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some cabling to do …
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