It’s always big fun to dig into the stats at the end of the year and see if what I think was a hit really was a hit. And since a lot of people have a lot of leisure time during this last week of the year, it’s also a chance to highlight some things you might have missed! So with that—
Top 10 posts from previous years that continued to dominate the charts this year:
1. Q for You: What’s your peak knitting experience?
2. Pullovers for first-timers: Or, an introduction to sweater construction
3. How to improvise a top-down sweater, Part 1: Casting on and marking raglans
4. Joining sweater parts at the underarm: Here comes the fun!
5. Super Simple Mitts
6. Holiday knitting cheat sheet: A hat for every head
7. How to weave on a hand loom
8. Best summer sweater knitting patterns
9. Double Basketweave Cowl
10. Knit the Look: Mariska van der Zee’s EZ pullover
Full disclosure: That number one post is full of great responses — a really wonderful discussion — but it’s garnered so much traffic in part because the photo is an enormous hit with the Pinterest community. On top of which, someone somewhere along the line pinned it and put the words “free pattern” in their caption, which has been re-pinned like that a hundred thousand times. Gentian is an amazing pattern but not a free one.
Top 10 posts from 2015:
1. Fringe Hatalong No. 1: Audrey by Jessie Roselyn (pictured top right)
2. Fringe Hatalong No. 3: Hermaness Worsted by Gudrun Johnston
3. Slow Fashion October — get ready!
4. Fringe Hatalong No. 2: L’Arbre by Cirilia Rose
5. Fringe Hatalong No. 5: Seathwaite by Kate Gagnon Osborn
6. Fringe Hatalong No. 4: Laurus by Dianna Walla
7. Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater (pictured middle right)
8. Hot Tip: Let the knitting remember for you (pictured bottom left)
9. Fringe and Friends Knitalong 2015: Cowichan style (pictured bottom right)
10. Q for You: What’s the knit you couldn’t live without?
Notice a pattern (no pun intended) in that list? (Hatalong 6 hasn’t been live long enough to compete.) The most popular posts that didn’t include a free knitting pattern, in addition to the few sprinkled in the top ten, were the Hot Tip about minding your edge stitches, sewing pattern ideas for what to wear under cardigans, the Slow Fashion October post about my Gallery Dress (pictured middle left), my vintage waistcoat and modified Wiksten tank FO post; how to knit a hat; and my sleeveless turtleneck FO post (pictured top left) (and I swear, I swear, I swear I will have a pattern for it soon!). So that struck me as an unexpected mix.
Clearly everyone loved the big initiatives this year — the knitalongs and Slow Fashion October. And I did, too! But I’d love to hear from you all personally: What was your favorite thing on the blog this year? Could be a single memorable post, a series, a pattern, a tip, whatever the case may be.
p.s. There’s a wee year-end clearance sale going on over at Fringe Supply Co. You might want to take a look!