There’s always something surprising to me whenever I look back through what I’ve made in a given year. This year it’s the fact that I made things! For some reason, I don’t feel like I did, and it may be because this is the first year I knitted more for others than for myself. I also sewed more than I knitted (more on that tomorrow), which is easy to do — especially when you’re as simple a sewer as me — but it turns out I did, in fact, knit this year. And I even crocheted.

For me, I knitted only three things, above, but I’m well pleased with them: my smock vest (improvised), my toffee-colored cable pullover (Grace pattern by Denise Bayron), and the little black kerchief (modified from a Purl Soho pattern) that is my constant companion these days.

I knitted four things for tiny nieces: The little colorwork cardigan being shared by Misses M and T; the bobble beret for their big sister R; the sunny cardigan for their new baby sister E; and the keepsake cardigan in memory of their baby cousin.

And then there are the two slight disappointments. The cable hat for Bob is a thing of beauty but the yarn has no recovery whatsoever and so isn’t well suited to this particular task. He gave it back to me and I’ve been wearing it on the trail, and need to knit him another one in a more elastic yarn. Similarly, the summer hat I crocheted for myself has sort of … wilted. I need to try it again at the nice tight gauge the pattern calls for.

All in all, a pretty successful knitting year — especially given how much those girls loved their gifts.

Please note that each of these things is linked to the original blog post about it where you can find further photos, links and details on patterns, yarn, modifications and so on — please click through to find out more! And if I left anything out, feel free to ask.

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PREVIOUSLY in FOs: Matilda’s cardigan