Tag Archives: top posts

Top posts and highlights of 2017

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Top posts and highlights of 2017

I published only one pattern this year — Sloper, which, like Improv before it, is a pattern-tutorial hybrid — and not surprisingly it was the most popular post I published this year, while Improv continues to be the most popular of all time! (You can scroll through all of the free patterns on the blog right here.) But the top 5 for the year is an interesting mix: that pattern, the year’s biggest event, my meatiest Queue Check, a simple tip for a recurring problem and, somewhat surprisingly, my first pants—

Top 5 posts published in 2017:
1. Sloper: Basic pattern for a sleeveless sweater
2. Summer of Basics Make-along starts now!
3. Queue Check — March 2017: A whole new queue
4. Hot Tip: Bridge the gap
5. FO 10: My first pants

Top 5 from the archives:
1. Improv: Basic pattern/tutorial for a top-down seamless sweater
2. Joining sweater parts at the underarms: Here comes the fun!
3. Fringe Hatalong No. 1: Audrey by Jessie Roselyn
4. Pullovers for first-timers: Or, an introduction to sweater construction
5. Super Simple Mitts

Some personal highlights:

– Boldly cutting the body off my St. Brendan sweater and reworking it to my liking (finished sweater here)

– Finishing my Channel cardigan just in time to take it on my first trip abroad, to Paris

– The Sloper knitalong — always so fun to see what you guys do with my patterns

– Summer of Basics, again, as it totally changed my sewing life and my closet — plus finally knitting that fisherman sweater I’d been blogging about for five years

– Squam (my first real time teaching knitting!)

– Making jeans!

– The whole October 20×30 thing — all of this year’s Wardrobe Planning, actually

– And every response you guys leave on Q for You — I don’t generally have time to respond to them all as they’re so voluminous, but I absolutely love reading them.

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It’s been a robust year for Our Tools, Ourselves and Hot Tips, among other things that are worth scrolling back through. This year, I’ve added How To to the top menu of the blog, for all of the tips and tutorials in one place, and I also introduced The Details, starting with my highly pleasing folded neckband join and a patch pocket tutorial. And I’m SO EXCITED for the Log Cabin Make-Along that kicks off on New Year’s Day!

I also want to say a huge thank-you to my contributors this year, Jess Schreibstein, Katrina Rodabaugh and Hannah Thiessen. It’s been a treat having their voices here on the blog, but I’ve decided next year to get back to just me musing about whatever I’m musing about! So please tell me: What were your favorite posts or series of the year? And what do you hope for more of in 2018?

And if you would take a minute to tell your friends about the blog or some specific component of it — at knit night or on social media or wherever — I would truly appreciate it. I’ll be back tomorrow with my headed-into-2018 Queue Check!

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PREVIOUSLY in Year-end: Favorite New Favorites, Knitting year in review, Sewing year in review

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Top posts of 2016

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Top posts of 2016

Unlike 2015, I didn’t add much to the free knitting patterns on the blog this year (just one, actually — the Plait Hat), which makes for a pretty different Top Posts list from last year’s.  (I did publish multiple FO posts for top-down sweaters that include all the details you need to make your own.) Tutorials, however, there were a lot of! The mother of all tutorials was the update of my always-popular top-down tutorial, now dubbed Improv (and listed on Ravelry), which was also the basis for the Top-Down Knitalong — not only a highlight of the year for me, but of the whole five years I’ve been doing this.

But there were other tutorials I hope you didn’t miss. In the bottom-up realm: How to knit inset pockets and How to seam on a button band. And in the top-down realm: How to incorporate a stitch pattern, How to knit top-down inset pockets, How and why to knit top-down sleeves flat and How to knit a compound raglan. Plus How to knit the right size sweater, How to account for gauge differences and the importance of underarm ease. Phew!

But as far as what got clicked on most this year—

Top 5 posts from 2016:

1. Improv: Basic pattern for a top-down seamless sweater
2. Plait Hat
3. How (and why) to knit top-down sleeves flat
4. Slow Fashion October 2016 (master plan)
5. Hot Tip: Relax your cast-on

Top 5 posts from previous years (other than the top-down tutorial):

1. Pullovers for first-timers: Or, an introduction to sweater construction
2. Fringe Hatalong No. 1: Audrey by Jessie Roselyn
3. The lovely Audrey (the most popular image on Pinterest this year!)
4. Q for You: What’s your peak knitting experience? (the most popular image on Pinterest last year!)
5. Joining sweater parts at the underarm: Here comes the fun!

And some personal favorite posts that didn’t make either list:

– I have a soft spot for these photos from when I was working on Bob’s sweater in Florida in January.

– The art on Idea Log: Penguono x Joseph was probably my favorite of the year, and I still love the idea of that weirdo-minimalist take on Stephen’s cardigan, even though I abandoned the project. Might have to rethink that.

– I loved the Anna Vest knitalong, obviously — thank you to everyone who’s knitted my pattern so far!

– I only managed to publish a few Our Tools, Ourselves this year, but they were really good! See Julie Hoover and Ashley Yousling (and er, my own workroom)

– Make Your Own Basics quickly became my favorite series to put together, so it’s good that you guys seem to love it, too

– And I couldn’t be happier about the introduction of Jess’s Swatch of the Month column into the mix!

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I have two requests for you as we head into the new year:

  1. I’d love it if you’d leave a comment below telling me what your favorite post, series or event from this year was.
  2. I’d love it you’d tell others, by sharing your favorite on Pinterest or Facebook or wherever you share.

Thank you so much for reading along this year! And for all the great comments along the way.

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PREVIOUSLY: Top posts of 2015

Top posts of 2015

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Top posts of 2015 — Fringe Association blog

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!

Top posts of 2014

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Top posts of 2014

It’s always intriguing to take a look back at the blog for the year and see what caught your interest. It’s also odd to look at, because there are about twenty posts from deep in the archives that are so huge on Pinterest and/or Ravelry that they are just always way out in front, no matter how old they are. It’s possible nothing will ever compete with the tutorial on How to improvise a top-down sweater, the top post for two years running. Right behind it are two of the holiday knitting cheat sheets: Cowls all around and A hat for every head. Then comes Pullovers for first-timers and my most popular pattern, Super Simple Mitts. But as far as which of this year’s posts grabbed your attention, these came out on top:

1. Joining sweater parts at the underarm: Here comes the fun! (Hey, I got there on Christmas day!)
2. Mitts for Miss Casey, which ties in to the aforementioned Super Simple Mitts
3. Knit the Look: Mariska van der Zee’s EZ pullover
4. Knitting in Paradise, about my time at Squam
5. Hot Tip: Mismatch your needles
6. Colorwork patterns for first-timers
7. New Favorites: Lena Samsoe’s fisherman cardigan, precursor to the knitalong
8. New Favorites: Rosa Pomar’s blanket hat
9. Best new hat patterns from last winter
10. Our Tools, Ourselves: Jared Flood, Q&A with the Brooklyn Tweed founder

I love how diverse this list is — a mix of pattern picks, how-to information, an interview, some personal whatnot, and the sweater that fueled the Amanda knitalong, When I ask people in person what they enjoy about the blog, the two most common answers these days are that knitalong and the Tag Team Sweater Project. So it’s clear you guys enjoy a big project, along with the regular features.

Here are some of my personal favorites from the year:

January: FO Sightings: Fancy Amber’s heroic vest
February: Knit the Look: Marte Mei Van Haaster’s perfect grey pullover
March: Sleeveless in Seattle (Flattering or not, I love those photos) and Lemaire’s never-enough knits
April: Sweet spring shawls and Pretty spring scarves (I also LOVED creating these images.)
May: Make, knit, mend — the post I hope I never forget
June: To live and dye in Oaxaca, the beautiful guest post by Jess Schreibstein
July: Future most-worn handknit, the beautiful guest post by Ashley Yousling
August: What I really want is a Kathryn Davey wardrobe
September: Amanda knitalong: Meet the panel! — one of my all-time favorite posts
October: All those WIPs of the Week
November and December: The knitalong FO interviews with Jaime Jennings, Meg Strong and Kate Gagnon Osborn

I’ve also loved every word of Our Tools, Ourselves. And I always love Q for You. I don’t always have the bandwidth to respond to everything, but I read and appreciate every single answer and always learn something (lots of somethings!) interesting. I’m still making my way through all the incredibly meaty answers to last week’s question. The Q that drew the most responses this year, if you’re curious, was Does having a yarn stash work?

So if you’re bored at work or the in-laws today, hopefully that will fill some time! And if you’re inclined to tell me, I’d love to hear what your favorite features or posts have been this year — and what you’d like to see more (or less) of in 2015!

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p.s. There are a few marked down items in the shop this week.