We are well into January now. It’s about time I wrap up my year in knitting. There are two finished objects I haven’t posted about yet, and I have to see how well I did with my goals.
First, the finished objects.
Pattern: Clarice Mitts by Amy Sparks
Yarn: Knit Picks Brava Sport in Cobblestone Heather, .46 skein (125.8 yards)
Needles: US 5
Date started: December 3, 2017
Date completed: December 31, 2017
I decided to make a pair of fingerless mitts to use up some of the extra yarn I had to buy to completed the Hue Shift Afghan. At first I was going to use them as a white elephant gift, but decided that was a bad idea. But I had already started them, and decided to finish them. As I was working on them, I asked my boyfriend if he would like them. He tried on the first one when it was finished, and liked it, so when I finished them I gave them to him. He has been wearing them fairly regularly and still likes them, so that makes me happy.
Pattern: Liesl by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Mushishi in Greys, .93 skein (455.6 yards)
Needles: US 10.5
Date started: December 18, 2017
Date completed: January 8, 2018
Now, yes, I actually finished this in 2018, but that was just sewing on the buttons. All of the knitting was completed in 2017, so I count it as a 2017 finished object.
I bought this yarn using a gift certificate to a local yarn store that my father and stepmother got for me as a gift. They have given me two gift certificates to that store, and with all the yarn I have purchased this is the first FO.
I love this yarn. I don’t know if it’s dyed or not because the colors could be natural (there are some colorways that are clearly dyed, so I’m not sure). If it’s not natural, I love how it looks like it is. Here is a closer look at the yarn.
I won the buttons in a contest. I thought they go perfectly. The middle button isn’t perfectly place, so I may tweak that. I was glad I already had buttons and didn’t have to go buy any. I have three left. Honestly, they are decorative. I keep it closed and pull it over my head.
The Liesl pattern has several options. There is a high neck versus a wide neck. I started with the high neck, but when I tried it on it felt like it was going to strangle me, so I ripped back and did the wide neck. There are two sleeve options: cap sleeves versus longer sleeves. I went with the cap sleeves. I only had one skein of this yarn and wanted to make sure I had enough for the body. Speaking of which, the third option was body length: more of a bolero length versus full length. I went with full length.
I’m really happy with how this turned out. I have worn it several times already. It’s very versatile. I’ve worn it with a dress and with jeans. It’s also a very quick knit. I highly recommend it.
Now, onto my goals. Just like every other year, I had mixed results.
1. Complete the hat trick.
I completed this one, even before I posted my goals for the year. The hat trick is something the Puck This! group on Ravelry does every year, where we try to knit three hats in January. I knit two pussy hats for friends who were traveling to the women’s march in Washington. The third hat was a red hat I made for my boyfriend. Check!
2. Use 12 skeins of sock yarn.
So, I technically reached this goal, but it takes some explaining. I consider using a skein of sock yarn to be using at least half of a 100g skein. Well I can’t say I did that, but I did use several 50g skeins, so when I put two of those together it is the equivalent of using a 100g skein. My Find Your Fade shawl really helped. I used 5 100g skeins (one I didn’t fully use, but then made a pair of Rose City Rollers with it, so… 5) and one 50g skein, so that’s 5.5 skeins. I made another (the first) pair of Rose City Rollers with a 50g skein I had in my stash forever, so that brings us to 6. I knit 5 full size pairs of socks, bringing us to 11. I knit 2 baby sweaters out of 50g skeins of yarn, two 50g skeins equal one 100 g skein, so that brings us to 12. Ding ding ding!!! And there was more. I knit a cowl out of fingering weight yarn that used bits of several skeins, but the weight of the finished object gets us technically to another skein. So I exceeded this goal by knitting the equivalent of 13 skeins of sock yarn.
3. Finally make my amigurumi vegetables.
Nope. Spoiler alert: it will be on the list again this year.
4. Learn to crochet well enough to have one crochet FO.
Another nope. I feel particularly bad about this one. This was something I really wanted to do.
5. More yards out than yards in.
Success! I took 10,523.6 yards of yarn into my stash, and let 12,184.2 yards of yarn out of my stash, for 115.8%. Yay!
6. Finish beekeeper’s quilt.
Another nope, but I did knit more hexipuffs.
7. Make 3 adult garments.
So, if you squint hard enough, this is a yes. I knit a sweater for Tim. I knit the green monster for myself that I’m going to frog or rip back and redo, but decided not to do that until 2018. I finished all the knitting, and it was an entire adult sweater. The third was Liesl. I have to admit, I scrambled to finish all the knitting on Liesl before the end of 2017 just to achieve this goal. But I did it!
A mixed bag, but I did quite a bit of knitting. In the end I’m happy with my projects this year.