Knit-stalgia

Like so many wonderful knit bloggers and other type A personalities out there, I'm feeling the need to recap my year and think about some creative goals for 2013. And since I'm a scientist at heart, I'm doing this the best way I know how: through the mighty Excel spreadsheet.

Figure 1. This figure displays the number of finished objects (blue) completed in 2012, 2011, and 2010 as well as the works in progress (pink) still on the needles: current WIPs were begun or worked on in 2012 while ancient WIPs were begun in 2011 or earlier. Total numbers of projects in each category as well as data labels for 2012 FOs and current WIPs were added.

From this graph, we can see that 2012 was slightly more productive than past years (44 FOs vs. 41) with hats being the standout category for FOs (n=18). I finished more cowls and miscellaneous items (bracelets, cuffs, dishclothes) than in previous years, as well as my first pair of completed mittens. I finished fewer mitts, shawls, and scarves than the past couple of years, which was an interesting trend and rather unexpected trend.

My 2012 finished socks (n=6) were about average (n=5 in 2011, n=8 in 2010), but considering that last year I vowed to make 2012 my Year of Socks, that's pretty sad. Halfway through the year I got quite distracted, I haven't finished a pair since June! I have, however, somehow accumulated 12 pairs of sock WIPs on the needles! TWELVE PAIRS!! If I keep going at this rate, soon I'll have more current sock WIPs than FOs of all time.

Although my year of socks idea totally backfired, I did get make a good start on designing, publishing 7 patterns (3 free, 4 paid) which are hosted on Ravelry, Craftsy, and Patternfish.

Top L to R: Beribboned Hat, Giving Comfort, Huacaya. Bottom L to R: Beribboned Wrists, Fiasco, Ribby Holiday Socks, and Syrinx Shells.

I am ever so thankful to everyone who supported my endeavors this year. Whether you purchased a pattern, provided feedback, modeled for photos, test knitted, donated some finished knits to charity, blogged about my pattern, provided yarn support, featured my pattern at a show, or just plain cheered me on here on the blog, I appreciated every bit of it, so thank you! I've enjoyed seeing my ideas come to life on other people's needles and am looking forward to seeing what design opportunities come up in 2013.

One very big accomplishment of 2012 was learning how to spin. I went from my first spindle to my first wheel in 11 months and I am completely in love with the process. Even though I have not produced a ton of handspun, I've learned a lot by experimenting and reading up on differnt sheep breeds in my ongoing Spinner's Study. And now that I have the wheel I feel like my focused spinning time will increase and hopefully a bunch of gorgeous, finished skeins will magically appear.

Since I've realized that I suck at sticking to specific goal lists (like finish 13 of anything in 2013) I'm going to keep my 2013 goals fairly broad:

Design goals:

• publish a Malabrigo Quickie (in progress)
• publish a design with Cephalopod Yarns (in progress)
• publish a design with The Verdant Gryphon
• publish a design with KnitPicks
• publish in an online or print magazine
• finish and publish 4 more socks for my How I Met Your Mother series (2 in progress)
• design a shawl

Non-Design Knitting goals:

• finish (or frog) all of my ancient WIPs (started in 2010-2011)
• knit a pair of socks from handspun yarn
• finish my First Garment vest (in progress)
• knit a real sweater for me
• work on my (long neglected) sock yarn blanket

Spinning goals:

• spin a truly worsted-style skein using short forward draw
• spin a truly woolen-style skein using long draw
• spin a skein of 3-ply sock yarn
• spin a skein of laceweight 2-ply on my spindle

That's a pretty do-able list, I think. And of course, the overall goal is to knit down my beautiful, embarrassingly large stash. While I did not go entirely cold sheep this year, I did significantly cut down my 2012 yarn purchases from 2011 and I hope to continue in that vein. I have too many pretty skeins squirreled away not to use them and with all the spinning, I'll just keep adding more!

I'm sure that's enough Type A babble for today. As usual, that took much longer than I expected and was a diverting way to procrastinate away some time better spent on something else! (Old habits die hard...) Once again, thanks so much to everyone who reads this blog and helps me fuel my various obsessions, it wouldn't be the same without you! Have a great year, everyone.

Holidays Revamped!

I finally got around to updating my Ribby Holiday Socks pattern! It now includes additional sizing information so that you can knit it at three different gauges with fingering, sport, or DK weight yarn. This came about because I decided I wanted to knit the pattern in Socks that Rock Mediumweight yarn and I realized that the stitch count wouldn't work to fit me in that yarn as written, so I changed it and finished my fifth pair of 2012 socks to boot:

STR Mediumweight, colorway On Blueberry Hill

These were my Gone Fishin' socks, and were perfect for travel knitting while I worked on the boat. I'm already planning my next pair. I revamped the layout of the pattern and changed the way the sizing works. It now includes a table in which you find the gauge that you get with your needles and yarn and the desired fit you want (in circumference around the ball of your foot) in order to figure out which size you should knit. I've often been frustrated with how sock sizes are indicated in patterns and have found which yarn/needle/gauge combos work for me only after much practice and trial-and-error, so I'm hoping the sizing table will take some of the guesswork out of the whole thing, especially for new knitters. No guarantees of perfect-sock-fit-nirvana, of course, since everybody's feet are different, but I'm hoping it will still provide a useful jumping-off point for figuring out what might work best.

Ah, gotta love eye-searingly stripey socks, no? And there's really no need to wait for the actual holidays to roll around before you knit a pair of these for yourself, you know. You could think of them as summer holiday socks, or vacation holiday socks, amIright? Anyway, I'll be spending the rest of my day at a Renaissance Faire partying like it's 1499. Enjoy your holiday weekend! ;)

It's About Time!

I finally (finally finally) finished my poor dear neglected Fiasco's socks:

I think he looks appropriately thrilled, don't you? Pair #4 of 2012, complete! I'm really happy with how these came out. This is my own design, the first 'complicated' sock I've put together involving a sideways-knit cuff, a few different cables and textural stitches, and a garter stitch heel and toe.

STR Heavyweight, colorway Drop Dead Sexy

Sorry for the flash-tastic photo, I have better ones waiting for the pattern release. I'm working on tweaking a few things now and will soon be looking for test knitters. If you think you'd like to test knit and can most likely finish one sock by the end of May, please leave a comment and let me know!

Another long-awaited event occurred today:

The arrival of my new Kundert spindle! My mom hinted at wanting to get this for me weeks ago and it finally got here, yay! The dark wood is walnut, the lightest wood is maple, the purple lines are purpleheart, and the rest of the whorl and shaft are cherry. The whole thing is gorgeous, I love it! :) It feels much lighter than my Golding spindle, but that could be because my Golding currently has a huge cop of singles on it that I need to wind off. I'm excited to see how this one spins!

What have you been anticipating lately?

Beam Me Up!*

I finished Pair #3 of 2012, yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

These are Cotty socks designed by Irishgirlieknits in STR Mediumweight, colorway Scottish Highlands. This is one of the first skeins of STR I bought for myself (two years ago in April 2010!) and I'm so pleased with how it knit up. I really enjoyed this pattern. It's simple and pretty, with nice easy lace and a lovely picot hem. I highly recommend it!

I modified them slightly to decrease the stitch count after the cuff, you can see where the spirals changed to stripes. They fit well, but next time I'd probably just knit them in STR LW or Bugga since I like the original cast on number just fine in those yarns and I wouldn't need to change the stitch count. The photos are a little washed out because they were taken in pre-dawn light because that's how dedicated I am to photo-documenting my knitting! (Haha, sad, right?) But really, who wouldn't be posing near the window before work at 6:30am (bent double trying to catch the meager light at just the right angle) with socks as snazzy as these? :)

* I named this project Scotty, because Scottish Highlands + Cotty Socks = Scotty. Superclever!!!

Aaaand Done.

My Making Mischief socks are finished!

STR MW, colorway Puck's Mischief

Thankfully, I remembered the correct number of stitches to decrease to on the foot and now they both fit the same.

Pattern: South Fork Socks

The South Fork Socks pattern was excellent and wonderful and a lot of fun to work, even when I had to re-knit half the foot of the second sock again. I rarely say this, but I would definitely knit this pattern again. Just not this year, haha. Too many other sock patterns in line first.

On my fiber-filled Friday night I also spun up some of the Merino/Silk fiber and plied a little sample of the pink-and-silk yarn I want to make:

My first plying!

I think it looks awesome. Fiasco was like "Hmmm, there are thick and thin spots" (ever the critic) but it is really much much better than the yarn I produced before. It has been thoroughly soaked, thwacked, and is hanging to dry. I'm curious to see how it turns out after it's been set. It doesn't feel all that soft to me, which I think might be a consequence of too much twist and dense drafting. I'll have to see if I can remedy that somehow. Any suggestions?

Oh, and speaking of the yarn I produced before, here's a teensy bit of it knit up into an edge of a potholder:

Still kinky...

The yarn still has a lot of kinks and is rough-to-the-touch where there is a lot of twist built up, but it's still neat to knit with yarn that I made myself. I'm pretty excited that it stays together and looks like yarn! Now I have to figure out how to make it look like yarn that I want, not just yarn.

Sore Fingers

As promised, here are the photos of the first pair of socks finished in 2012:

STR Lightweight, colorway X-mas Rocks

I love how the pink and yellow colors pooled similarly around the gusset of each sock. My Fiasco calls these my 'clown barf' socks. I can't really argue with him. They are bright. Yet they are also festive, and that was the point.

Doesn't everyone wear thermal pants because it's so dang cold in their house? No? Oh well, just me then.

I started these socks way back in February 2011. I had wanted to knit them in time for Christmas 2010, but alas, it was not to be. I needed a plain sock A.S.A.P. to knit while reading papers and since the X-mas Rocks skein was already wound up, I started them. I winged the pattern, alternating stockinette stitch with *K3,P3* rows, and I liked the ridged effect so I kept going. They hibernated for a while until I tried to finish them in time for Christmas 2011, but that was not to be, either. Nevertheless, they are done now, and make my feet no less cozy despite the fact that we're past the holidays.

I am kind of mad at them, though. I spent all day Saturday knitting them and then a lot of Sunday evening as well, and now my fingers are too sore to knit anything else! I've tried, and I just can't seem to knit comfortably at the moment. I'm not used to having a whole weekend  of knitting time, usually it's just what I can snag here and there, so I guess my fingers are out of shape! Which is a shame, because I'm itching to knit a Here and There hat. I need a warm hat and it's so darn cute. The yarn is even all ready to go:

but no dice. It will just have to wait. Ever knit yourself sore before?