A Year of Knitting

As the year comes to a close, I go back and review the year in knitting...

This year I knit 29 sock projects - one isn't here because it's secret. Not great, but not too bad considering real life and the number of non-sock things I knit...



And I knit 13 non-sock things. One of them (the snood) isn't pictured here because the picture doesn't look great and you can't fit 13 things into a rectangular mosaic. ;)



Also, since tonight is a Blue Moon as well as New Year's Eve, and because Tina said so, I'm casting on a special project.

I took this Socks That Rock Lightweight Rare Gem (Blue Moon Fiber Arts, get it?) and cast on the Braided Gem Socks from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn. I even accidentally got a "gem" in the pattern name! The socks don't look like much because they just got cast on, but here's the yarn:



Now to grab some tea and knitting and ring in the new year on the couch with the kitties. Low key, but that's the way I like it.

Listening to: New Year's Eve ~ Pain of Salvation

Finishing

I didn't do much holiday knitting this year. Mostly because I didn't really think about it and then there just wasn't time, but also because I was busy finishing something.



Pattern: a highly modified version of the Holiday Stocking (which appears to be the same as the Scandinavian Stocking which is found in a book) by Donna Kay
Yarn: Jamieson Shetland Spindrift
Started: 11/29?/07
Finished: 12/23/09

I started this a couple of years ago for my mom, and foolishly decided to modify it to have snowflakes instead of the... holly? presents with bows?... on the original. I decided if I couldn't tell what the motif was supposed to be, it should probably be something else. And I really like the snowflakes except they're almost all different so knitting them was an exercise in staring at a chart in a quiet room.

Also the purl-bump checkerboard pattern on the cuff and heel was horrible to knit. I also modified the heel to be a normal sock heel since the pattern has some weird square thing with decreases. No thanks!

Well, the stocking was well received and I'm very relieved to finally have it done. It turned out great but I think that's the last time I knit something like that!

Another (nearly) finished object is the knitting area in my living room.



Currently it's mostly occupied by my handknit sock laundry (which I thought might be interesting to some of you - can you spot any socks you recognize?), but soon that will be moved away and when I obtain a chair it will be a great place for spinning or knitting.

Knitting in the media

Last night I was finishing up a pair of Monkeys (more on that later) while watching Frasier when I saw this:



Yep, that guy is "knitting" what appear to be crocheted granny squares. One would think that someone doing the show knew how to knit, because at one point the man is making fairly realistic knitting motions... but then again maybe not.

I posted something about this (but no picture) on Plurk and got a response from Aesox about a Jockey ad with a spinning wheel churning out knitting. The picture is a bit hard to see - it's possible it's just really thick yarn and someone jammed a cake of it on a spinning wheel, but it's hard to say.



These Jockey girls do a lot of things in their underwear, including riding horses. :o

I'm sure there are many other examples of failed representations of fiber arts - in fact I know I saw one a while ago with a ball of yarn tangled around some needles of someone who was supposedly "knitting".

In any case, back to those socks...



Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A
Yarn: Dream In Color Smooshy in Night Watch
Started: 11/23/09
Finished: 12/5/09

These originally started as the Hedgerow Socks, but it seemed like a lot of ribbing for not a lot of pretty. The pattern was just so plain, and it hurt my hands to be changing from knit to purl so much. I decided to go back to one of my old standbys - Monkey is such an easy pattern to knit. The pattern is easy to memorize and it's also easy to tell where you are in the pattern by looking at the stitches. Plus it's minimal work for what I think are very pretty socks.