A Selection of Stitches From 2011

 I certainly haven't churned out very much knitting in relation to the amount of time I thought I spent knitting this past year! I've been enjoying a community knitting group I set up. It's held at the local library twice a month. Each month I prepare a free washcloth pattern as well as a monthly newsletter, so I suppose that's a lot of time thinking about knitting but not really making any knitted progress.

I didn't really have any hard and fast knitting goals last year...I thought I would do a Mystery a month, but that didn't really jive with my perfectionist tendencies. There was just somehting about diving in and tackling a project without knowing if I would use or like the finished product. I did manage to get two done, though.

I aimed for a sock per month. I got three full pair of socks, a cheater pair of 'socks' that were really little flip-flop thong socks (look for them on Ravelry: Flippant) and a lonely owl sock.

The other knitting related thing I enjoyed this year was watching my daughter knit up a storm. She has a 3-foot stack of hats teetering on her desk along with an impressive collection of knitted monsters and other stuffed toys. She knit her brother a fish hat. She knit baby gifts and she tried out a few clothing items for herself. She had a prolific year!

As I was poking through pictures on the computer, I thought I would collect some of my nicer projects this year in a post. I'm hoping it will add to my knitting motivation for 2012.

-Mrs. A.

Housewarming gift for the community coordinator at the library who made the knitting group I set up possible. She moved on to bigger library pastures.

  

My Mexico Sweater - a mostly impulsive knit whipped up in Nov/Dec before a family trip. I was on a deadline so couldn't be terribly upset about the less-than-perfect shaping of the front. A neat construction from Knitty.com called Mythos (FirstFall2010) and made out of Misty Alpaca.

Pride Mittens made as a Christmas gift for my brother and sister-in-law. Made with Knit Picks yarn, which I had never bought before. I think I have enough left to make myslef a pair!

Owlie Socks that might be just a bit tight for my foot. Great patten for plain yarn, though! First sock is hibernating for now until I'm motivated enough to ge tthe second sock under way.

Scylla Socks. I wear these all the time. It has a counterpart pattern that I will knit this year.



My first Mystery 220yds project. Very wearable scarf that I lost at a local resturant. Hopefully someone likes it! It was my first official foray into lace and charts.



Striped Scarf built from Jared Flood's Noro Striped scarf pattern. I'm not a Noro fan, so I used something called King Cole's Riot. 2 balls - one rainbow, one a grey-to-black neutral - made for a really long scarf.

Another Knitty.com creation: Wild Stripes. I knit most of this in 2010, but finished it in 2011. It is backed in flanellette and I chose to leave off the embroidery the pattern calls for. I did run a couple of lines of invisible stitching across a few of the stripes to make sure the two layers stuck together. This was a well received gift for a special baby girl who arrived in Feb.2011.

My version of a Snowman Christmas ornament.

My last Mystery 220 project. It turned out great and I get many compliments on this little bag. I use it as a project bag. It fits a couple of balls of sock yarn and all the bits required to make a pair of socks.