Happy new year! Am I a bit late? I ended up taking an unplanned and extended break over the holidays. My dad had a health scare the week before Christmas so things were a bit mental between the horrible weather (snow! how I hate the word!), making sure he was ok and making sure everything else was ok. Not to worry – thankfully all is well now.
There has been much knitting. My heather hoodie blocked out wonderfully well and I wore it incessantly through Christmas week. Modelled shots at the weekend! Speaking of incessant wearing, these never came off either.
My last FO of 2010 ended up being Folded. I wore it on Christmas Day.
I promise I will get modelled shots of this soon because it is far, far too pretty to keep under wraps. It is possibly the nicest sweater I’ve knit since this. I put off finishing it ad infinitum because I was worried I wouldn’t have enough yarn. In the end, I decided to knit exactly to the sleeve length specified in the pattern – I always make sleeves longer because of my orangutan arms – and whaddya know? I had a little yarn to spare. I made some modifications to the body which I will write about in greater detail when I post better photos.
First FO of 2011 was Pole (sorry, only a Ravelry link is available for this). I usually have some sort of mental knitting queue that gets jiggled around constantly depending on what I come across on Ravelry or my needs. Occasionally, I find a pattern that usurps all of it and demands to be knit immediately. Faster than immediately! Faster than instant coffee! Is-it-a-bird-is-it-a-plane!
I was smitten by the idea of a Malabrigo blanket. And the sleeves! Oh, the sleeves. I knit this in ten days flat, finishing it on New Year’s day and I haven’t taken it off since. More details to come when I get it blocked out.
This was my ninth year travelling home for Christmas so I was sensible this time. Sort of. I brought one work in progress to finish off and two new projects. You’ve seen what I’ve finished off and the first of my new projects. You can do the maths… I’m running low on my last project.
The beloved Austin Hoodie. I spent much of 2010 stalking this pattern. I even bought yarn that I thought would do the job for it but it never quite got me hooked. And then, one fateful day, I was standing in This is Knit when I spied the most perfect colour in Malabrigo sock: ink.
This pattern has you knit the body at a loose-ish gauge and then a bit tighter for the yoke. This combination of floppy knitting and the yarn means that I am running dangerously low on yarn. I only brought one skein (I don’t know why, ok!). I might be able to get through the next 24 hours. We drive back to Dublin tomorrow morning… but we might be playing a bit more I Spy than Alb is prepared for.
I would say: prolific! Nice projects!!! Happy new year !
Wow what a huge number of projects. I love Pole so much I went straight to ravelry and bought the pattern
xx C
Beautiful knitting and enchanting colorways. I especially love the under-the-sea blues and greens.
can’t wait to see modeled shots!!
Being able to see FOs on real people, that’s why i like ravelry so much, because you get to see what you can do with a pattern, and how it works on different figures and with different yarns!
I have orang utan arms, too!! the bane of my shopping life… forget dunnes, forget benetton, forget so many more…
H&M and Mango tend to have good sleeve length, and many Skandinavian labels!
Just wanted to say, love your knitting, but especially thanks for posting about your Thorpe hat. It’s been on my to-do list for so long and last night, inspired and reminded by seeing yours I finally knit one for my niece! What a great hat! Thanks for that x