2022: looking back

In terms of knitting, 2022 was my most productive year.

I started knitting small projects, such as a handful of dishcloths. After all, there is nothing better than dishcloths for quick gratification and I always need a bit of extra gratification in dark winter days.

The only large project I started in January was a large colourblock scarf (more like a stole). This was my first mohair project (2 strands held together). I loved the colours, but, after many days working on it, I ended up frogging it. It turns out I'm not a big fan of mohair, so I just knew I was not going to wear it. There was not point in continue to work in it. Instead I decided to use the yarn held together with a different yarn, so the fabric isn't as fluffy.

In February I started working on a sweater and by the end of June I had concluded 6 sweaters! (Not including three other sweaters I started but frogged!) I don't have good pictures of my sweaters, so you must take my word for it: they are gorgeus. So much so they deserve shouting capitals, but I decided to refrain from using them, in the name of good writing style.

My second half of the year was not as productive, mainly because I worked in the aforementioned frogged sweaters. Still, I had time to work on a garter stitch blanket (afghan sized), my first triangular shawl and another sweater which I haven't yet finished (I still need to pick up the stitches for the collar and finish that). The blanket used all my left-over sock yarn, plus a bunch of colours I really didn't like. The good news is that, all mixed up, even these colours look pretty good in this blanket, as you can see.

I ended the year working on 2 dozen small projects, mainly hats for Christmas presents. I must say I love how quick these are to make.

To end the year, I did something special. I picked up two projects that have been hibernating for a long time. You see, I actually never finished the 2nd and 3rd projects I've started knitting years ago when I was an absolute beginner. These are a lovely cable blanket (which I've used plenty, even unfinished) and a sweater (which I'd lost and only recently discovered where it had been hiding). It's kind of pathetic, but, even though I've worked on these a bit more... they are still unfinished. The blanket still needs a border (which will avoid the edges rolling). As for the sweater, it has a more complicated story and so many problems I had decided to frog it, but then I changed my mind and am trying to finish it at the moment. The main problem this sweater has is that I've completely blundered the collar (it was my 1st sweater and my own design, so I have a good excuse!). It was knit top-down, so the straightforward way to fix the collar meant frogging the whole sweater. Instead, I sort of steeked the collar, then realized this was way beyond my habilities and hid the poor mangled sweater at the bottom of a wardrobe I hardly ever use. This is however only one of the problems this sweater has. In addition, I had a skein of yarn which was of a different colourlot. I decided to alternate skeins to see if that helped hiding the colour difference, but no luck: I have a striped sleeve, which looks plain weird. I also knitted the sweater my husband's size (it was meant as a gift for him), but, because he is never available to try it on, the sleeves were my length (roll-eyes). As if all that is not enough, the sweater is super warm and heavy. I've used worsted-weight yarn, but worked all-over stranded colourwork, so it's a double thickness fabric. Despite all these problems I decided to fix the collar and live with the rest of the problems for a few reasons: its sentimental value, the colourwork is actually quite nice, it involved endless hours of work and I have no other plans for the yarn I used (which I don't like much to be honest). I hope to be able to use it in extremely informal (and cold) situations. In order to fix the collar I added a hood. The way I designed it, the front and base of the hood creates a sort of cowl-like effect that hides the mess I did when "steeking".

These are not all the projects I've worked last year, but it's a good list.