Year in Review: 2007

I feel like if I get it in before the end of January, it still counts.

Knitting wise, it was a great year, even if it did slow down a bit at the end. Of course there was standard cold weather gear:





The clear winner, in terms of number of completed objects alone (and, I might add, continuous wear) are the socks! I went totally sock-crazy last year - but if this is wrong, I don't know if I want to be right. Because then I'd have really cold feet. Instead, I have these (well, some of them):






This year I made tons of real clothes, too! Well, not tons, but there was a 600% increase in sweater production from last year. Warm outer garments abound!




So that was the year in knitting, finally. Exciting right? But not half so exciting as this weekend....when I tell you what I've got on the needles! Oh, the possibilities of another 11 months of knitted goodness.

FO: Grandpa Cardigan

Presenting the very last FO of 2007:

I call this one the grandpa cardigan, and it's actually been done for a really long time. I finished knitting it really fast, but then took a bizarrely long time to sew on the buttons. Jon was very patient through it all. I really like it, actually - it's kind of like Mr. Rogers, but older and blander.

Yarn - 5 or so skeins of Knitpicks Cadena (70% wool, 30% alpaca, 110 yards) in mist and some random amount of purple Lopi yarn I had hanging around for the edging.

Needles - 29" size 13 Inox greys. These things are monsters! It was satisfying to knit so fast, but it was also like knitting with vienna sausages.

Pattern - I totally winged this one. I got Jon's measurements and just top-down raglan-ed it until it mostly fit him (what? It's a grandpa sweater...it's supposed to be slouchy and ill-fitting!). For the sleeves, I picked them up and knit them after the body straight, and then decreased a bunch right before the ribbing to ensure maximum floppiness. Then, I worked a nifty, manful shawl collar:


I'm beginning to have a thing for short rows. They are kind of like a magic trick, you know? I have to say, though, that what really pulls the sweater together are the buttons:


Don't you think so? I pulled them off an old, icky acrylic sweater I had and had been holding on to them for awhile, and was planning to use them for myself, but they fit so much better with this.

So that's it, I'm finally caught up in terms of FOs! I'll do a much belated annual recap soon, and hopefully before the end of the month, join everybody in 2008.

FO: Cheery Freemason Gloves

These have been done for awhile.

(click for bigger)

And if you look closely at some of those pictures, you can see that they've also been broken in...by my cat, Mittens, who obsessively licks knitted objects until they get all fuzzy and puffed up. Anyway, I love them! It's currently too cold here to wear them, but they're perfect for late fall/early spring temperatures.

Yarn - Mama Llama DK (100% wool, 275 yards) in Day. I love this yarn! I've considered using it for a whole lot of different things - a cool motif in a yoked sweater, for instance, or maybe a scarf, perhaps a nifty headband - but settled on gloves, I think, because they're small (thus not overwhelming, because damn this yarn is bright) but show off the coolness of the yarn to good effect.

Needles - 29" size 4 Inox circulars. I'm having a weird dilemma these days when I have to choose between addis and inox greys - the inoxes are awesomely pointy (well, frankly, that's awesome for about a minute, but then gets kind of painful because I have a weird habit of pushing the tip of the needle around with my opposing index finger...but you know what I mean), but have a terrible cable, and the addis have that smooth-not-at-all-twisty cable, but are dull which makes intricate stitch manipulation hard. Life is hard.

Pattern - like the ampergrabbers that inspired these, I kinda made it up as I went along. I knit them from the wrist up, starting with about 40 sts. The pattern is based off a basic 2x2 rib, with the cool eye thingy in the middle (hence the freemason reference) made by increasing and decreasing in the rib pattern, like in Thelonius. I worked a gusset for the thumb.

ooooh! creepy masonish eye is watching you!

Stay tuned for the VERY LAST FO of 2008! It's worth the wait, promise.

Oops! There went January....

...without any posts. Sorry about that. Let me catch you up on what happened once my Christmas hermitage ended. In a nutshell...


...Jon got decorated. I think (but I'm not exactly sure) that this happened because he threatened to go running. Dani and I decided this was a terrible idea and said that he could - but that he would be COVERED IN SHARPIE!! He decided not to. Then, New Years got closer and we....


...built a really bad-ass fort! Look at that setup: 2 blankets for maximum canopy coverage, two-level seating arrangement, and a coffee table. We spent 3 or 4 days in this puppy solid and watched the entire Twilight Zone Marathon! Well, we took shifts, but someone was awake and in front of the TV for every single episode. which is impressive nonetheless. A couple of days later, the Twilight Zone Fort was repurposed for...


...Dani's birthday party! Don't ask me what's going on with me an Jon in this picture, I just don't know. Rest assured it was awesome. And finally...


...Dani and I got tattooed! These are little moonmonsters we;ve been thinking about getting for awhile. It's a long story, which involves a long drive to Texas culminating in my sister running around our front yard in a bathrobe trying to scare us. I think you had to be there. Oh! Interesting tidbit: the tattoo parlor we went to also did Jim Jarmusch, one of the best directors ever.

Stay tuned for knitting content, while will appear before February come hell or high water.