2012: A Knitting Summary

I humbly apologize for leaving you for such a long time.  My excuse is that I was knitting a lot, plus I got called as the president of the women's organization of our local church (7/17/2011), plus I got a (temporary) promotion at work 12/16/2013, plus the band (Salt Lake Scots) upgraded from a Grade IV to a Grade III (10/20/2012).

Now that the promotion is over, and I've gotten used to the other two issues, I have found a moment to let you know about it all.  

In January 2012, I made an Andean Chullo Hat

by Kerin Dimeler-Laurence in a kit from Knitpicks.  It turned out beautifully!  
In February 2012, I made a pair of Owlings Fingerless Gloves, a Ravelry pattern, with beads for the owl eyes, but I don't know how to do beads properly, and the beads fell off.
In March 2012, I made Small Son a pair of Simple Skype Socks by Adrienne Ku.  But the yarn I chose did not have any nylon in it, so they sort of sagged out.  They are now waaaay too big in every direction. A new pair from new yarn is now in the plannign stages.
In April 2012 I made a Piper's Journey shawl by Paula Emons-Fuessle using yarn from Quince and Co. I made it because it was designed by a piper and I AM a piper. It was pretty, but pretty small.  I use it as a scarf.  For my mother's birthday, I made her a Piper's Journey shawl, too.
In July 2012, I used some purple thrift-store ALPACA yarn that my sweet husband found and made the Gnarled Oak Cardigan by Alana Dakos. It was Such A Deal! I messed up a bit on the cabling at the yoke, but at that point, I didn't care.  I just wanted to wear it.  I put in some markers to straighten myself out, and went on from there. The markers worked, and most of the cabling looks wonderful.
In September 2012, I made two Penelope

shrugs by Cecily MacDonald:  Quince and Co Finch in burgundy  for Daughter #1 and Quince and Co Finch in Dogwood pink for Daughter #2, for Christmas. I got both the pattern and the yarn from Quince and Co.
In October 2012, I started an Owl Hat 

by Knits-R-us for my husband, who specifically requested it. I purchased it from Knits-R-Us, but she accidentally sent me the Giraffe Hat instead.  When I emailed her the discrepancy, she immediately emailed me the Owl Hat and said the Giraffe was free.That was very nice of her.
In December, learned my One-and-Only sister was struggling with addiction issues and didn't want to see or talk to anybody in the family.  I could respect that, but I REALLY wanted to give her a hug.  So I made her the current Knitting Pipeline Knit-A-Long, the Hyla Brook Shawl,

with the burgundy Finch left over from the Penelope shawl for Daughter #1 .  At the end of the instructions (I wasn't going to add the ruffles; neither me nor my sister are "ruffles" people), it was about as big as a headscarf, and I was out of yarn.  I posted on the Knitting Pipeline forum, and PuffySheep (on Ravelry) had some she could send me, but was leaving out of town in a few days.  She didn't see my email, and didn't actually send it until she got back to town.  And guess what town it was.  Yep, Salt Lake City.  I could have driven over and picked it up!  But it got done in time for me to mail it to my One-and-Only sister on 23 December, and she got it for Christmas.  A hug for every stitch.  It made her cry.  It was supposed to.
Also in December, I made Daughter #3 a pair of Laurel Socks

by Wendy Johnson. I don't remember where I got the variegated yarn from. Somewhere Local.  The pattern was pretty complicated, and I was frustrated with it not working out, so I just put in some markers, and figured the variegated yarn would cover any pattern deficits.  And there were plenty of those.  But she liked them anyway. 

I started 2013 at a running knit.

Small-ish Son I didn't have time to make anything for.  But I had a Blackberry Cardigan

that I had started for myself awhile back, and it was too fussy, so I left it.  Most of the yarn was still in its original skeins from KnitPicks.  So I put them all in a box and gift-wrapped them, and promised I would make him his sweater ASAP.

I started that sweater right away, 27 December 2012. I got the back done by early January, the front done by mid-January, and the 1st sleeve  2/3 done by 1/29/13.

The back is plain stockingette stitch, the front has the central Celtic cable from the Blackberry Cardi up the middle, and the sleeves each have a 2-strand cable (the center of the Blackberry Cardi Celtic cable) up the center.

He wanted it to be a turtleneck, so I knitted the crew neck version and added a really tall collar. Not quite tall enough, it turns out.  The next turtleneck I will make at least 7" long.

By 3 February 2013 I had finished Sleeve #1, and started Sleeve #2. I felt like the princess in The Seven Swans, trying to finish the last sleeve before Small-ish Son's birthday the next day.

By 4 February 2013, I had 17” of sleeve #2 finished, but did not complete it. So I guess Small-ish Son will always have one swan’s wing instead of an arm. Sorry, kiddo.

This story does have a happy ending, though: After cake and ice cream and clean-up, I sat down and finished the rest of the second sleeve, and sewed all the pieces together.  It was blocking before the day ended.  So it really was finished by his birthday, just not by his party.

There is more to come.  Daughter #2 and her husband announced at Christmas that they are expecting a baby girl in mid-May!

I can't wait to knit for my own granddaughter!