#everything i knit

[prettycraft5]

Everything I knit in 2023

This would the final 2023 video on my would-be knitting podcast, but I do not have a knitting podcast so enjoy it on here instead.

I'll go in chronological order since every item is different (there is 1 hat, 1 garment, etc) except for the socks, as I'm delighted to say I knit 4 pairs of!

Keep in my that this is my 3rd year knitting.

Btw, the cost is for the number of skeins I've bought and opened for this project. If I only used half a skein, it will be calculated like a full skein price wise.

Buffalo Rose Beanie by KC Knitting Co

Project on Ravelry. My first stranded colorwork & my first proper hat! I learned a ton of techniques with this, like colorwork and how to construct a basic hat and a new cast on. I did so many swatches before starting this project. I love the rose design but I think my choice of yarn made it a bit squished?

It's slightly too tight and quite too short. The tightness is my own fault (I should have probably used 4 mm needles instead of 3.5 mm), but other people on Ravelry have said that their hat ended up being too short, so I think this might be a problem of the pattern itself. I had to open the top and knit another round of squares and it still doesn't cover my ears (the photo is from before I did this surgery).

Yarn: Mondial Merinos Extra, Mondial Merino Baby

COST: around 15€

USAGE: Not much because of fit issues.

FUTURE: I might knit it again with 4 mm needles & longer but I don't know if it's worth the hassle anyway.

Avo-can-do by handmade by SMINÉ

Project on Ravelry. Used it as a power bank pouch. It served me well over the last year but I've realized that this design with strings is not the best. It doesn't close completely and I'm always scared I'll be losing a phone cable. I remember I didn't do the eyelets for the strings properly either, I should have watched a tutorial.

Yarn: Mondial Merinos Extra

COST: Nothing, from stash.

USAGE: It's been in use for almost 1 year

FUTURE: I'll knit a new version with a different pattern and cotton yarn in 2024.

Cheval qui tien debout | Self-supporting Horse by Kathleen PETTIER

Project on Ravelry. A gift for my sweet little cousin. I was very impressed that I was actually able to pull it off. I used LadyTemeraire notes for this pattern and to her I give my heartfelt thanks. Link on the Ravelry page.

I only have two regrets: I think the back legs are a bit wonky (but nobody is going to notice except for me) and I should have taken the time to make the tail fuller. By that point I was pretty fed up with the project, tho.

Yarn: random yarn I had in stash. I unraveled a scarf and a hat to get the little bits for the rainbow mane, actually.

COST: Nothing, from stash.

USAGE: Dunno. Gift.

FUTURE: Making stuffies is fun and I'd really enjoy making another one for another child.

Nalu Mitts by Leila Raven

Project on Ravelry. A gift. It's a fun project that I would recommend to someone looking for some easy mittens and/or cables. It was fairly quicky to knit up. I did mess up the cables positioning a bit (they are too close to the thumb on one mitten) but oh well. Hopefully my friend won't notice, haha.

Yarn: Mondial Merinos Extra

COST: Nothing, from stash.

USAGE: It was a gift so who knows

FUTURE: I'l probably knit some mittens for myself sooner or later, but not using this pattern because I want fingers.

Step by Step Sweater by Florence Miller

Project on Ravelry. I feel like everyone and their grandmother knit one of these this year. It was an easy pattern, even with the 2 "more difficult" modifications (folded collar and short row shaping). Certainly a good foray into garment-making but it did take me some 5 months to complete it!

I'm proud that after realizing I had chosen the wrong size, I frogged, did the math & casted on the correct size rather than keep going. At the time it made me very cranky but it was necessary.

And now, for the bad. I, once again, used 3.5 mm needles instead of 4 mm. The fabric is way too dense and the yarn (Mondial Merino Plus) is scratchy so I have to wear a long-sleeved t-shirt underneath

I wanted the collar to sit closer to the neck. I don't know if this wasn't the right pattern for that or if it's something I did wrong? But I see lots of sweaters online with this same problem.

The sleeves are too short. It's my fault as I ran out of black yarn so I had to improvise and do some sweater surgery to lengthen the other colours (as I didn't want to spend any more money on this) but they still ended up too short.

Lastly, it gave me clicker thumb and I had to take a month long break from knitting in order to recover so, yeah. Not a really fun knit.

Yarn: Mondial Merino Plus

COST: around 40€, I think

USAGE: only a couple of times but one of the sleeves has kind of started to unravel already in the sweater surgery bit. The yarn is quite scratchy so I have to wear a long-sleeved t-shirt with it.

FUTURE: I think it's fine as it is.

Headband with a twist by Mirella Moments

Project on Ravelry. I wanted a quick way to knit a hat and this seemed like a good choice. It came out pretty well: it fits perfectly and the twist makes it look classy and complicated but was actually so easy to knit. But unfortunately, it's not warm enough for the winter here. I will have to knit an actual hat after all!

Yarn: Mondial Merinos Extra

COST: nothing, yarn from stash.

USAGE: I wore it for a couple of weeks and I immediately got a colt. Sigh. Also, if I wear it for more than 15 min the yarn will start to feel scratchy on my forehead.

FUTURE: Will probably gift it to someone.

The socks

In chronological order, from the top left:

Vanilla Sock with Gusset & Choice of Heel by Jo Torr. My third attempt at sock-making. Yarn: Mondial Kim (6€).

Stolen Bike Socks by Monica S. My pride and joy. Photo taken before I bought sock blockers but really, they are excellent. Yarn: Mondial Kim (from stash).

Simple DK Shortie Socks by Woolfield. A gift that I had to make quickly. The gusset decreases go in the wrong direction but that's ok it became a design feature. Yarn: Schachenmayr Regia (8€).

Togetherness Socks by Little Home Designs. Wonderful stupendous, to die for. My second foray into cables I did have to make the toes a little longer but whatever. Yarn: West Yorkshire Spinners Signature 4 Ply (£8.95).

Some conclusions

This year I knit 9 objects: 1 garment, 6 accessories, a random home object and 1 plushie. It's a lot more than I thought!

I think the reason why I felt that I didn't knit much this year was that I didn't focus on what I'm most interested in: sweaters and socks. I'm a product knitter. I knit because I need something. All of these things were useful, but one can never have too many socks and my sweater drawer is pretty miserable.

My 2024 knitting resolution: knit 2 sweaters + finish my Deborah cardigan before summer. Then another sweater in autumn. All the while, I'll be knitting as many socks as possible (not vanilla). I also need to knit a hat and a new power bank pouch, but those two are less urgent. I already have a ton of sock yarn (ok not quite but) and will purchase the other yarn after finishing the previous project.

Also, 3 of my projects were gifts. It's nice to knit gifts, but it takes a bunch of time and my wardrobe stays empty. At the end of the day, I'd rather knit for myself and tick something off my "want" list. No, I don't think that makes me selfish.

2024 resolution n2: No gift knitting at all.

Lastly, I hadn't realized that this year I knit almost entirely with Mondial yarn. Mostly because that's what my LYS carries and because I had it in stash from last year. In retrospect, I really don't like it. I find it scratchy, even the merino. But I do still have a fair bit left so I need to find ways to use it up. Perhaps the Mondial Merinos Extra would make decent socks?

New Year's Resolution part 3: Never buy Mondial yarn again.

Thanks for coming to my written knitting podcast. Here is to another year of crafting!

[explorationsofobsession]

Everything I knit in October

Time flies, and honestly, I am shocked that it is November already. Was October a busy month of knitting? It actually was. I was mainly focussed on knitting socks, because, well, Socktober. I now need to make my sock donations for Socktober. My work from this month. What does November bring? Well, I have a series of fruit mice that no one asked for, but have become a habit to knit. I am in the…

[nonbinary-octopus]

honestly yeah, fiber arts is magic. you cast spell of warm gloves, spell of nice hat, spell of stuffed animal.

material component: yarn

wand: single hooked wand or double pointed wands, depending on caster's preference

mechanical component: specific motions repeated in a particular pattern

time component: a while

look seriously the first step in a knitting recipe is "cast on", and then it's a bunch of letters and numbers incomprehensible to anyone not versed in the arcane art. that's a spellbook. yes it's a book of knitting patterns but also. it's a spell book.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Tis but a flesh wound!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[pinkramiel]

talo palaa.

[buumbaby]

its getting cold

[suzuberto]

You got booped by Panini the wanderer frog

He likes you very much and wishes you good booping day

(or only day if you aren't into booping)

He also documented it on his little journal

Image ID

A photo of a green and white belly hand knitted frog wearing a lavender hat and yellow hoodie carrying a little crossbody bag and booping to the camera (frog + clothes are bought but handmade from local ladies, the bag is made by me)

The same frog as before but with an upper photo. He's holding a pencil on his left hand and a journal over his little legs that has a frog hand with "1 apr 2024" and "boop" written on the left page and a "today i booped strangers on tumblr ♡" with a little self portrait below on the right page. At his left side there is a pen holder with other pens and a calendar, and oh his right a plate with cookies and an empty mini cup, he already got his morning tea!

(frog + clothes are bought but handmade from local ladies, the bag + journal is made by me, the other thingies are from sylvanian families sets)

[mizzyislost]

habby birthday moss n oati......... and one year anniversary of pikmin 4 i guess

also some oatchi plush shenanigans beneath the cut

look i just wanted an excuse to show this guy off

my aunt made him for my birthday..... he is perfect......

[ddeck]

you know. just like with specific terms and nicknames like clanker or shinie, clones must've come up with unique meanings for their armor paint. like with different meanings assigned to colors of mandalorian armor except since the choice of color is out of their control, all the importance lies in shapes and placement

[uncanny-tranny]

If somebody in your life offers to knit or crochet or, really, create anything for you, please be an active participant in the creation of the piece they are making. I adore making and gifting things, but nothing bums me out quicker than a person who passively just goes "okay," to my ideas about what I'm making them - it can send the message that they won't like it, or that they don't care, even if they're happy about my offering. The back-and-forth feedback is a great way to make sure that you are being gifted something that was truly worth the time, effort, expertise, and money that will inevitably go into the gift!

I know it's really hard to be an active participant, believe me, I'm an anxious ball of horror, but it will only do good for both parties to interact in this situation. It is a big deal to be offered a hand-crafted gift, but it's also something we want you to love and use, and that can only happen if you tell us what would make you fall in love with what we create.

[garaksapprentice]

The internet: You must never machine wash your knits. Never. Ever. They will be destroyed the moment they are touched by the caress of a machine's heated water supply. Hand wash only, or You Shall Be Sorry.

Me:

That photo contains ~13 pairs of 70/30 wool/nylon socks, a 100% wool shawl, an acrylic shawl, an acrylic kid's jumper, an acrylic beanie, a vest knit of "handwash only" wool, and a few other things I've forgotten.

This is one of the reasons to swatch, people. Knit a swatch. A big one. Even better, knit a hat out of the thing you want to use. Chuck it in the wash. See how it comes out. Make decisions from there.

I've knitted somewhere above 50 non-sock things in the decade or so since my first kid came along. I have machine washed them all. Only two - TWO - things have gotten eaten by the wash in that time. (a purple toddler dress and half a sock). And both of those were accidentally put through with the regular clothes wash.

Obligatory caveats: Probably don't do this if your machine doesn't have a gentle/delicate setting. I made sure mine came with a wool cycle when I had to buy a new one. It takes 38 minutes, spins at 800 RPM, and refuses to go hotter than 30ºC.

Also if you tend to use loosely spun yarns or very large gauges (both seem to be popular nowadays), or like to knit Extremely Delicate Lace, use caution. (My knitting preferences are basically the opposite of those things - I like things that last.)

[submarinerwrites]

idk man i dont really wanna pay upwards of ten dollars for a pattern people say is poorly written and wasn’t test-knit in my size lmao

[explorationsofobsession]

Everything I knit in August

Honestly, August was a rush and a half. The weekends filled with One Act Play competitions and knitting at “Knit August Nights” and the days were filled with work and paperwork and all sorts of things. It was an insanely busy time. Incomplete knits of August 2023 However, I did manage to work on a few things. August was spent with a lot of my fingers in the pie of Ribblr – seeing if this is a…

[kesbeacon]

I found a pair of socks I'd never posted! Top sock is the right way in, bottom is the inside. It's a simple slip-stitch pattern - knit a row; knit 3, slip 1, knit 3, slip one etc around; knit two rows. The sole is knit plain. This yarn was a gift from a friend, and it was beautiful to work with. (I'm making something else with it atm, although the colour pooling is. causing some Problems for that shall we say.)

Close-ups of the stitch pattern and the wedge heel/sole:

And here is a picture showing what the pre-emptive darning I looks like on the inside!

This isn't as thorough of a job as on the slipper socks, because I don't wear ordinary socks around the house so they see the inside of my boots and that's about it. And the inside of my boots will break them, sooner or later; I can't fight it much more than this or they'll become too thick.

...I should make before and after posts of the socks when they've just been knit versus after I've been wearing them for some time. This will also mean exposing my biggest regret, that I used a beautiful skein of unmarked sock yarn alongside a random ball of superwash merino (both charity shop) and they did Not wear the same and the socks look terrible now and I don't think I can reclaim the good stuff if I unravel them bc it wasn't superwash.

[popsicle-stick]

I'd love to hear about your coloring/pose choices once you post your turnarounds ~

oh! well, while i'm here, i might as well post what i have so far

(the first 2 turns are their initial look, the third is their final look)

so! with jonathan, i initally went for a homely, warm look - he's fresh and a little nervous, kitted out in travelling gear that i'm sure he (and/or mina) bought especially for the occasion - i feel like he hasn't gone much beyond england before. i admit i was kind of spiteful and stole the red scarf from the league of extraordinary gentlemen's mina - which made this discovery from the milwaukee ballet version all the more serendipitous! by the end, he, like everyone, is in funeral gear, but he retains the scarf - it's matted and covered and grime, but it stays there. it helps break up the black, but also, it could maybe stand for a lot of Thematic Motifs, like love, sex, transgression, and, uh, blood. take your pick. also - not that important and it's hard to see, but i hc him with dark grey eyes, and when his hair changes, i really like the idea of his eyes becoming paler and washed out looking.

for mina, i wanted her to seem to seem unremarkable on first glance, but if you look closer, her outfit is supposed to be slightly masculine, with the waistcoat and collar. that's as much as she allows herself, though. she's a woman in a financially and socially vulnerable situation, and so i feel like she's someone who cares a lot about how she presents herself, and i wanted this to show. for her end-of-book look, i wanted her to match jonathan somewhat with the vampiric vibes. in her case, it's literal, so i took her eyes from a dark brown to deep red, and she's a very uncharacteristic mess. in both cases, i feel i was maybe a LITTLE on the nose with the dracula-eque vibes at the end, but whatever! who cares. she can wear what is essentially a red silk-lined dracula cloak because she should be able to have a bit of vampire swag in this testing time

[gingermintpepper]

I continue to be in the foulest of moods so here are some Zeus + Apollo headcanons because they make me happy :)

(Important note: this is largely specific to my original work and is not me making inferences from mythical or historical texts)

Zeus and Apollo spar. Like a lot. Like a lot. A big reason why Apollo gets so good at boxing is because he usually sparred with his father as a young god and getting hit with one of Zeus' punches is!! Not advisable. He focused on becoming fleet-footed to combat Zeus' more solid fighting style which was definitely helped by his dancing. Conversely, Hermes would later develop wrestling partially as a response to Apollo's annoying fleet-footedness in combat.

Zeus decides to tie his mind to Apollo's when the strain of Apollo's visions become too intense for him to handle alone. When Apollo first returns from his exile after slaying Python, his visions are so severe that he suffered from 'time-blindness' where he could only percieve the future and was completely unable to see the present. Zeus shoulders some of that strain until Apollo becomes strong enough to handle prophecy on his own - though Zeus is careful not to give Apollo absolute prophecy lest he get overwhelmed again.

Despite their closeness, or maybe because of it, Zeus and Apollo argue quite a lot. Usually it's banal things like administrative work or squabbling over which of them should get the larger portion of a hecatomb, but they do argue about how prophecies should be carried out quite frequently too. There's a general agreement for Zeus not to bring up Apollo's children after how messy Aristaeus' anointing was (and how angry Apollo was at Zeus' disagreement with his decision to make his firstborn son a god) but the odd occasion where it cannot be avoided is usually when they have their most grave spats.

One of Zeus' greatest regrets is his relationship with Ares, partially because Ares grows up seeing him dote and teach Apollo with his full attention. There is... a lot of himself that he sees in Ares. A lot of Kronos too and the part of Zeus that is a warrior before he is a king has done his best to keep the boy at arms length entirely because of that familiarity with the face staring back at him. It's another of the things he and Apollo have argued ceaselessly about. Naturally, Apollo has attempted to bridge that gap many times and while Ares is still quite close with Artemis, when it comes to Apollo, he is particularly sensitive.

Zeus is the one that ultimately decided that Apollo should never marry. Due to Apollo's love-curse and his already concerning tendency to be overly attached and committed to his mortal affairs and offspring, Zeus decided that marriage would be doom to Apollo's spirit and proclaimed him unfit for the ceremony and its status. Instead of the expected argument, everyone was quite surprised when Apollo merely bowed his head and accepted such an outrageous decision.