2011 in Finished Objects

As I look back, it seems I've done quite a lot of knitting in 2011 - 40 (forty!) finished objects - more than 15 km of yarn! I end the year with three WIPs: an almost done red sweater (it was done actually, but I didn't like the sleeves and I'm redoing them now), a ribbed man's sweater, which I've put aside and feel no desire to finish and a crocheted cardigan, which is totally frozen as of present.

I did a lot of hats in 2011 - some were and are still worn a lot, others were complete failures. I love hats and I plan to knit many more. But nobody needs that many hats, so I'm going to unravel at least 3 or 4 of the 2011 hats to reuse the yarn in a new style and pattern.


I did a lot of summer sweaters too - though I like them, they were not worn that much. I found out that of my knitted garments I much prefer the cardigans, so I'm planning a few cotton and wool cardigans for 2012.


And there were some other small things, holiday knitting and other accessories. Of these bags and pouches are practical and maybe I might knit or crochet a bag next year, I also might try socks and probably a shawl:

Alpacana

Project: Aesderina / Wurm Hybrid
Yarn: Lanoso Alpacana 35% wool 40% acrylic 25% alpaca
Needle: 5 mm
Time to knit: 1 day

Everything about this hat is a murky blend - the color from grey through blue to brown, the yarn from wool through acrylic to alpaca, the pattern from Aesderina through Slouchy Hat to Wurm. The pattern has the potential for a nice slouchy hat and I might give it a try with some other yarn, but the 130 m of this ball sufficed only for a beanie - but a warm and comfortable one.



This was a very quick knit - only a few hours of film watching and knitting yesterday, and today was its field test - an hour and a half stay outside by the skate ring, while the children where skating; and my head was kept warm the whole time - so it's definitely a keeper. Maybe I should make myself some socks out of this yarn too - because my feet were freezing in the end :)

Waffle

Two new hats in Alize Lanagold Solids for my father and my son.
Actually, my son's hat is an exact replica of his grey snowflake, which was lost/stolen in a cinema last month. He liked it so much and wouldn't hear of another pattern - so I made him another snowflake. And the other ribbed hat is probably my favorite so far. It's modeled by me today (just a little bit big for my head) before being parceled and sent to its recipient.

Pattern: Grey Snowflake
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 60 g
Needle: 3.5 mm
Time to knit: 2 days




Pattern: Waffle Hat
Yarn: Alize Lanagold Solids 70 g
Needle: 4 mm
Time to knit: 2 days





And a simple cowl in decorative yarn, which I made a few years ago:

Eggless Cake

An easy and simple recipe I found on a culinary forum.

Ingredients:
2 cups of yogurt
1 tea spoon of baking soda
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
3 cups of flour
2 vanillas

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Spread in a baking tin and decorate with a grid of jam or chocolate cream. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 30 min. Leave to cool and enjoy with your morning coffee :)

Sheepish

Project: Ba, Ba, Sheep
Design: When Sampson Met Lila, Knitty, Deep Fall 2011
Yarn: YarnArt Pure Merino, 4 balls of brown and 2 ball of cream, 300 g total
Needle: 3 mm hem, 3.5 mm body and cowl
Time to knit, correct the length (added 8 rows of st st with grafting) and sew: two weeks

The pattern is interesting and the first to catch my eye when Knitty Deep Fall came out. I've done some modifications - the hem is jagged and I like it this way a lot, I knit it in the round up to the armholes, also lifted the neckline to the height of the armholes and it is still a bit low for my liking. I wish I had listened to my gut and made the neckline higher and narrower and the cowl with more stitches (this is 132 st) by picking 1 st for every knitted row and not 2 st for every 3 rows. I would also extend the final part of the cowl by changing the needles to 4 mm (which I also thought of as a possibility while knitting, but didn't dare to try it). Now the cowl does not fall as freely as I wished it to and hardly covers the neckline, so I decided to sew it folded in half, as seen on the pictures.
Because I never wear short sleeved wool sweaters, I made mine with 7/8 sleeves, no pattern here, just following my general idea of a sleeve.
The yarn is virgin wool and a bit itchy at first, until the skin adjusts to it. I like it, but I wouldn't knit another sweater out of it soon. Surprisingly, it didn't stretch at all in length or width after wet blocking and the sweater is probably a tiny bit too fitting. As a whole, though my gauge was exactly as needed, probably due to the different yarn (and knitter :) my sweater came out smaller than expected (thus the 8 rows of elongation).
The trinity stitch cowl makes this simple stockinette sweater look festive and just the thing I needed for the coming holiday season.

PS: Can you tell how cold I am while taking these pictures :)? Frost had fallen in the morning and I hurried to shoot the sweater before it began to snow. Now I'm sitting next to the heater, while a heavy snow outside falls on the trees and fields.






For other finished objects don't miss Linda's Creative Friday and Tami's Amis FO Friday