Hmmm...

Today, I am going to take a look back at my so-called knitting progress over the past year.  (I wish the topic was how my stash has grown over the past year - by leaps and bounds - perhaps too much!  But that will be a blog post for another day!)

Last year at this time I was a Twitter and Ravelry newbie and I probably hadn't even thought about a blog yet.  I was just beginning to get interested in knitting again...I learned to knit from my grandmother when I was about 9 and have gone through knitting phases over the years...no previous knitting phase has been quite like this one though.  I attribute this lasting interest to Twitter and Ravelry.


@Voolenvine's Vinelle



So, about this time last year, I knitted Bella's Mittens, which were my first learn about it on Twitter and find it on Ravelry project.  Then, I knit @Voolenvine's sweater, Vinelle. 


Later came Ishbel, joined a sweater twitablong with @jbee42 and @cheekytart.  And met @knittingknoobie when I visited NYC last summer! 


Test Knit Granny Bomber Jacket
for @Sweatshopoflove










Then, I test knit a sweater with intarsia for @sweatshopoflove.

Irish Hiking Mittens Designed by Me!!

And I even designed a pair of mitts and a pair of mittens. I guess my knitting has progressed quite a bit since last year! Learned to knit lace and intarsia. I had never knit mittens before and here I was at the end of 2010 designing my own! And I am noticing that I am a bit of a binge knitter. Handbags knitted for holiday gifts in 2009 was followed up with hats for holiday gifts in 2010. Now, it's socks. Lots and lots of socks. For me, this kind of binge knitting gives me a chance to develop certain skills and see how different yarns work in similar patterns. Of course, that's not really why I binge knit...it's more like...Oh! This is fun! Let me knit another one! Hmmmm.....what's next? Any suggestions?



Irish Hiking Mitts - My First Pattern!

Believe it or not, I have spent much of the past week designing my first knitting pattern! I am SOOO excited! Irish Hiking Mitts is now available on Ravelry as a free pattern download! It’s my holiday gift for all of you lovely knitty and yarny people who have been so encouraging over the past year!

Since I’ve never attempted designing a pattern to share before, it took a while to figure out what to try. My priorities in chosing a first project: (1) a small project and (2) something that I could knit with yarn from my stash.  With the colder weather, I thought fingerless mitts would be a great place to start…something fairly simple with an interesting pattern. I love knitting cables and if you haven't tried them yet, this is an easy pattern to try! I adapted these mitts from Adrian Bizilia’s Irish Hiking Scarf…a beautiful cable pattern. I hope Adrian finds that these mitts are true to her original and lovely pattern!  And ,Stashbustarmy - this project uses about 220 yards (or less) of worsted weight yarn!

Once I started knitting, it wasn’t terribly difficult to write the pattern down. The thing with mitts is that you get a chance (more or less) to test knit your pattern by working the second mitt. Hopefully, I found most of the errors when I did this! I also made a second pair to test the whole pattern. It was a little bit of a challenge to add the pattern onto Ravelry. I’m going to stick to the theory that creative people (cause that’s what I am now, right?) are not necessarily tech people. It took a while for me to figure out how to save my Word file as a PDF file. The instructions on Ravelry were great and I managed to set myself up as a designer and upload my PDF file into the Ravelry library fairly quickly.

Hope you all get a chance to make some warm and toasty Irish Hiking Mitts soon! Happy Holidays!