I’ve decided to work on a cardigan during my holiday break. I had these high hopes for working on the Vine Yoke cardigan, but in the end there were just so many issues with the pattern that I became too anxious about it, and never started. I needed another pattern for worsted weight yarn, so I took a gander through my favorites, and realized that Girl Friday has been sitting in there for a long time, but never was knit. There were a few others too, but since I am working on this as a knit along with Ummeyusuf, (as I often am!) I needed her approval too. Girl Friday suited us both.

The yarn is Berrocco Lustra which I purchased some time ago at Stitches Midwest, for the Spartan Sweater that turned out to be quite a disaster. It has been frogged twice, and since it is a single ply yarn, it is a little worse for wear. However, I cannot see sitting on it in my stash or throwing it out, so I’ll give it a try anyhow.

I started this Thursday evening. For the first time I am making a seamed cardigan into a full piece to avoid seaming later. It seems an easy one to do that with, so I am not too worried about messing it up. I feel like I have made a massive amount of progress in just 2 evenings, and I am sure in part this is because I am enjoying the pattern so very much. A little lace patterning always does great things for my attitude toward a knit. I may, in the end, need to purchase additional yarn as the Spartan sweater did not require very much in the way of yardage, and I would like for this knit to be nice and long. Thankfully our local yarn shop carries the yarn and has a post holiday sale going on shortly. This, of course, means I am going to have to really work hard on the sweater in order to know how much extra I will need before the sale is over!

By the time the year ends, I will have knit over 18 miles of yarn in one year. This makes me feel validated in just a bit of stash acquisition, especially since I have been very very careful to not purchase yarn this year unless it was something that would be knit immediately. My friend Sarah found a way to drag me to the yarn shop, and some yarn in the sale bin which I had been resisting for a long while decided to come home with me. After all, obviously no one else wanted it!  It is my favorite sock yarn, koigu.

Resistance was futile.

I also picked up some Noro Kureyon Sock, fell in love with the colors and I still haven’t managed to knit socks with any kureyon sock I’ve had in stash!  Oddly, on comparison, it seems the above yarn and the below yarn have quite a few color tones in common. Must be my next color phase rearing its head.

And finally, in a trade with Sarah, where I was required to add the fringe to a beard hat she had knit for her husband, I received 2 skeins of Regia sock which has these wonderful small stripes I fell in love with!

And there you have it! I can assure you I have knit a lot more than I’ve acquired this year which is very exciting. It used to be that I’d acquire just a bit less than I’ve knit, but this year was different. Felt good! I love having a large stash, when I am feeling uninspired, just sifting through it gets the creative juices flowing. But even better is having it all documented on Ravelry, so that when I see something I want to knit, I can easily cross reference it with what I have in my stash and pick something out. Good fun!

I was asked to make mitten/gloves for someone recently. We chose the Gabriella pattern and I used Malabrigo Silky Merino. While the gloves turned out fabulously, this happened with a bit of hard work. They are simply the fussiest gloves I have ever created. I think this is in part because of the purled stitches. I don’t love to purl! It simply cannot be due to the cable, I liked that! The top of these gloves either the pattern wasn’t well written or I had a comprehension fail, because I just couldn’t get them to look as I’d expected. So, I reworked that top 3 times, including one moment of frustration where I cut the tops of the mittens off with a pair of scissors. In the end, they look great, so I am pleased.

I decided to knit some hats for a friend. I had seen the All Ears hats and thought them adorable, so I dove into my scrap stash, came up with two colors, and went to town. In one day I had managed to knit two hats, and get them blocked overnight. So now, an all ears hat for a toddler, and another for a child. Bug models one while holding the other.

With bonus snow!

I’ve got one more sleeve to knit on my test knit, and a collar. Then I have a new sweater for Bug.

The snow is basically the reason I haven’t started the second sleeve. I need another ball of yarn. I need to make a trip to the store. But, it is snowy and icy so I have opted to work on other obligatory projects instead. I can get the yarn this week at some later point. Today is a day for staying in, cleaning, and knitting!