Monthly Archives: December 2019

End of year round-up 2019

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I am fundamentally an optimist (if a slightly cynical one), so I will not discuss all of the trials and tribulations and disappointments of 2019.  Ending the decade on a low note means that we will hopefully go up from here in the next decade.

There have been lots of lovely things this year, including my knitting and this blog.  I have finished fewer projects this year, but have enjoyed them all and each of them gets lots of wear.  I finished 7 projects:

 

 

Clockwise from top, these are: (Links are to my post with the finished project; further details can be found therein.)

  1. Highland Rogue Cowl, designed by Kate Davies
  2. Raven Hat, designed by Janine Bajus
  3. Sunset Mesa Cowl, designed by Jennifer Berg
  4. Tensho Pullover, designed by Beatrice Perron Dahlen
  5. Sparkling cardigan, designed by Sus Gepard
  6. Tadami Cashmere Scarf, designed by ITO Yarn and Design
  7. Sofi Jacket, designed by Hanne Flakenberg

The item which has been worn the most is undoubtedly the Tensho pullover.  I knitted this one for my daughter Leah, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it has been worn for 60 days so far this year.  I think she would live in it if possible.  (This makes me so happy!)  For me, the most worn item is definitely my Highland Rogue Cowl, which took seemingly forever to knit, but which I like more every time I put it on.

I wrote 51 posts this year, which amounted to 22,000 words.  This is my 440th post since I started the blog.  I had viewers from 106 countries this year, with the top five being the US, Poland, the UK, Canada, and Germany.  Knitting blogs seem to have taken a hit this year once again, with all of the action seemingly moving to Instagram.  I am not on Instagram so am nearly a dinosaur here blogging away, but I like it, so here I am!  My top posts this year were:

  1. Business Class Cowl  (written in 2016)
  2. To gusset or not to gusset  (written in 2016)
  3. A baker’s dozen of men’s knitted vest patterns  (written in 2017)
  4. It’s all in the finishing: Hanne Falkenberg’s Sofi Combi Jacket
  5. Highland Rogue Cowl
  6. Laceweight Cashmere Shawl
  7. Tensho for the win!
  8. Time to learn Danish!

We did some travelling this year, with trips to Berlin (with the girls!), Vancouver (twice!), Arizona, Denmark, and Spain. I managed to break my ankle in Denmark, from which I am still trying to recover.  We modelled hand-knitted hats at Lake Lillooet in British Columbia, Canada in June:

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And we modelled silly Christmas hats last week here in England:

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I wish everyone a healthy and happy New Year! May the new decade bring renewed hope and activism, and lots of creative endeavors, knitting and otherwise.

 

Some actual knitting content

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As regular readers may have noticed, there hasn’t been much actual knitting content (that is, content deriving from my own knitting activities) for quite a few weeks.  This is due to my having completed very little in the way of actual knitting since early November.  I can report now, however, that I have knitted something.  (Technically, it is part of something; but I am reaching here, so give me this one.)  Here is the completed front of Emma’s Snoning pullover:

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If you are shocked and scandalised by the very deep dip of the neckline, please rest assured: it will have 2″ (5cm) of ribbing when it’s done.  It has been grey and rainy here, so the photo is an indoor one, but it will have to do.

I am pretty happy with this, especially since I have held it up to Emma, and am fairly certain that it will fit and that I won’t have to add or subtract to the sleeve length.  This means that the sleeves and front are done and I only have to knit the back (a giant rectangle) and the ribbing around the neckline.

I am labouring away on a work-related project which is due in mid-January.  Until then, I have to be a bit hit-or-miss here; although I hope to still put up an end-of-year review post.

Two Christmas Trees

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What happens when you take a family of four book fanatics and turn them loose on Christmas?  You end up with a Christmas tree-sized pile of books to rival your Christmas tree:

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Between the four of us, we received 24 books today.  Isn’t that awesome?  Can you guess what we are going to be doing all week?  (It will probably take longer than that….)

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From the bottom up:

Archeology Aegean Islands edited by A. G. Vlachopoulos

Botanical Inks by Babs Behan

Kaukasis: The Cookbook by Olia Hercules

Working with Wool by Sylvia Olsen

The Anarchy by William Dalrymple

Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez

Milk soaps by Anne-Marie Faiola

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz  Zafon

Vegetarian Southwest by Lon Walters

A Cheesemonger’s History of the British Isles by Ned Palmer

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

Notes from a Young Black Chef by Kwame Onwuachi

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent

wheesht by Kate Davies

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

What happened, Miss Simone? by Alan Light

Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli

Did anyone wonder why there are two copies of Invisible Women?  This is because I bought it for Emma, and she bought it for me:

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For all who celebrate the holiday, Merry Christmas!  And to everyone everywhere, I hope you can snuggle up to a good book today!

The Lenny Kravitz scarf

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The staff at Mother Jones have been compiling a list of the decade’s heroes and monsters.  One of the heroes is Lenny Kravitz’ famous scarf, hand-knitted by his grandmother, and captured by paparazzi in a 2012 photo which quickly went viral.  The scarf is enormous, and as the photo caught on and became a meme, the size of the scarf continued to grow.

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Mother Jones Illustration

The article reports:  “In a decade marred by impending climate disaster and the crumbling of American democracy, Kravitz and his scarf evoke a sense of coziness, a sense that one can cosset oneself from the ravages of the day, should one have access to the entire ovine population of Scotland.”

I love that Lenny’s scarf was a hero of the decade!  And I love that he made a hand-knitted scarf from his granny into a totally cool accessory.  I bet he’s still wearing it.  Here’s wishing everyone (in the cold Northern hemisphere) a giant, cozy, scarf to cuddle under today, whether or not you have access to Scottish ovines.

In times like these…knit to stay grounded

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Apparently there are lots of voters who disagree with me.  The election of Boris this week brought that home pretty forcefully.  In my last post, I mentioned that I had paused knitting for a few weeks and the world still revolved around the sun.  However, between Trump and BoJo, I for one definitely need something to help keep me grounded.  I guess that means I should pick up my knitting again.  I know from long experience that it helps.

On the positive side, Greta won Person of the Year at Time Magazine, and my kids are home for Christmas.  Maybe young people will save the world.  Young people and knitting to the rescue!

I have two things on the needles at the moment.  I have made some progress on my neutral tones Cool Boots shawl since I last posted it here:

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It is definitely not as vibrant and cool as the original, and I am not convinced that neutrals really suit me.  On the other hand, the yarn is absolutely scrumptious, soft and silky and fantastic to the touch.  It is Blue Sky Metalico, a sportweight 50% alpaca 50% silk blend.  It’s a bit on the costly side, but it’s lovely to knit with.

I have also made a bit of progress on Emma’s big cabled sweater.  I knitted the sleeves back in September and then put it away, while I spent time travelling and not knitting, but I have now pulled it out again and started on the front:

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This one shouldn’t take long because it’s knit with big needles, but I do find big needles hard on my hands, so I can’t just power through.

I have a big work project due in mid-January and realistically that will take up a lot of my knitting time.  In the meantime, I will dream of moving to Scandinavia.

Not knitting….and yet, the earth continues to revolve around the sun

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I have done virtually no knitting for a month.  I have been busy, sure.  But mostly, I have just not been filled with a burning desire to pull my knitting out.  In my spare time, I have wanted to sit and chat with old friends and family, to relax by a fire on a cold evening, to go for a walk, or cuddle up with a book.  I have not felt the need to multi-task. I have hardly spent a minute on Ravelry (gasp!) or reading knitting blogs.  New patterns have been released in that time, undoubtedly, and I haven’t seen them.  The world keeps turning.  I continue to breathe in and breathe out.

We have been wearing a lot of hand knitted items, because it has been very cold:

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However, despite carefully packing travel knitting and carrying it with me across the ocean and around North America, I knitted all of six rows while I was gone, and none since I’ve been back.

And life goes on.

A jumper is for life not just for Christmas

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There is a rather alarming article in the Guardian today about the waste created by the Christmas Jumper.  The article, entitled “Christmas jumpers add to plastic pollution crisis, says charity” points out that “12m jumpers are set to be snapped up this year, despite 65m already languishing in UK wardrobes.”

I don’t know how much this tradition carries over into other countries, but Britains are in love with the novelty Christmas jumper.  (For those unfamiliar with the term, a “jumper” is what Americans would call a “sweater”.)  At least a third of people under 35 will buy a new novelty Christmas jumper every year, and will likely wear it only once.  We even have a Christmas Jumper Day – Friday December 13th this year – which supports the charity Save the Children.  Millions of people will search for the newest and silliest novelty jumper to wear on that day.

The article cites research by the environmental charity Hubbub, that 95% of these garments are made wholly or partly from plastic.  A full 44% were made entirely from acrylic.  The article notes a recent study that found “that acrylic was responsible for releasing nearly 730,000 microfibres per wash, five times more than polyester-cotton blend fabric and nearly 1.5 times as many as pure polyester.”

The message to consumers from Sarah Divall of Hubbub:

“We don’t want to stop people dressing up and having a great time at Christmas but there are so many ways to do this without buying new. Fast fashion is a major threat to the natural world and Christmas jumpers are problematic as so many contain plastic. We’d urge people to swap, buy secondhand or rewear, and remember a jumper is for life not just for Christmas.”

I would suggest an additional way to save the environment: knit your own Christmas jumper, and then wear it many times.  Keep it forever!  I also don’t see why Christmas jumpers are supposed to be “ugly”.  Perhaps if you had a beautiful Christmas jumper, you might wear it more than once!  I picked out some lovely Christmas sweater ideas in this post two year ago. Here are a few more:

Tidings by Vicky Sedgwick:

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© Rowan Yarns, 2015

Branches & Buds Pullover by Carrie Bostick Hoge:

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© Making / Carrie Bostick Hoge

Thorvald by Arne & Carlos:

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© 2019 MEZ Crafts UK Ltd.

Vinterskov by Karie Westermann:

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© Karie Westermann

Remember, a jumper is for life!