Final 2019 knitting (& a little crochet)

Hello hello! It's been a little while since my last post, hasn't it?! Most of my creative time at the end of last year was spent making Christmas presents for my family that needed to be kept secret so I didn't have anything to share here. I'm back to making for myself again now, so expect normal blogging service to resume too! My first projects of the year are almost done, but for now I thought I'd pop in to share some of the things that I knitted in the last four months of 2019.

Having said that, this first project is actually crocheted! This is the first crochet that I've done for quite a while - I decided to give it a try again it give my hands something a bit different to do as a break from knitting. I do like crochet every now and then, but I don't enjoy it as much as knitting and also my tension is slightly crazy so everything turns out smaller than it's meant to be no matter what I do. That makes it a bit limiting because it means that I tend to stick to projects where final size isn't too critical.

Thankfully this shawl falls into that category, and was a nice way to put a pretty skein of yarn (from Woolly Mama Yarns) that had been in my stash for a while to good use. The pattern is the Movie Night Shawl by Purple Iguana Designs. It was easy to work up and it's nice light shawl to wear - what more could you want?!

Next up is a Blooming Bandana Cowl - a pattern by Molly Klein Design. This is a really great pattern for using up leftovers from sock projects as the pattern only calls for about 35 grams of each colourway (I think I may have used even less than that). I have plenty of yarn left over from my sock projects so I can definitely see myself making more of these.

It was another easy pattern to knit (that's a bit of a theme with most of these projects, partly because they have been my easy knitting that I've been working on alongside a more complicated sweater/jumper that's still a work in progress), and I've enjoyed wearing it. I always used to stay away from cowls because I didn't think they'd be as cosy as a shawl/scarf because you can't wrap them as snugly round your neck, but I've found that this is nice to wear when I'm at my desk and my shoulders/neck feel a bit chilly. Another winner!

Now we have some socks, specifically the Kia socks. This is a pattern by Dawn Henderson/dawn.landix, and deserves to be appreciated because it was inspired by the important conversations within the knitting community surrounding race, diversity, inclusion and representation.

It's a lovely relaxing pattern to knit. I used a slightly different toe (just my personal preference - I've found that the rounded toe from Helen Stewart's Magnolia Socks fits my feet really well so I tend to use that on all my socks now), but other than that followed the pattern and they knit up beautifully. This would be a good pattern to use for presents because it's speedy but more interesting than plain vanilla socks. The yarn I used is 'Taste the rainbow' by Glendale Fibres - it's lovely and colourful!

My next project was a Rayon de Soleil shawl. This is a pattern by Francoise Danoy/Aroha Knits. It's a simple shawlette made up of alternating sections of stocking stitch and garter eyelet rows - a simple but effective pattern that was enjoyable to knit.

I made this using more sock yarn leftovers - the variegated colour is 'Hendriks' by Vicki Brown Designs, and the pink is 'Orchid' by Lamington Lass. I love how these two yarns work together - pink and green is such a nice colour combination, which I didn't really appreciate until a couple of years ago.

Now we move on to a few presents that I knitted towards the end of the year. First, a super simple and speedy baby knit - a Tegan hat with top knot that I made for a friend who had a baby in early December. It's DK weight so knits up nice and quickly, and felt lovely and cosy in the yarn that I used - a mini skein of John Arbon Knit by Numbers DK in colourway 17. I'd happily knit more of these for future baby gifts!

There was a new addition to my family just before Christmas and I gained a new nephew, so obviously he needed an auntie-made present too! This time I chose to knit a little cardi - specifically 'The Gift' by kiddiwinksknits. This is a lovely pattern (and it's free!) -  the only change I made was to use normal  1x1 rib on the cuffs and waistband instead of the eyelet rib in the pattern - mainly because I knit most of it not knowing whether I'd be gaining a niece or a nephew and plain rib seemed a bit more unisex than the pretty eyelet rib.

I don't often knit garments seamlessly as the one time I tried it made my wrists really sore, but I want to give it another go and this was a nice way to experiment and see how it went. Thankfully no wrist pain this time, although it has to be said that obviously a baby cardi is a lot smaller and lighter than a garment for me would be!

I also knitted up a quick hat for my brother. It's the Violet Waffles hat by Halldora J - another freebie (I do pay for knitting patterns most of the time I assure you - I like to support knitting designers!) and another easy peasy project, and excellent gift knit. This project was mainly determined by the yarn (Blue Sky Alpacas Eco-Cashmere in the colour Black Rose), which I was lucky enough to win in a giveaway earlier in 2019. It's beautiful yarn and felt lovely, but it really isn't my colour so I knew all along that it would be used for a gift. Thankfully my brother wears much darker colours than I do so it suited him perfectly!

Once Christmas was over, I switched back to knitting for me - yay! My first completed project was a very practical one - dishcloths. I've been wanting to give knitted dishcloths a try for a while now, and knitting this super simple pattern (Gramma's Dishcloth by PJ Allen) was a good way to spend car journeys visiting family members over the Christmas period. I used Lily Sugar n Cream in the colour Psychedelic Ombre, which has given me possibly the most colourful dishcloths in the world! I've been using them for about a week now and they're doing well so far so I may be making some more so that I can have some in use while others are in the wash.

And last but not least, a hat for me! It's the Trellis Beret by Woolly Wormhead. I've had this pattern in my Ravelry queue for a while and chose to knit it now because I realised I already had the perfect yarn for it already waiting in my stash in the form of the leftovers from a top I made about two years ago (the yarn is Tivoli New Celtic Aran in shade 981). I really enjoyed knitting this pattern - it's well written, and I particularly like how the eyelet sections taper with the crown decreases.

Congratulations if you've made it through all of that! I think that's about all I have to share for now. I've got a sewing project almost finished though, so I'll hopefully be back again to share that soon - I definitely won't be leaving it as long between posts as I did last time anyway. See you soon!