2024 Knitting Update: Socks and Hats

2024 knitting was very productive and fun.  I had a chance to get some yarns from their places of origin.  Two knitting groups inspired me:  one on the cruise ship and one with my (finally!) new local yarn shop.  I finished a big project and completed several smaller ones.  And I raised money for cancer research through my knitting.  Here are the projects that were finished through my 2024 knitting.

2023 finished with me giving a knitted poncho to my great-niece Eloise.  Here she is thoughtfully modeling it.  The yarn is Hayfield Baby Blossom.  The pattern is Lion Brand Hooded Baby Poncho and was free.

Eloise in her poncho

I knitted a blue baby afghan just because I had the yarn and wanted to.  It is waiting for the right baby at home.  I bought the yarn at The Yarnologist because I felt bad about going there and never buying anything.  The yarn is Cascade Superwash in a tweedy blue.  The pattern is the Encore Worsted Sampler Afghan, another free pattern.

I started the Shetland Old Shell Hap in 2023 and finished it in November, a little over a year since I started it.  The Hap is absolutely beautiful and drapes perfectly.  I took it on the cruise because I like to work on a project connected with an area we are visiting.  But it was quickly too large to carry with me places, so I mailed it back to our house halfway through the cruise.  Fortunately I had the needles for socks with me and I proceeded to knit three pairs of socks.

I picked up the Hap again when we got home, determined to finish it during football season, prime knitting time.  The big blue section in the middle was a slog – row after row of stockinette.  When I finished the blue, I had two big triangles and I needed to join them.  I played around with several different joining methods before I settled on a blanket stitch that (mostly) blended in to the large blue center.  The pattern gave me directions to knit it as a square, but I missed where the directions changed from the triangle to the square.  Oh well.  I wasn’t going to start over at that point.

The pattern for the Hap was in a magazine I subscribe to, Spin Off, so it was free.  The yarn was some alpaca and merino blend that I had bought for a sweater that I didn’t knit.  I still have several skeins of the blue left over, although the gray and cream are mostly gone.

While I was on the cruise ship, I knitted two pairs of socks and started on a third.  I had the yarn for the first pair with me and bought the other skeins in Dartmoor National Park and in Cape Breton National Park.  I gave one pair to my niece Julia and the other pair to Amy Winstead.  Amy made the mistake of admiring them while I was knitting them after we got home.  One pair went to my friend Sandy a couple of weeks before she died because her feet were so cold.  I used my basic sock pattern.

Amy wearing her socks

Ever since we got back from our big trip I have been knitting with yarn that I bought on the trip.  I was a little surprised at how much yarn I actually bought.  But I should have enough to keep me knitting for a while.  I knitted three hats with yarn that we brought back and highlighted those in the post about my fundraising for the American Cancer Society.

I bought yarn in Gotland, Sweden, Lerwick, Shetland, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Nuuk, Greenland.  I also bought yarn in several places in Scotland and England and in Canada.  It was a good trip for yarn accumulation, but now I have to use it.  I don’t like my stash to get too big.

I am currently working on a scarf / shawl made from the Qiviut I bought in Greenland.  It is coming along very well, but might be another year-long project.  More stockinette.  But it is so soft and light that it feels like a cloud.

Just before we left Ohio I knitted a pair of thrummed mittens for a friend from church who has Reynaud’s Syndrome, like Mom.  Reynaud’s means your hands get very painful whenever they begin to get cold. Thrummed mittens have a thick lining of warm wool inside.  I am hoping that the thrummed mittens will help keep her hands warm through what is proving to be a very cold winter in Ohio.

2024 knitting was diverse and fun.  I enjoyed all the places I got to knit and all the different yarns I used in my knitting.  What did you make in 2024?

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