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Knitting (and Crochet) Notes for January 2025

Happy Wednesday, readers! I hope this post finds you well. This week I wanted to share a little about my recent fiber crafting pursuits. One of my intentions for this year is to spend more time doing creative things that I enjoy and that beautify my life. I also am trying to move away from fast fashion and overconsumption in my wardrobe and home goods. One of the ways I can do that is knitting and crocheting some of the items I will use, making them with natural fibers that will last for many years.

After several years of owning an Etsy shop and spending a lot of time doing my hobby for income, I got rather burned out on fiber crafts. In 2020 I ended up leaving Ravelry due to a lot of political divisiveness and discrimination happening on the platform. After that, honestly, I felt a bit disillusioned by the online knitting and crochet community and didn’t really feel like participating in the crafts much. But over the last few years I have had some small bursts of knitting mojo and made a few things for myself and my family. This past fall I really started to feel the knitting bug itch, and I got so involved that I ended up knitting several Christmas gifts for my closest family members.

But this new knitting inspiration has made me realize I need somewhere to keep track of my progress, patterns, yarn I used, notes I make for future reference, etc. One of my aunts gifted me a lovely Vera Bradley notebook for Christmas, and it turned out to be the perfect thing to use for a knitting/crochet journal. But I also plan to share things I have made here as further motivation to finish items and perhaps encourage you to take some time for your own crafts of choice!

End of 2024 Knits

For most of the following makes, I did think to take FO (finished object) photos before I wrapped them up to gift, partly because I was working seriously close to the Christmas Day deadline! But I will link to the pattern (not on Ravelry whenever possible), the yarn I used and add photos wherever possible.

The World’s Simplest Mittens by Tin Can Knits, using Drops Alaska color #40 plus some hand dyed wool scrap yarn from my small stash. These were made for my daughter in the adult small size.

Maize Mittens by Tin Can Knits, using Viking Raggen color #756, made for my mom in the adult medium size.

Drops 242-36 Snow Bright Hat in Alpaca Lana D’Oro color #1136, made for my sister in law in size M/L.

Barley Hat by Tin Can Knits, using Viking Raggen color #775, made for my brother in size L.

Drops 251-16 Seeking Higher Plains Socks, using Drops Fiesta color 20 “Northern Lights,” made for my dad in the largest size.

First Finished Objects of 2025

Hermione’s Everyday Socks by Erica Lueder, using Drops Fabel color 161 “Pink Dream,” made for me, started sometime in 2024. Even though I was feeling rather sick of knitting small circumference items by the time Christmas vacation came, this was the only good travel project I had going. So I made the goal of finishing these by the time we got home, and I did it! I didn’t really try to do much color management on these, by the way, so the stripes are wonky, and I don’t care. I don’t mind my socks being similar but different.

Funky Fringe Pillow by Megan Shaimes, using mystery acrylic aran weight yarn, started a few years ago and put away because I got sick of working on it then forgot about its existence. I really had a very small section left to crochet when I pulled it back out, but also didn’t have quite enough yarn to finish sewing the pillow together AND do the fringe. Luckily, I found small ball of scrap yarn that was also mystery acrylic that matched the slightly beige off-white color of the main yarn to make the fringe. I am quite happy with how it turned out in the end, and it is the perfect size for this chair!

Current WIPs

I started a pair of DK Weight Vanilla Socks by Crazy Sock Lady Designs over Christmas break. These will be a long term WIP project because I don’t have a lot of sock yarn scraps that coordinate yet. My Drops Fabel leftovers from the pink Hermoine Socks are forming the bulk of the scraps for this pair. The main color is some mystery super wash sock yarn in a tonal off-white/warm grey color way. I wish I could remember what it is but it was purchased from an indie dyer probably 13 years ago, and she may not even be in business anymore. It’s just one of the many pieces of information that went out the window when I left Ravelry. Anyway, I am loving how these socks look and feel as I am knitting them up. I have to thank Amber from A Lovely Yarn podcast on Youtube for drawing my attention to this pattern and giving me the idea of trying to make a pair for myself!

My main WIP for right now is my first pullover sweater with color work, using Drops design 80-12, Winter in the Apennines. For the main body I am using Drops Alaska in Off White (#02), and I will be using the color Midnight (#15) for the larger contrast section and Mustard (#58) for the smaller contrast color. I had to go up a needle size to get gauge, and I also decided to make a size large so that I can very comfortably wear a long sleeved t-shirt or a turtleneck underneath this sweater. I had to take a break from working on this over the holidays in order to get all the Christmas gift knits done, but now that it is the only thing I am really working on, I think it will go quite quickly.

Well, that was quite a lot making to recap! Future fiber craft posts will likely be shorter and a little less wordy, but I had a lot of catching up to do for this month. I plan to post project updates at least once a quarter, but possibly more frequently if I have a lot of things on the needles and hooks.

Until next week, happy crafting!

Kiel

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