Knitting Up a Storm

When I looked at all the knitting projects I completed in 2017 I was surprised how much I actually knitted in that year. Yes, of course I know that I love to knit, but I wasn't aware that I do so much of it. Since I have started to take pictures of every finished project I know much better what I knit and how much I love it.

My birthday is at the beginning of the year, and in 2017 my husband gave me a yarn winder - one of the niftiest things ever. It makes winding yarn so easy while still maintaining the meditative aspect of it.

The first project I finished was the kitty sweater in the top picture. It went to the little girl of my friend Denice (you met her in this post) and is still a bit too big for her. This wasn't the last kitty project, either. Later in the year I knitted up a lot of cat bookmarks.

Doll clothes that fit 18" dolls like American Girl dolls knit up fast and are usually quite easy. This was the first time that I knitted sets of cardigans and skirts. The dress was fun to knit as well.

There were hats with the Baable hat - modeled by Kaefer - being my all-time favorite. I just love the sheep that turn up around the circumference of the head. The pumpkin hat was the project I knitted the most during the fires. For some weird reason I received the most orders in that dreadful week and I was knitting pumpkin hats like a mad woman, which proved to be a blessing since it distracted me a bit from all the insanity. Of course there were "pussy hats" at the beginning of the year that I knitted for Kaefer and myself, but also for friends who went to the Women's March in Washington, D.C.

Socks - everybody needs warm socks. It only takes two or three days for me to knit up a pair of cozy socks, but a bit longer if I'm working with fine sock yarn. Most of the socks I knit for other people, but the fiery orange/red pair definitely was a keeper.

There were several baby and toddler sweaters I made. I wish there were more babies, toddlers and little kids in my life. It is so much fun to knit all these cute clothes for them.

I have two nieces in Germany, and both of them got a foxy scarf.

Of course I had to knit for Kaefer. A couple years ago I knitted her the "ocean breeze sweater", and this year I used the same pattern and a different yarn to knit this sweater for her.

But the most favorite project of the year was this little bird that I often gave as a little gift. It can be used as an ornament or a gift tag or whatever you can think of. You can tell that I had fun with these little guys!

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Please vote on my favorite photos of 2017 in this blogpost with the chance of winning a set of photo cards.

Stitch by Stitch

You know that I love to knit - I showed a few of my projects here. However, I only now realized that I never showed you the knitted items I created over the past few months. Some of them were rather easy, others were more challenging.

The top photo shows the beginnings of a baby jacket I started at the end of September. I had just discovered this beautiful merino yarn from Australia and was eager to knit up a project using it when I found a free pattern for a cute baby jacket on Ravelry. Since this yarn is a superwash it's perfect for baby knits.

The sheep was from a different project, and I think it fits very well on this little cardigan.

When my neighbors had their first child last year in May I knitted a hat for the little girl. Since her parents love cats I decided that a kitty hat would be a good idea. Of course the hat was still too big since this is a pattern for a six months old baby and not for a newborn.

Baby hats knit up so fast and they're fun to make. When I discovered this pattern I fell in love with it and tried the newborn size of it.

The knitting starts with a provisional cast-on which I had never done before. It's quite easy, but I still had to unravel the hat before I could finish it because I didn't pay attention!

As a final touch I put a big button on the side. I love to use buttons as an accent.

I knitted some more hats, and I show you three of them here.

Seedling, a pattern by Alana Dakos:

This hat was a Christmas present for the daughter of my friend Jo. It is one of my most favorite patterns.

On Pinterest I found the pattern for this gorgeous owl hat. I knitted two of them for my little nieces in Germany, using the Navajo-Churro sheep yarn I purchased a few years ago. The perfect yarn for this hat! However, sewing on the buttons for the owl eyes was a real pain!

And last but not least the Baa-ble hat - this is a very popular pattern which comes as no surprise. The pattern was designed by Donna Smith for the Shetland Wool Week 2015 - Shetland Wool Week is a world renowned celebration of Britain's most northerly native sheep. This was a gift for Kaefer who models it in this picture.

  
If you look closely you recognize one of the sheep as the one sitting on the blue baby jacket that I showed you first.

After all these hats it was time to knit up some socks. I found this rubber duck pattern and had a really hard time with it - it drove me crazy! But I did finish the socks and could give them to Kaefer as a Christmas gift. I will never knit these socks ever again!!!

The next - and last - pair of socks was mere fun to knit. The yarn was lovely and the pattern is so beautiful. It looks complicated but is actually quite easy. 

Only I know where the mistakes are that I made...

I'm currently knitting a bigger project, but I can't say yet what it is since it is a birthday present for Kaefer. It is green - perfect for a spring birthday.