2012 and 2013 were knitting dead zones for me. Between work, kids, and moving my Mom across country to live down the street from us, there wasn't a lot of knitting. And there never seemed to be any time to blog about the knitting that did go on.
I'll do a few "missing years" posts this month to catch you up on what I knit while I was away from the blog. Since there isn't a lot of it, it shouldn't take long. But some of these projects are items I'm really happy about and want to share with y'all.
There isn't a lot to talk about from 2012, although I did get a number of squares knit for the Barnraising Quilt I'm knitting as a long term project. It doesn't need to be finished for another three years, but it's making slow, steady progress. The stand out project from 2012 is my Burberry Inspired Cowl, knit in Juniper Moon Farm Wool that I dyed in the Elliebelly Purple Fig Colorway.
By contrast, 2013 was a far better year for knitting, beginning in the summer, when I picked up a project that had been lingering for a couple of years — a baby blanket knit in Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton — so that I could finish it for a friend who was having a baby.
I was so happy I hadn't finished the blanket any earlier! I enjoyed knitting it so much and it was just the right present after it was lined with this happy Japanese print fabric.
I finished the blanket while on a trip to the Gulf Coast, and got a lot of funny looks from people at the pool as I cast off.
After I finished knitting the blanket, I started a light weight infinity scarf for fall in The Fibre Company's Terra Yarn. The yarn is beautiful, although pool side knitting doesn't necessarily make for the best pictures.
The scarf finished up nicely. Perhaps too nicely, since I haven't been able to get it back from my daughter for some time now.
The summer beach trip really jump started my knitting again. Fairhope, Alabama has a beautiful little yarn shop called The Yarn Cottage, that has a really nice selection of yarns. One of the store samples caught my eye. It was a pattern called Summit, by Mandie Harrington. It's an old Knitty pattern I hadn't seen before, and the circle construction was intriguing. The store sample was knit in Blue Heron Rayon Metallic and it was so irresistable, that I grabbed a couple of skeins. I worked on this rather complicated pattern a bit, but after getting a few repeats in, put it aside to get my Christmas knitting (more on that in a future post) done. I'll pick it back up again this spring, but for now, here it is in progress.
My favorite is that last piece.