The year in knitting

At the start of 2007, I had certain knitty goals. I wanted to learn to make socks. I wanted to knit from a pattern or two, and see what I could learn from that. I wanted to make a moebius. I wanted to master circular needles and DPNs. Mostly, I just wanted, come December, to have more knitting to show for my 12 months than I have had in recent history.
I think I’ve done remarkably well. Indulge me while I review my year’s knitting. (Or, you know, don’t. You could always wander over to the sale instead…)

Some of these you haven’t seen, and I don’t have pics of them ready to hand, either. (Do you sometimes think I might be missing the point of this whole knit blog thing? Hmm…)

Made for other people (ha! I may not do Christmas knitting, but I’m apparently not completely selfish either):
Mom’s stole (I’ve been promising Mel the pattern for that for ages, so you will get to see it eventually)
Anna Maria’s Clapotis
Gecko Ridge
Cara’s Hearts on Fire shrug (for this, too, I’d like to believe I will eventually produce a pattern)
Cara’s tiara – adventures in wire! I so wish I’d remembered to take a pic, but again, no. (This was for the hen party.)
Armin’s socks
That last one of course also belongs in the list of Sock Techniques Learned – in that case, toe-up, and also including:
Ye original Jaywalkers
and ye magic loop Cosy socks, not to mention the gorgeous Pompous socks
The goal of following patterns was achieved by Jaywalkers and Pompous socks, of course, but also by the famously undeserved (*ahem* row gauge *ahem*) success of Jess (with recommended yarn and everything),
and the Sage Rhythm Wrap moebius. (Another goal down!)
Oh, and Snow White! Circular needles: check!
The list is stacking up rather nicely. I didn’t realise I’d done so much this year. Yes yes, that’s as much as some of you do in a month, and definitely less than I used to do, but it ain’t bad going.
There’s more too… although I’d rather forget my Fog Bolero – so called because I was going to make a Cloud Bolero, but lost the pattern and had to improvise in a hurry. There are no pictures. Do Not Like. Have in fact already disposed of. It was fine on the day (bridesmaid’s cover-up) but, no.
And I tried a washcloth (Ravelry link), and found it good. I’d been deeply suspicious of the point of knitted washcloths, but it was fun, and cute, and is nice to use. Armin wants one but he’ll just have to wait for the right cotton.
Oh, and of course last of all we have my handwarmers – hurrah, no more numb-fingered typos! – and cashmere scarf. Mmmm yummy.
So, wow. I met all my knitting goals for the year, and then some. (We will not speak of the non-knitting goals.) What’s next?
I think for 2008, I don’t have goals so much as desires. I want to make at least one proper, gorgeous lace shawl. Lace stitches are possibly my favourite kind of knitting, but I’ve never yet done anything in actual laceweight. I am definitely feeling the lace lust. And I’m feeling a bit of a pendulum swing back to my own designs… this whole pattern thing has been fun, very time saving, but there are things in my head that want to be delivered into the world! So it would be nice to make time for that again. And on a related note, it’s really about time that I put some proper patterns out there.
In my Big List of Real Resolutions, I’ve included a bit about time management. And in that I have scheduled some time for myself. Time for designing. Let’s hope I learn to make that happen, shall we? And then 2008 will really rock.