Happy New Year

One week into the new year, and I'm doing that thing where we look back.    It's been a busy year- some family things, some travel.  Knitting has been on the light side-just over 30 projects.  And despite the number, that's a lot less knitting than usual- mostly hats and mittens, only 2 pairs of socks.   Of the things on my master project list, I didn't complete anything. 

Reading on the other hand, has been more intense.  I read 242 new books this year- there were some rereads as well, though I didn't count all of them.     And I have finished another book every day in 2019 so far, though I can't possibly maintain that much longer!  Not while working, and once I finish off the several remaining half-finished books I have in process.

One thing I have noticed, is that I've missed writing about crafts and keeping up with my online crafting friends- I want to try and do better this year.    And speaking of crafting, here are the last projects for 2018.    There were of course kid mittens:

I started out to make a hat with this chunky yarn, but ran out with a short cowl.

A last pair of adult mittens:

A Wurm hat- I've wanted to try this pattern for a while, but hadn't gotten around to it...then I happened to glance at it and noticed that it's written for sport weight yarn.  Of which I have a great deal...I'm sensing there may be some more of these in my future.

Speaking of sport weight yarn, I made another colowork hat, again with the aim of using up sport weight yarn.  The sport weight is too light for a single layer to be really warm - the Wurm pattern uses ribs to trap air for additional insulation.   But there are other ways- colorwork adds an extra layer of yarn for a warmer hat.  And it's higher resolution- the extra stitches required by the thinner yarn provides a suitable canvas for more intricate designs.  (This one came out of my Fair Isle stitch dictionary.)

And last but not least- Christmas socks.  Yet another pair of Sagittarius socks, a pattern I've knit before but always enjoy.  I didn't have a chance to photograph these in natural light, but the yarn is pale green with a subtle copper sparkle.  Very pretty.

Due to some last minute scheduling changes, I knit the second sock in three days flat- good thing it was a long weekend heading into the holiday!

Just before the holidays, I cast on another Mini-Mania scarf for social knitting -also to use up a bag of mini-skeins that wandered into my stash- but that's a story for another day, when I have a photo of the scarf in question to show you.