December 2021 was the second annual Fasten Off Yarnalong! I didn’t get as many projects done as I would have liked, but this year I finished Wrapezoid by Shanalines Designs.
I'm showing off a hand-knit sleeveless cardigan in teal, blue, and purple and making a silly face
Hilariously, it’s something I bought during last year’s yarnalong, but didn’t get around to knitting because I couldn’t decide on what yarn to use. This year, despite getting some new patterns, I ended up knitting this simply because I finally decided to crack into a 6-skein jewel-tone set from Sunshine Yarns.
I split up the yardage for my size, intending to work all 6 skeins into the FO, but didn’t quiiiite get to the 6th skein. I don’t begrudge the given estimates being generous (I do that myself, just in case), but I wish I had thought to split up the yarns slightly differently.
Maybe because the colors were in a color gradient, I initially didn’t plan to stripe the colors into each other. Of course, immediately after doing that I realized that it really needed to happen. So, I did a whole thing to cut out a section and redo it, this time with striping. It made a huge difference! One hot tip: if striping in new colors in garter stitch, join the new color on the wrong side! It blends the colors on the RS garter ridges and makes the color transition look even smoother.
I have a hand-knit lace shawl in many colors draped around my shoulders.
My other December knitting was Lamina Wrap by Ambah O’Brien. I’ve had the pattern for ages and always intended to use it with an Advent kit. What luck that this year Ambah officially added it to her Holiday KAL lineup! For this one, I broke into a 2020 Advent kit I got from Love & Speckles. The colors are all based on gemstones, with the 25th color serving as the metal “setting” for the gems.
The lace pattern was easy enough, which is nice because although I can do lace, I don’t always want to hurt my head trying to remember a complicated pattern or stitch.
Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to finish it by the end of the month, mostly because I was redoing the Double-up Hat for like the 5th time trying to get the sizing just right. You’d think a creation of garter and stockinette would have been easier to finalize, but I had to do a few iterations to get the length of the brim and the gauge (which affects the stretchiness) juuust right.
I managed to finish Lamina Wrap early in January, which made Cake very happy as she apparently needed a signed invitation to lounge in front of the fireplace.
I'm wearing a hand-knit striped sweater in reds and yellows and giving a thumbs up
I also finished my THIRD and ultimately imperfect iteration of a raglan sweater I’ve been working on. This is a pattern I want to make with the Sizing With Spreadsheets method. Hilariously, I haven’t even gotten to the spreadsheet troubleshooting (in that I’m still only using my personal measurements and not looking for testers with different shapes and proportions yet). I’m still figuring out nuances like “how much extra to add to my neck circumference to get the huge and luxurious neckline I want” and “where should I have the knitter measure in order to get a raglan line that isn’t ridiculously long.” It’s coming along, but slowly. And every failure makes me want to work on it more, though I feel like I really should take a break instead. Onward!
I’ll save you reading more about the Double-up set by directing you to the entire blog post about the subject!