I hope you all had a lovely New Year’s Eve, spend with exactly the people you wanted to be with and exactly at the place you wanted to be at, whether it be at a big party or snuggled up at home. For me it was more of the latter, as I like to spend NYE at home, comforting my pets from all the hullabaloo outside if need be.
I wanted to do a little round-up of all my knitting this year and I already knew beforehand it would be less than I was hoping for. The sudden loss of my dear cat at the beginning of 2015 threw me off knitting for months, it being an activity so closely associated with a purring cat on my lap. Even though Dimmie will always be dearly missed, the hurt lost its edge and I rekindled my love for knitting throughout the year. 2015 was also the year in which Iva found her way into my life, and even though she’s just been living with us for 3 months now, I wouldn’t want to miss her for anything in the world.
- Upper left: Golden Leaves
- Upper middle: Striation
- Bottom left: Pebble Beach shawlette
- Right: Tiller
I finished 15 projects in 2015 (a little fitting, isn’t it?). I didn’t have any clear resolutions, other than that I wanted to knit more sweaters/cardigans. Although not an impressive amount, I did finish 1 sweater and 1 cardigan, so check I think?
- Top left: Henslowe shawl
- Top right: Blossom cap
- Bottom left: Rye mitts
- Bottom right: Sperry
I only finished 4 pairs of socks, which I hope will be significantly more in 2016. Sock knitting always was ‘my thing’. I can get lost with other projects, but socks hardly ever fail me. So I want to reclaim my ‘addicted to sock knitting’ title in the coming year.
- Top left: Pebble Beach shawl
- Bottom left: vanilla stripey socks
- Right: Grady shawl
Although I did work on a couple of colourwork projects throughout the year, none of them made it to a finished status. So one clear goal for 2016 will be to at least finish one of them. I do love stranded knitting, but I also do find it more tricky to pick up WIPs that involve stranded knitting for some reason.
- Top left: Lorem Ipsum
- Bottom left: Hyperballad cowl
- Right: Vinnland
By far it is not all doom and gloom. I do wish I could’ve done more, but let’s be real, if I had finished 30 projects I probably still would’ve said that. Us knitters are probably always plagued by the thought that it is unlikely we will ever finish knitting everything we want in our lifetime, just like I’ll never be able to keep on top of all the books I want to read. Most importantly, knitting once again kept me sane. In a hectic second year of my PhD, knitting was my meditation. It brought me tremendous joy, from picking out patterns and matching yarns, to wearing my finished projects. I also knit two gifts that I know made people dear to me happy. So what more could I possibly be asking for? Here’s to more of that feeling in 2016!
Een verzameling om trots op te zijn! Dat 2016 je veel wol en inspiratie mag brengen!
beautiful knitting throughout the year! I hope 2016 gives you just as much if not more knitting!!
I love all your projects! Hopefully 2016 holds plenty more for you 🙂
2015 WAS A year of change with our cats too. We said goodbye to Roz and Hello to Fezzik.
Iva is so beautiful > all of your knit photos are perfection. Particularly love your socks
What beautiful projects you knitted in 2015! You have a wonderful talent for pairing gorgeous yarns with equally lovely projects! Can’t wait to see what you get up to in 2016. Happy New Year!
Fifteen awesome projects! Sixteen for 2016? Or possibly more?!?
Happy New Year.
I like your thoughts on how it doesn’t matter how much we knit, knitters will always feel like they didn’t knit “all the things” like we meant to. Here’s to a new year full of knitting…. especially socks.
So many beautiful knits! I know what you mean – I always want to knit more but always seem to run out of time 🙂
Your projects and your blog is a true source of inspiration! I love how you choose yarn, I love your photos, I love how you stick to the project and I love your impeccable FOs! Looking forward to coming back here in 2016!
15 projects are a very good number, in my opinion. I was surprised I managed 20, but I suspect 2016 won’t end with that many because I want to knit more jumpers and that takes time.
It is great to see the photos of all your FOs – I had forgotten about some of them!
All the best for knitting in 2016!
Such amazing projects!
Look forward to watching you reclaim your title as sock knitting queen. 🙂
You had utterly beautiful FOs in 2015, really stunning stuff! I don’t think I could pick a favourite, they are all so great.
I can’t imagine that you don’t love every single thing you knit…they are all fabulous!!! So in that category….you did much better than I did with my 2015 knits. I knit a BUNCH…loved very few things. I’m hoping to change that in 2016!!!!
All your projects were so beautiful and so well knitted and gorgeously styled. I am glad you have little Iva in your life now. She is a lovely cat! Looking forward to seeing more beautiful projects from you in 2016.