Big Week in 2021 YOP Update

This has been a week of lots of small things. First off – my first FO!!!!! Gee, only took 6 weeks into 2021 to finally get a FO! It turned out to be finishing a 2020 carryover WIP. But I’m still taking the win. I had a pair of vanilla socks with Fixation yarn on my needles as my “brain dead” project. I love the colors in the yarn – purple, lavender, bright orange, and pale orange.

1st FO of 2021

Part of my motivation to finish the socks was I needed the excess yarn to darn a pair of Fixation footies that had developed a hole in the heel. They are also brightly colored so the patch “kinda” matches. I don’t care since the patch is on the bottom and they are for me. So this week was accomplishing a new “technique” – darning. I actually did two darning techniques. For my freshly finished socks, I reenforced the heel bottom by using duplicate stitches. For my pair that already had a hole, I used the patch technique. Both methods are shown on The Woolery site. https://woolery.com/blog/how-to-darn-socks-3-ways/

Patch Darning

A second technique I started this week was colorwork. Yes, I’ve been knitting for 4+ years and still hadn’t tried colorwork beyond the stripes in my sweater. As discussed in previous blogs, on my plan for this year is a pair of “advent” socks. The plan is to make a stripe or two of colorwork each month so that the socks are finished by advent come December. I had made the cuff but had put aside the socks until I realized I was “behind”. Oh goodness. Now I get it. Colorwork is indeed fun!! In only 10-11 rows you have a pattern come alive. I am loving my stripes so far. The next stripe will be red background with pink poinsettias. It took till the 3rd stripe to start getting the hang of keep the pattern yarn in my left hand and the background yarn in my right hand. I know that fit can be an issue with colorwork socks so here’s hoping I’ll be able to get them on. I think I’m going to keep the leg fairly short to help with getting them on. If they don’t fit they will be Christmas decorations in my knitting nook.

2021 Advent Sock

And yes, I was back to buying a knitting need. I like colorful but clear plastic bags for my accessory bags and project-in-waiting bags. For accessory bags, I want to be able to see what’s inside without having to dump out the bag or rout around. For project bags, I want to be reminded visually what yarn I have waiting to be knit. I had a set of small cosmetic bags I bought probably 2 years ago but the zipper broke off again this week. Plus the bags didn’t close all the way so some small items could fall out of my accessory bag. I ordered some new ones that zipped close completely. I would have liked to get the slightly larger size but they weren’t available in the multiple colors (I didn’t want 5 blue ones). The size is perfectly fine for my accessory bag which was the original purpose. They are also fine for sock projects-in-waiting. One is even perfect for all the small balls of yarn generated by ripping out my striped sweater. We will see how they wear but they weren’t expensive and the colors are fun.

Accessories and Project bags

Finally, I’m getting soooo close on finishing my “non” shellseeker sweater. I’m sure it will be an FO by next week’s update. The body is completely done. I have about 5 more stripes to knit on the sleeves before binding off.

“Non” shellseeker sweater

Then it will be back to knitting on my daughter’s Bisquit top. I did wet block what I had knit on her top and indeed the gauge does not match the wet block gauge of my swatch. So I’m going to go down a needle size for the remainder of the body and hope the top lace panel isn’t too wide for her shoulders.

This is a year of projects (YOP) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog every week. Plans can be calendar year (like mine) or mid-year start (like many). Following the plan is optional and creates some of the fun of posts. YOP is in it’s 10th year although I’m in my first in the group.

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