2023: Jan Review, Welcome Feb

“Borrowing” an idea from Backstage Knits, I plan to do a brief “end of the month” review – what projects were on my needles at the beginning of the month, what projects came off, and what projects got cast-on.

JANUARY

JANUARY 1 ON MY NEEDLES To start the month I had 3ish carryover projects from 2022 on my needles.

1. a hat for my son using “rainbow” yarn he had given me for Christmas
2. a reversible hat that uses leftover Christmas stripe yarn for one side and leftover “dark” stripe yarns for the other with a ivory brim yarn in the middle
3. a pair of colorwork socks.
4. “ish” Wasn’t on my needles but decided to put my hubby’s sweater back on my needles so I could redo the hem.

The colorwork socks are “low priority” so they will likely be “on my needles” for many months.

JANUARY CAST-ONS I cast-on 3 new projects.

1. Sea Glass Tee – consistent with my knitting plan, I started the year off with a new sweater/tee cast-on. I’m loving this tee but learned I need to alternate with other knitting so as to not overstress my thumb and cause it to hurt.
2. Second “Rainbow” Hat – turns out the first hat I knit was too small for my son’s head. I was afraid of that since I’d never knit him a hat before so I just followed the instructions for a large sized hat. This project wasn’t on my ’23 knitting plan but I wanted to get a replacement hat to my son as soon as possible. He is enjoying the bigger hat and his girlfriend gets to wear the first one.
3. Vanilla Socks – the hats were my “walking” projects so I needed a new “brain dead” project for my daily morning walk. I love the self striping yarn I’m using and since it’s planned as a gift, I get a lot of joy out of knitting it.

JANUARY OFF MY NEEDLES 3 FOs for Jan

Both “rainbow” hats were completed in January. And I finished the reversible hat which one of my stepsons is enjoying. I did tink the ribbed hem of my hubby’s sweater and replace it with a garter hem. So it was kinda on my needles and off my needles in January.

Rainbow Hats

Reversible Hat – Christmas Stripes

Three FOs in one month is highly unusual for me. The fact that they were hats and 2 were already started prior to the month is a big reason that 3 got finished. I will not likely have that many FOs in future months.

YARN IN/OUT -182g

Three FOs really helped my yarn out even though they were only hats. So 180 grs out and none in. Course getting a lot of yarn in December helped control my desire to buy more. 🙂

STITCHES – 68,489

I got a lot of knitting done this month. It’s winter (even though it feels like summer in Florida) so no gardening or traveling taking up my time.

2023 is off to a great start!!

FEBRUARY – ON MY NEEDLES

Heading into February I still have 3 projects on my needles.

1. Sea Glass Tee
2. Vanilla Socks
3. The ’22 carryover colorwork socks is low priority. Does that make it a UFO instead of a WIP??

A goal will be to finish the Seas Glass Tee in February.

SEA GLASS TEE UPDATE

I decided to do an icord bindoff for the sleeves instead of the sewn bindoff the pattern calls for. I just think an icord looks so much better. I did have to rip out the cuff as even though I used the same needle size as the collar it was still too big. I’m noticing that my tee sleeves are all too loose. I wanted it to fit fairly tightly on my arm. I’m always afraid my tees are going to be too tight but instead they are too big. I think I need to drop down needle sizes as I work down the body so they are less “boxy”.

VANILLA SOCK

The sock is coming along fairly quickly although the Sea Glass it’s getting most of my knitting time. I did start the second sock but ripped it out when I wasn’t satisfied with the toe. I’m pretty confident I will have the socks done by the end of March so that I can give them to my daughter’s friend.

Wishing everyone a good week, knitting and otherwise.

This is a year of projects (YOP12) update. YOP is a Ravelry Group – make a plan for the year ahead for all your fiber activities, then update your blog each 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 started it’s 12th year in July and I’m starting my third year in the group. You can find more detailed information about my projects on my Project Pages in Ravelry (MaureenHD).  I’ve been knitting for six years.

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