Happy New Year!

Endings

I’ve just finished a throw that I started almost exactly a year ago. The colours (green, yellow-green, terracotta and brown) were chosen to coordinate with the sofa. The throw is 225 stitches wide and was knitted in rows on circular needles with a long cable.

This was a stash buster project using up a variety of hand knit yarns, including hand-dyed yarn and yarn from Brynkir Woollen Mill, Rowan Yarns, and Gerry Smart, as well as Appleton tapestry yarns and machine knit yarns. The bulk of the yarn was double knit; two or more ends of thinner yarns were held together to achieve a similar weight.

It’s a good reminder that knitting with colour can be really easy and that great effects can be achieved with the simplest of stitches. Now I love Fair Isle, experimenting with the colours and the patterns, but sometimes I just want to knit without thinking about it; this was the perfect project for those occasions.

Usually, a different yarn was used for each row, sometimes the same one was used twice in succession. To save finishing so many ends, the end of one yarn was tied to the beginning of the next. Once the knitting was finished, the knots were all retied and the fringes trimmed.

This seems quite an appropriate project to discuss in a post about beginnings and endings! And appropriate that it was started at the end of one year (2011) and finished at the end of another (2012). But ironic in that this project was only done when I was too tired to work on more complex things. In 2012, apart from the throw, I’ve not done much hand knit. I designed and knitted three small projects to use when teaching Fair Isle, started a jumper and a pair of socks, and that’s it. Not even any sewing, patchwork, embroidery or card making! What a year! But there’s a good reason behind this apparent lack of making; I did complete my MA, during which I made about 150 knitted samples and produced three final installation pieces. So, I finish 2012 with a fantastic sense of achievement.

Beginnings

So, looking forward to 2013, what’s in store?  Now I have the time, there will be a lot more hand knitting! I’m planning on publishing some hand-knit patterns, quite soon, I hope! And I’m looking for venues to use for teaching hand-knit and crochet skills. I’m also working with some other MA graduates on a new exhibition, which is very exciting!