year in review: FO's of 2011

the time has come again! 2012 is in its infancy, and i’m taking a look at what i accomplished in 2011.

toast at the seaside,waldo, sr, oops, what just happened here

i made some strides in terms of knitting. i finished several long term, slightly larger scale projects. jake’s big bear beast sweater was kind of huge for me, and it took me over a year from cast on to cast off (and still isn’t 100%…). also kind of a big deal was my urban bolero, which i began reverse engineering three years ago (three!). it was a lot of math and a lot of charts, which is why it was easy to put down and a bit of headache to pick up. so i’m really proud that i finally finished it.

phoenix eternal, rain on bricks, urban bolero

stash-busting: 25 of these projects were knit out of my stash. i am including remnants of the day in that count, because despite the fact that i bought one skein of yarn for it, i used every inch of that skein in the project. the rest that weren’t knit out of my stash were commissioned knits, and i either didn’t own yarn to their specifications, or the commissioner’s bought the yarn for their projects.

heart of a nation, flames, flames at the side of my face

i’ve been stash-busting for the majority of the year. part of that means that i’ve knit several projects that have been in my mind for eons, like sideways and schmetterling. but somehow i have managed to sneak a good bit of yarn into my stash without ever buying from a local yarn store. i’ve pulled apart thrifted sweaters, and helped others by taking some of their overflowing stash, and i certainly never turned down gifted yarn. and EVERYONE knows it doesn’t count when you buy yarn on vacation. so while my intentions were good, and i have totally managed to not spend much money on yarn this year, you would never be able to tell by looking at my stash.

enter-stage right-parakeet, wild honey

the projects that were the most fun during and after were lavendulus marina, rain on bricks, remnants of the day, and oops, what just happened here. lots of fun to knit, and i’m so so pleased with all of the finished objects.

lumberjack’s delight, remnants of the day, big bear beast

2011 was kind of a big deal. at the end of 2010, i switched from livejournal to wordpress, which probably didn’t effect most of you guys in terms of my blog, but for me it was huge. the structure and organization of wordpress has been huge in making blogging easier and more enjoyable for me. i meant to do a big shebang for my wordpress changeover blogiversary, but when it passed, i was in the middle of about umpteen things. i may still do a belated changeover blogiversary. but only if i can think of a snappier name. stay tuned.

sideways, schmetterling

i finally published a pattern! huzzah! it wasn’t duck duck goose, as i had intended, but that ship has sailed, and i was pleased to not have to worry about those troublesome decreases anymore. it was, in fact, one of the easiest patterns of ever. but it turned out that’s a good place to start! i’d like to keep going and publish some more patterns this year.

fancy boy lip glitter, choose your own adventure #1, der waffle hat

this year, for the first time in my life, i made it off my home continent. traveling (especially to europe) has been a dream of mine for as long as i can remember, and this year i finally got to start chipping away at turning all of my dream travels into reality travels. (i don’t really have a specific post about germany, but here are all of my pictures!)

purple cowboy, i am a jelly donut, hey, princess!

this year i also started blogging about my outfits. it’s something that had been quietly lurking in the back of my thoughts for a long time without any real impetus. but when a friend introduced me to kendi, and she started her summer 30 for 30 (maybe her last? there hasn’t been a word about it recently), i jumped aboard. i did a summer 30 for 30, and one in the fall as well. (i’m thinking i’ll do another in jan/feb, per-maybe-haps?)

smoke & daggers (that’s right, i totally owe you an FO post for that one! pending, my dears.), slippers for the rustic man, nemesis!

in summation:
27 finished knits this year. honestly, the technical number is higher. there’s multiple projects that i have completely knit up and and bound off on. but some of those are bound for frogging, and some of them need a little more work and a photoshoot before they are done. i was feeling a little sad about how low my FO number was until i remembered that.
1 pattern published.
no sweater knit for myself.

grey goose, lavendulus marina, julie’s chapeau

goals:
-i would like to publish two more patterns in 2012.
-i’m just gonna keep saying it until it happens: i want to knit myself a sweater.

what about you guys? what are you happy/proud to have accomplished in 2011? what are your 2012 goals? dish.

all right, 2012. bring it on!