I finished my very first sweater some time ago, but haven't gotten around to posting pictures yet. Here's Lara, in all her glory:



and an artsy shot with gratuitous piano:



Lara's got quite a story. My boyfriend gave me an autographed Debbie Bliss "Alpaca Silk" book for my birthday, and said "choose a design, I'll buy the yarn". Having never finished a real sweater before, I chose Lara. I started it on our Christmas holiday (with a few modifications, like using loads of provisional cast-ons, knitting the arms in the round and knitting the front ribbing last) and got quite far on the looooooong stretches of stockinette while watching my boyfriend play "Burnout 3". When we got back, it got stalled a bit, with the big lump on my needles:

But shortly afterwards, I was nearly done:

and then I took out the provisional cast-ons at the side and bound them off together:

and all that was left then was to knit loads and loads of ribbing. I finished at the end of January.

Since then, I knit another pair of socks for my Mum's birthday (the "Diagonal Rib Socks" from the Interweave website), but I made them symmetric.



And a quick knit was a headband inspired by Nakiska.


Look what I also got - my first spindle! The yarn looks kind of kinky, but I think I'll get there!

I'm just copying most of this from GetCrafty, where I used to chronicle my knits. Here's an overview of what I knit 2005:

Winter

Here is a scarf made from Colinette Skye I found for sale after a pattern from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" (mistake rib and 2 colors changed every 2 rows) modeled by my plush Cthulhu, and a hat from Marnie MacLean's Flapper Hat without the flower.



These are the Nearly Gloves from Marnie's Website. This pattern helped me find out that I hate sewing knitted stuff together (I hate hand-sewing, period).



The shawl is knitted from the Shawl Workshop pattern and was an exercise to see how long I could knit one single item.



The beret pattern is from a German knitting book - I only mastered the cicrular cast-on thanks to the internet :)

Spring

2 skinny scarves (one is the phobia busting scarf and a simple lengthwise garter one.



I found out that knitting with dpns is not that bad after all: some short Voodoo wrist warmers and an iPod cozy.



A baby set for my colleague (yes, he's having a son and he's proud of it, so I thought, I can do blue just for him :). The hat is from here, the booties from this pattern and the cardie is this pattern without hearts.

Summer

Some more baby things: a Tychus hat in baby size for a baby of unknown sex.



A Children's cotton hat from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" and baby booties at a completely different gauge for a baby girl.



Also, I started knitting socks - I swore I never would, but somehow all those cute anklet socks got to me. On the left are Spun's ankle socks with a German heel from "Knitting without Tears", on the right are Alison's ankle socks. I don't like the holes in the short tow heel in this one. Since I hate sewing by hand, I don't graft toes, but used a star toe



My third pair of socks is toe-up, which I prefer. Also, properly wrapped short rows don't leave holes. The pattern is from Magknits, but with 2x2 ribbing after the toe and no pom-poms.



A scrap wrap made from bits of yarn I got on eBay.

Fall

On holiday, I knit lolita toes (left) and errant ankles (right).



Later, I knit Holly's Socks. I love knitting socks, but with summer gone and loads of winter socks from my mom, I'll put all the socks on my wishlist on hiatus till spring.



A multidirectional scarf from Noro Silk Garden. After blocking, it's moderately soft and mostly straight :) Love the colors! Also in that picture is the cabled purse from "Last Minute Knitted Gifts". Fun pattern, but I'm not sure about the size.



An iPod sock. I adopted the pattern to be knit in the round. The pocket is a little small and not quite straight, but it works for me.



This is Halley's Comet Hat, which is a fun pattern, but I'm not sure if the hat is my style.



What to do with one ball of Noro Kureyon? A hat, of course! This actually got pretty wide and is not very warm for the ears, but looks great.
Next to it is a neckwarmer out of Debbie Bliss Alpac Silk. I made up the pattern, but didn't account for the stretchiness of ribbing - it almost needs to be blocked back into shape after each wear. The wool is awesomely soft, tho....



These hand warmers are loosely based on theseFingerless mitts and knit with Debbie Bliss Maya. I love the colors, but it's bad with the fuzziness.



Jussi's mittens are a great fast knit, and they fit me very well. I think there's a mistake in the left mitten thump placement, tho - to be symmetrical, it needs to be k5, pm, ..., not k7,....

I knit these i-cord gloves for my 2-year old nephew. Unfortunately, they're too small, and he says they itch, but aren't they the cutest thing?



My sister got a
coronet hat from Knitty (where I found out again I suck at Kitchener...).



I made Marnies wyvern socks out of Regia silk for my mom. She has been knitting socks for me for the last 13 years, now finally she got some. In trying to figure out the pattern herself, she knit 3 totally different pairs :)



And as we're talking about Marnie's wonderful patterns, these are
executive funk ruffles. They're great with a Goth outfit, tho the last few rows and the crocheted cast-off took some patience. Still, very lovely and worth it!

I hate having cold ears, and experimented with earflap hats. Unfortunately, that didn't work, so I went back to double-brim hats.

(Sorry for the bad quality of the pictures - but if I took pictures only in daylight, I wouldn't post till March).


(Click for bigger pictures)

From left to right: hat with earflaps of my own design (far too small) from this pattern, Army Girl Hat from the Interweave website, with extra ugly, and a hat in 2x2 rib started from the top (cast on 11, increase 11 stitches in pattern every other round until you have 88, then knit until you're at the end of the yarn or your patience or your ears are warm enough). The folded brim is warmer than earflaps (unless you tie them with strings, which looks way too childish even for me). The yarn is "Kolibri" from Loops in Berlin, and I knit this at the last Berlin knitting group meeting.



Last weekend, on a spontaneous trip with no room for a bigger project, I finished the Embossed Leaves Socks from Interweave Knits Winter 2005. I only do lace socks as short summer socks, so only 4.5 repeats of the pattern. My opinion: not too fond of the cast-on, and I exchanged the given heel for my standard Boomerang heel. Loved the toe, and the pattern is easy to read and remember. Since you do pattern stuff every round, it seems to progress quicker than the standard 1 lace row, 1 plain row patterns. Next time, I would try and do them toe-up!