2010 review

Another year has passed, and as usual my knitting goals greatly exceeded my knitting capacity! Still, let's take a look at how I did:

Ten for 2010

1. steeking - no
   
2. entrelac - no
   
3. granny square afghan - yes, but still in progress
   
4. line a bag - no
   
5. top down raglan - no
   
6. moebius - no
   
7. knit with own dyed yarn - no
   
8. more complex sock - no
   
9. complex cable -dipped a toe in the water here, taking a short class with Alice
10. Starmore
    
11. slip stitch item - yes
    
12. use of blocking wires - no
    
13. cable twist stitches - yes, Elsica
    
14. soft toy - either knit or crochet - yes, but still in progress
    
15. cabling without a cable needle - yes Elsica
    
16. inserting a zip into a knitted item - no
    
17. kidsilk haze project - no
    
18. brioche stitch - no

So if we count the WIPs, I managed five. Not great, but five more techniques than I had tried this time last year. I'm still interested in most of the list, so although it won't be a formal challenge this year, I'm going to try and hit a few more.

And the 100 balls challenge?

BSJ - 3 balls
hat for brother - 3 balls

lightweight autumn scarf - 2 balls
calorimetry - 1 ball

charity hats - 7 balls


charity neckwarmer - 2 balls

ruffle scarves - 2 balls

weekender beret - 1 ball
green lovely lid - 1 ball
scallop - not sure, say 10

Hmm, only 32 balls - yet again, good progress with small projects, but not with sweaters. The one project I was really happy to finish was the scallop sweater for my sister. She was very pleased with it, and looks great in it. I'm also happy that I did some charity knitting this year and got more crochet practise.

Elsica

The freezing weather continues, and a walk yesterday convinced me it was time to knit myself a hat. I don't like the beanie style on me, as I have too much hair, but like the look of the slouchy berets that seem to be everywhere. I decided to try Elsica by Woolly Wormhead. Apart from the look of the finished item, this pattern hits two of my Ten410 techniques straightaway: twist cables and cabling without a cable needle.

I went stashdiving and surfaced with a yarn that was the perfect colour. Unfortunately, it was sock weight and the pattern calls for worsted with a gauge of 20. I pulled out a fluffy worsted yarn with a great texture, but questionable colour. I also got a gauge of 18 when I did a mini-swatch. Couldn't find anything else I wanted to use, so settled on this, and figured that going down a size would compensate for the gauge difference.

I have to say I am finding the pattern quite challenging! I thought hats were quick, mindless projects but I am concentrating hard on this one. The first point I discovered was that I needed to slip stitches with yarn in back to get the right effect - the pattern assumes you know this, but I quickly realised I was getting the wrong effect when I slipped with yarn in front.

I found the increase row a bit tricky because there were so many increases that the yarn was quite tight and it became difficult to knit into the strands. I have also ended up with weird diagonal lines where I did the increases.



The cable twist first row was a bit confusing - I think you need to move the marker before starting this row in order to make the twist tutorial and the pattern align. When I did this, all was well. I find the twisting without a cable needle difficult, as the yarn tends to pull out of the stitch when I re-arrange the order. Still, I'll get lots of practice, as this is repeated all the way up the hat.