Saturday, December 31, 2011

A Year in Outfits

In 2011, I wore a lot of clothes.  I bought a lot of things thrifted, I cleaned out my closet, and I started getting more comfortable with slouchy styles.  I also got a new photographer: the Lumberjack, who has patiently taken pictures of me wearing socks in the heat, hats in the freezing cold, and dresses in the snow.  As you may be able to tell, my pictures improved greatly.

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I think the only overarching theme in all of these outfits is color.  I've been tending more toward neutrals lately, but at the end of the day I will always pick fuchsia over black.  That's the kind of girl I am.

First and foremost this is a knitting blog, and I've thought a bit about how the outfits fit in.  I may have even waxed poetic about it before, but I think it bears repeating: I love knitting not only because I love the act of knitting and the community, but also because I love playing with color in new and different ways.  The way I dress is both an influence on and a result of that color play.  I think a lot of non-knitters tend to dismiss hand-knits as homely and unflattering, but I firmly believe that hand-knits can be stylish, beautiful, and fashion-forward.  And that's why I post my projects and my outfits: because they are intimately linked, because I love the transformative power of textiles, and because clothes are pretty and yarn is pretty and I really like pretty things.

Thanks, everybody, for reading this year.  Hope your New Year is full of color and love.

A Year in Knits


In 2011, I knit:

12 shawls
+
4 pairs of socks
+
3 sweaters
+
2 hats
+
2 scarves (1 pictured)
=
23 projects

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Looking back on this year, I've knit a lot more than I thought I did!  I finished a lot of really old projects, spectacularly failed at my self-imposed Hat Challenge (let's chalk that up to being busy in school, okay?  Okay!), knit 2 sweaters from start to finish, and made a metric crapton of lace.  I shouldn't be surprised about that last one.  Overall, I knit what I wanted, when I wanted, which I think is a great way to do it.  Life is too short to knit things you hate.

I also published Blake, a (free!) super basic basketweave scarf.  No points for originality, but I was really using it as a template for pattern writing.  I still need to update a few things that are a little unclear, but I think I've hit upon a layout that I like.  Which means that I have no excuse not to write up Salt Creek in the next month and start sending the pattern out to test knitters!

My knitting goals for 2012 are:
Knit 4 sweaters
Continue the hat challenge, but in a more achievable way: knit 6 hats
Design and publish 4 patterns
No buying yarn from Jan. 1st until my birthday, April 15th
Knit 5 pairs of socks
Knit 6 lace projects

None of these are hard and fast, but I'd really like to have more sweaters, and the stash situation is getting a touch ridiculous.  I love all of my yarn, but that means I should use some of it up before moving on to newer, shinier things.

Here's to a productive 2012!