2018 Knitting

I am late to share a year-end recap for 2018, but I think I still would like to have a record. 

This picture makes me happy, proud, and profoundly sad.  I'm happy with the things I've made.  Especially my Lerwick Fair Isle sweater and the Torquata scarf/shawl.  These are the things I'm wearing in the two lower right photos.

I'm very sad, because Morgan, (top left photo) the young man my sister asked me to knit for, died of his cancer just before Christmas.  I'm pleased to have been able to do a small kindness.  Morgan gave a lot of thought to his faith and his illness.  His thoughts are worth reading.  He was able to publish a memoir just before he died.

Here are my knitting projects for 2018 -- there was one more hat, not pictured or listed, for a total of nine items.

• Nevertheless She Persisted (a beanie) 
• Iconic, twice
• Carbeth
• Beekeeper 
• Torquata
• Lerwick
• and FGH (pattern no longer available)

I experimented with "joining" by participating in knit-alongs for both Carbeth and the Beekeeper.  I'm not sorry I did, but I learned I prefer independent knitting - both because I don't need social support to knit a project, and because I think I choose things I will wear more often when I am on my own.  The exception that proves the rule might be Lerwick, which was part of a Fairisle club kit.  I definitely knit at my own pace, but I did enjoy the video lessons from Marie Wallin.  I didn't participate much in the social chatter with others doing this same sweater.  And, I knit this sweater because I genuinely wanted *it*.

I'm starting 2019 with a Hitchhiker shawl (yarn purchased in NYC), and the Nepali Bird Vest (from my favorite magazine [really, a journal - it's so lovely] Making) on the needles.

Happy New year -- for the 23/24ths of it we have left!