The Tail End of 2024

     I reordered two indigo t-shirts from Industry of All Nations in my size.  I haven't worn them yet.  I need to wash them, as they smell strongly of indigo.  I don't mind the smell but other people might.  The tees need to go in the wash on their own, as they will probably bleed.  The weather has been cold for our area, too cold for me to want to wear short sleeve tees.  This is why I haven't gotten around to taking the trouble to wash and wear them.  I would order a long sleeve tee but they are out of stock in the style and shade I like.

     As I write this, it's the end of December.  Back in January, I had planned to have a resolution to make things strictly for myself.  However, this stressed me out.  I wound up just making what made me happy, which was a lot of easy garter stitch dish cloths that I knitted to give away.  I also knitted a couple of tiny sweater ornaments to give away.

     I find that garter dish cloths are well-suited to knitting in public and I did knit a number of them in public this year.  A couple of people remarked on how quickly I knitted one dish cloth after another.

     In February I started knitting a beret using yarn left over from the sweater I knitted last year.  I worked on the brim at a handspinners guild meeting and then put the beret away because I'd gotten to the part that required concentration and it wasn't suitable for working on while carrying on conversations.  Plus I just wasn't that into the project.

     I keep a tab open on my browser showing my Ravelry projects that are in progress and hibernating.  Recently I was bothered by the beret's hibernating status and pulled the thing out to work on it.  Unfortunately while it sat all those months, the needles pulled on the yarn.  After I knitted another two or three inches, I noticed a distinct line in the brim where the stitches were uneven.  I wound up ripping everything out, reskeining the yarn, and washing it to get the kinks out.  I deleted the project from Ravelry.  I think the yarn would be much better knitted into a Jacques Cousteau hat, and I've set up the pattern in my Ravelry queue accordingly with the stash yarn linked to it.  I feel relief after taking decisive action, and wish I'd done it sooner.

     As I said, the weather has been cold for our area.  To keep warm while out for walks, I've been wearing a handknit hat, cowl, and fingerless mitts with my hands jammed into my pockets.  These items don't go together in terms of yarn or pattern and the hat does not cut the wind as well as I'd like.  I bought some yarn and plan to use it to make a couple of coordinating sets.

     I've been adding to my queue on Ravelry and rearranging it.  I find this fun.  The queue is somewhat longer now.  The start of the queue has the coordinating patterns meant for me.  After that come a couple of gifts I want to knit for a relative's birthday.  After that come patterns that are mostly for gifts or charity.  These are linked to stash yarns in an order that will hopefully let me use up and get rid of one box of stashed yarns after another.  My boxes are sorted by the kind of yarn.  At the end of the queue are patterns for which I do not have materials.  Most of these are sweaters I think would be cool to wear.  While I am pretty happy wearing commercial sweaters, there are times like holiday parties where I feel bad for not having a handknit sweater.