Skill + 1UP - 2KCBWDAY2

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

In the knitting hours since the end of March, 2010, my needles have been quite busy. I believe I have gotten more efficient in my knitting. I am much better at swatching - thanks in part to several knitting "jobs" (for yarn and for pay). I wish I could show the one I am working on now - it has to be the most intense swatch I have ever done, not for stitch pattern or anything like that, but because it involves each step of the final design construction. I am quite pleased with myself and how my knitting resume has grown in the last year - I knit for CookieA, Lorna's Laces, Schaefer Yarn Co, and Y2Knit, all with great feedback.


I feel a lot more confident when it comes to crochet - I feel I have the basics down there. I am still hoping to work up amigurumis in the future, but having a hook in hand is not as awkward as it once was.


I have come up with a system that really works for me when it comes to chartwork. I have mentioned before how I knit left-handed (my stitches start on the right needle and move to the left) - generally this makes no difference with most patterns, but when there are cables / charts / lace, it throws me for a loop. I do like to work with charts (I can "see" how it works now) - and I don't mind a few extra steps to modify them (printing them as a mirror image, color coding stitches and writing numbers on the chart all help me) to end up with an object that looks as intended, like "Centrino".


I have also figured out how to fix a mis-crossed cable on "Cloud Chaser" by unraveling the cable down to the mistake instead of ripping back rows and rows of knitting.


For the next year I hope to continue to set my standards high and push myself when needed. I am never done learning!