Mikknit

So it’s been just over a year since I last posted. There’s been a lot going on around here, between my shoulder getting screwed up and making it painful to knit for much of 2009, the depression that was exacerbated by the removal of my favorite creative activity, and life in general. The depression lifted in November and life is beautiful again – I’m so thankful for everything in my life. It really feels like I got a new chance at everything and it’s amazing.

But enough about my crap, I know you come here (or at least you used to) for the knitting content. My Ravelry page is mostly up-to-date with project information, if not pictures of all the projects, so you can look there if you’re curious what I made last year. This year I’m hoping to share my projects with you here as well as on Ravelry, starting with this one:

Berlin Muster socks (Ravelry link)

I loved knitting this pattern! It wasn’t a chart I could memorize or just work out from reading my work, but that wasn’t too much of a hardship. The pattern is only 60 stitches around, which would normally be far too small for my wide feet. I took the designer’s suggestion and added a couple stitches to each purl panel and knit all the way down past the heel before trying it on – the sock could have fit my foot and my hand! The lace pattern is extremely stretchy, so most people should have absolutely no problem with it as written. My only modifications were to cast on 68 stitches and to knit the ribbing a bit longer than the pattern specified. I then decreased the extra 8 stitches on the first row after the ribbing and continued as written. It’s great, although they were a tad snug in the instep when I put them on this morning. They’ve stretched a bit so it’s all good now!

The title of this post is not only in reference to the resurrection of the blog but also to the resurrection of a project. I’m going back to the project that screwed up my shoulder in the first place, but this time around I’m going to be more careful with it. It’s the Aran Sweater from Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac (Ravelry link). I knit the entire body of the sweater in the month of January and the twisted stitch pattern caused some pretty nasty tendinitis in my right shoulder. It’s been in time-out for nearly a year and I’m finally feeling up to working on it again. The sleeves aren’t nearly as cable- and twisted stitch-heavy as the body, so I’m pretty confident I can knit them without destroying my shoulder again.

Did I mention that my husband’s a tall beast? Wow, what a project.

Here’s a close-up of the pattern.

I’m knitting pretty much according to the pattern, but I had to add a number of purl stitches to each panel. I have no idea how many, now, but it was a few inches’ worth. I’m so excited to finish this but the steeking is intimidating – I’ve only done that once and it was a Lopi sweater, which is a much different creature in my mind. I’ll probably take EZ’s suggestion and have a nice glass of wine before I cut, just to steady my nerves. Hopefully I’ll get to that this month!

I’ll make no promises, but I do plan to blog more frequently this year. Not that I can really beat last year’s inactivity…