Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

I finally finished a knit project this year. Actually, two projects. As I previewed in progress last month, I've now finished my drink carriers. These are the very first items I've knit in 2023, other than the sample socks for Blue Ridge Fiber Fest. Something I've learned: a drink caddy is essentially a sock with a flat circular toe, no heel turn, and a strap at the top. Implication — if you see a sock pattern you like but you only want one, you can turn it into a drink holder instead. Both pattern are worked in versa lace. You could, of course, work them in regular lace. The advantage of versa lace in this case is the stretch. Linen yarn is not elastic. That's great in the strap. Having a little give in the holder is nice, as it makes the cozy "grip" the mug or water bottle. And the versa lace provides more room for error or, alternatively, allows the cozy to fit a wider range of bottles and travel mugs. The spiral...

There's nothing quite like a Ravelry Projects Page to remind you how little you have accomplished. I've accomplished a lot this year, but very little of it involved knitting, crochet, spinning, or weaving. The only two finished objects I have for 2023 are a couple pairs of socks I made for Blue Ridge Fiber Fest. Sometimes desire pushes something to the top of the queue. Sometimes necessity. In this case, it has been the latter. I have two Joe Mo XL travel mugs I use daily. I joke my car will not go without the drink. The mugs came with fabric carrying sleeves. I've had these mugs for 15, maybe 20 years? The travel sleeves have torn. Time for the trash bin. Replacements are not available on the Highwave website. But I still need to carry my mugs! The bottle holders are a quick versa lace project. The spiral one worked up very quickly. The other one is taking longer because it has reversible double-decreases in it. Dang, those are slow! I...

There's something about 2020. Everything seems to take longer. Everything seems to be just a bit more difficult. Back at STITCHES Salt Lake in October 2019, I realized I needed more samples in the market. I love versa lace. I need more people to see it. I noticed both Alasdair Post-Quinn and Xandy Peters have samples with several regular STITCHES vendors. Leading Men Fiber Arts kindly agreed to yarn support. I had already made Wonderful Whirled . And I already had an idea for another jacket, this time in the more complicated feather and fan pattern. I figured I had a good foundation ready to go. And yet, everything seemed to take longer. I had worked out the proper increase scheme for a center-out circle in versa lace. That math didn't work in this stitch pattern. And when I went to write the pattern, it was an uphill battle. I can't even explain why. I took notes along the way. The design was based on a previous item. Yet somehow, it wasn't as simple as just dropping ...