FOs: A Year in Review

I never did get around to posting about the FOs I finished last year. I'll post a few of them today and continue to add as I come across or remember projects.

June 2010: Sweater
I started this sweater while home visiting my folks, and worked on it while Dad as recovering from hip surgery. The yarn is from a fiber mill in Michigan - Stonehedge Fiber Mill. I had actually finished the pieces for the sweater (long-sleeved version) and was about to connect them all when I discovered that my arms were not going to fit in the sleeves, and even if they did, the sweater would look a bit ridiculous. Therefore I pulled out both sleeves and modified the pattern to make short-sleeves. I think the attempt was a success, especially for my first-ever garment! (Sans outerwear/socks.) If I ever knit this pattern again, I will make a few other mods (lengthening the torso a bit - I'm short, and I still found that the bottom rode up a bit higher than I had hoped).

In January 2011, I had to say good-bye to this sweater - I washed it and it felted/shrank. I haven't tried to salvage it yet, but I'm not sure I can. It was cute while it lasted!

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May/June: Estonian Lace Scarf
This is from my own handspun yarn, the alpaca fiber was from my Aunt Mary. I spun the alpaca into singles, then knitted this cute little scarf. It was supposed to be at least a foot longer, but I only had 200yds to work with.

 This was the first piece I ever blocked. It was rather exciting!

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August 2010: Shipwreck Shawl
I purchased some gorgeous 100% merino laceweight at Knit A Round in A2. For months I fiddled with it, but didn't know what it should become, so it mostly just sat in my stash looking like a ball of amazing unfound potential. I finally found a pattern that I liked, the Shipwreck Shawl posted on Knitty.

My mother and Aunt Jean and I flew out to Seattle to see my brother & his family, and on the trip I began this shawl. It ended up taking me three+ weeks to finish it, but it was well worth it. I'm quite proud of how it turned out. And as a birthday gift, J gave me this really beautiful shawl pin that shows off nicely. (I'll find a picture of that to post later.)

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September 2010: Wedding Scroll
In September two of my friends were married in a beautiful ceremony at a wildlife center in Kzoo, followed by a fabulous reception at a historic inn. Instead of having a guest book, Ilse, the lovely bride, let me make them a scroll on which guests could sign their names.

This was one of the coolest projects I've ever worked on, and I hope to make some more of these in the future. I'm so grateful she let me do this for her!

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Calligraphy 2010
I was really inspired by the wedding scroll for Ilse & Curtis, so I did a few more little things with calligraphy. These are some quotations from Old Norse texts.

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September/October 2010: Apron
In October, another of my friends got married. Shannon & Sean had a beautiful wedding at a loft in Kzoo. It was so much fun! As part of her gift, I made an apron for Shannon, with a bit of 50s flair, in colors I thought she'd really dig:

 It's a reversible apron!

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Tam Hat: Fall 2010
I spun up some singles of a pretty wool I bought at a shop in Frankenmuth. I made mittens out of one batch of the yarn, and decided I needed a hat to match. This hat is a mix of a couple different patterns, with my own pattern worked in - which created the white star on the top!

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Dyeing and Spinning 2010

I did a lot of dyeing and spinning last year. This picture shows just a few of the things I did. I never did sell anything, other than the trade I made with WW, but I did work on getting an Etsy shop put together. I'm hoping to actually have it up and running in the next month or so. I need to get some more items together to put up for sale, but applications and work had me running quite a bit so there hasn't been a lot accomplished on the craft front lately. However, I have plans for some lovely batches of dyed and spun fibers, and I just bought 10lbs of Michigan merino so I have lots to play with.

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Now that I've inundated this post with pictures of fibers and finished projects from last year, I'll close for now. 

Next up: FOs from this year!