Everything I Made in 2024

Compared to what I made last year, I feel like I had a pretty slow year with knitting, and I think this is for a few reasons. First and most obviously, I feel like I spent much less time actually knitting this year. This was my first full year of re-entering the workforce, and even though it was at a part-time capacity, it translated into less hours per day available to knit. Unlike the corporate jobs I’ve had in the past where I was able to knit during meetings when I wasn’t presenting, the work that I do now requires more hands-on time. Another factor affecting my knitting time is that we spent much more time outdoors this year. Mark and I got into the habit of taking long walks after dinner. It was a great way for us to catch up on our days, but it also meant I wasn’t on the couch working on a project for many of the months.

The final reason I finished fewer projects this year is because I’ve grown as a knitter. Now that I have been knitting for five years, I’m not afraid to take something apart and start over again if it’s not turning out how I want it to. In the past, I would think about all the time I had already spent and would press on, even if the fit was a little off. As you’ll see in this post, almost every single project I worked on this year involved some sort of ripping back and tackling it again. While this has resulted in fewer finished objects, the pieces I made this year are some of the best-fitting I’ve ever made. And since they fit so well, I have been wearing them nonstop.

Before we dive into what I made, the biggest theme of the year that jumps out is texture. This year, I seemed to gravitate towards patterns that brought visual interest through texture. This didn’t necessarily mean that the patterns were difficult or that I picked up a bunch of new skills, it was just something I noticed as I went through the photos. Let’s get into the nitty gritty of everything I made in 2024!

Funfetti Zipper Sweater

I don’t know when it happened, but I’ve officially reached the age where I yearn for Mark and I to have matching wardrobes. When I made him the zipper sweater last year, I knew this would be the perfect piece for us to have a his and hers set.

I’ve been dreaming of a tweedy sweater for ages, so when I found the colorful Tutti Frutti tweed, I knew it would be perfect for this staple piece. When I knit up the swatch, I was a little disappointed in the amount of tweed. I needed MORE. I had previously bought the Rico Design Make It Tweed thread and hadn’t yet found the right project for it, so I added it to my swatch and—BAM!—that’s what was missing. The new fabric was like a Funfetti cupcake, just the kind of colorful neutral I was craving.

If you recall from Mark’s sweater, it was my first time I hand-sewed a zipper and wasn’t 100 percent happy with the results. Determined to learn and improve, I sought out advice from my sewing friends and watched countless YouTube zipper sweater tutorial videos. This time, I decided I would break up the zipper install into multiple stages and I would baste it in prior to sewing it for the final time. This was the answer.

Other techniques I did differently for mine was that I used contrasting scrap yarn as guides so when I sewed down the zipper liner it would be even on both sides. I also used a single thread of mohair instead of the yarn I made the sweater with to sew down the liner and this significantly cut down on bulk. This zipper is obviously not perfect, but it zips without catching and is a marked improvement from the first attempt.

DETAILS

Pattern: Zipper Sweater Light by PetiteKnit
Yarn: Sandes Garn Peer Gynt in Tutti Frutti Tweed / Rico Design Creative Make It Tweed in Multicolor
Amount used: 1238 yards (1132 meters) Peer Gynt / 1330 yards (1216 meters) Rico
Needles: Metal US 6 - 4.5 mm
Size made: X-Small
Project hours: 76 hours and 55 minutes
New skills: Basting a zipper
Dates worked: January 5 - February 18

Lessons Learned

While it may seem annoying to spend so much time prepping something like sewing in a zipper, the results are more than worth it. The difference between an okay project and a flawless one all come down to the finishing and the details.

Serendipity Sweater

Last year, one of my goals was to branch out into the world of test knitting. For the non-knitting crowd, test knitting is when a handful of knitters will work with a designer to knit a pattern that hasn’t yet been publicly released. In exchange for early access to the pattern for free, the testers will provide the designer with feedback on instruction clarity, errors and any glaring fit issues. For the most part, this is a volunteering of your time and many require you to provide your own supplies.

If you recall from the 23 for 2023 update post last year, I applied to many test knits but was not successfully chosen for any. Going into the new year, I hadn’t given up on my goal and, on a whim, applied for a test knit I saw while scrolling Instagram one day. To my delight, the designer emailed me a couple of hours later letting me know I had been selected!

To me, the pattern evoked feelings of tenderness and sweetness, and I wanted that to come through in my yarn choice. Back when we visited Edinburgh in February, I had scooped up some beautiful, breed-specific lightweight wool from Be Inspired Fibres. The fiber is a lovely combination of hardwearing Masham and soft Bluefaced Leicester and has just a bit of a halo. Since the yarn is a light fingering and the test knit was for a DK weight, I decided to stay with the soft and warm theme and paired it with an alpaca suri. Because of the Masham, the Wool Local had a grey tint to it, so I decided to go with a cream alpaca strand to make the fabric tip closer to the lighter side of the color wheel.

Since this was a test knit, there were a few kinks to work out with the stitch counts in the yoke. This led to me doing a few too many increases in the sleeves, but this was fine with me since I had decided that before I started I would be bumping up the sleeve size anyway.

Otherwise, everything about this knit was fun and I love the fabric it created. Because the sweater is primarily a textured seed stitch throughout, this project took me significantly longer than a sweater typically does. I think it was well worth the effort though since it has such a classic, romantic look which is just what I was aiming for.

So far, this has been my most worn knit this year. Everything about it is just perfect and it always gets packed when we head somewhere cold for a trip. I think this is the first sweater that I’ve made where I loved it immediately. Usually when I finish a sweater, I have this weird letdown feeling of it not being perfect, but that wasn’t the case with Serendipity.

DETAILS

Pattern: Serendipity Sweater by Veera Välimäki
Yarn: Erika Knight Wool Local in Rosedale Pale Pink & Rico Design Essentials Baby Alpaca Loves Silk in Natur
Amount used: 1255 yards (1148 meters) Wool Local / 1235 yards (1130 meters) Rico
Needles: Metal US 6 - 4.0 mm
Size made: Body: Size 1 / Sleeves: Between Size 2 & 3
Project hours: 88 hours and 23 minutes
New skills: First test knit!
Dates worked: April 6 - May 22

Lessons Learned

I’m glad that I accomplished my goal of test knitting, but I don’t know if it’s for me. I was hoping for more interaction with other knitters and this test knit didn’t really have any of that. It was also a little stressful to put a deadline to my crafting and I could see how this may lead to draining the joy I get from knitting. If I test again, I will be sure that I’m in the right headspace, the deadline is long, and there is a social aspect to it.

Foxberry Pullover

Foxberry gets the long-haul award since it was on my needles in some form or another since 2023! I fell in love with the Urth yarn while I played tour guide to my parents in Paris back in the fall of 2022. I knew I wanted to make this pattern with the yarn, but it was written for a DK weight and the Urth was fingering. Since two strands of fingering held together equal DK weight, I bought enough to do so. It was a lot of yarn.

Once I finally cast on Foxberry, I made it through most of the yoke, knitting a size 3, and it just wasn’t working out. I didn’t love how the yarn looked held double for the bobbles or the lace pattern, plus it looked huge whenever I tried it on and I knew it would only grow bigger once I blocked it. Not really knowing what to do, I set it in timeout and proceeded to knit a bunch of other projects, like a Zipper Sweater for the spouse and myself.

Last year, I knit the Waffle Sweater using three strands of mohair like the pattern called for. I love how it turned out, but I found the mohair to be just a touch on the itchy side. I was curious about alpaca silk since it’s like mohair in that it adds a halo to the project, but generally feels softer on the skin. While I was out running one day (yes, I solve almost all of my problems, knitting or otherwise, while hitting the pavement), the perfect solution came to me. I would completely unravel the 25 hours worth of work I had already spent on Foxberry, and would start over again, this time holding a strand of alpaca suri with the Urth. I would also go down a size on the pattern for hopefully a better fit.

Rejuvenated by this new plan of attack, I spent a few hours unraveling the whole yoke and cast on a second time. I flew through the yoke motif in record time and the fit was significantly better.

As I was halfway through knitting the first sleeve, and on the final stretch of the project, I learned I was accepted to test knit Serendipity with a bit of a tight deadline. So I put Foxberry back on hold, finished Serendipity by the deadline, and then came back to finish up.

I love the fit of this sweater, but I do think my yarn choice still wasn’t quite right. I don’t know if it’s because alpaca is just a touch more dense than mohair or because the yarn color is so dark, but I feel like it’s hard to see the beauty of the lacework in the yoke. I still love this one though and it gets a lot of wear, but it’s not perfect in my mind because of this.

DETAILS

Pattern: Foxberry Pullover by Sari Nordlund
Yarn: Urth Harvest Fingering in Black Grape & Rico Design Essentials Baby Alpaca Loves Silk in Bordeaux
Amount used: 1235 yards (1130 meters) Urth / 1113 yards (1017 meters) Rico
Needles: Metal US 7 - 4.5 mm
Size made: 2
Project hours: 90 hours and 10 minutes
New skills: Making bobbles
Dates worked: November 22, 2023 - June 16, 2024

Lessons Learned

I’ve always known that yarn content choices matter, but this project really highlights why it’s important to match the fiber to pattern. In the future, I think I need to use lighter colored yarns for this type of lacework if I’m holding it with alpaca lace yarn (like I did for the Serendipity) so that the design doesn’t disappear in the fluff.

Pippin Sweater

If you can’t tell, I love knitting complex sweaters with cables and lacework, and sometimes even both. The only problem with this, is that I feel like these sweaters are too dressy to just throw on and wear for running errands. For this reason, I find myself reaching for my Autumn League over and over again, despite the fact that it was knit with lower quality yarn and is definitely piling like crazy. This year, I vowed to knit more everyday, casual knits in colors that went with all of my outfits.

The yarn is one of my knitting festival finds from when we went to London for The Stitch Festival. I loved how this soft, drapey alpaca yarn was a neutral color with some beautiful marling that just felt like me. I had recently purchased the Pippin pattern and knew that this yarn and pattern combo would give me the perfect everyday sweater of my dreams. The alpaca would be soft, warm and give the fabric a cozy drape and the textured stitch pattern would really make it pop.

The gauge for this pattern was a little difficult for me to nail and I ended up going down two needle sizes from the suggested and honestly, I probably should have done a third since I ended up off gauge, something I discovered after finishing the yoke. While the yoke wasn’t too big, it was a little roomier than I tend to knit my sweaters. Not wanting the piece to look sloppy (I know oversized sweaters are so in right now, but I just don’t think they look good on my body), I decided to rip back a bit on the body that I had already finished and do several sets of decreases to give it a more fitted look in the waist and hips. Looking at the finished piece, I’m so happy with this decision. The fit is still relaxed, but not so much so.

While this wasn’t an overly complex knit, it still took quite a bit of time to knit because the texture stitch pattern requires a lot of switching back and forth between knitting and purling. Again, this is not something that is complicated, it just takes a ton of time. I do feel like it was worth it though because I like the idea of the elevated basic. The texture gives it a little more visual interest than a plain stockinette sweater would.

My first wear for this sweater was during our long weekend in Copenhagen and I basically wore it every day we were there since it has been so unbelievably cold this winter. As I hoped, this basic is everything I wanted. It’s comfortable for all day wear and the yarn isn’t piling in the slightest, which is great (and sometimes rare) for the softer yarns.

DETAILS

Pattern: Pippin Sweater by The Knit Purl Girl
Yarn: UK Alpaca Luxury Alpaca Worsted Spun DK in Speckledy Gold
Amount used: 1300 yards (1189 meters)
Needles: Metal US 4 - 3.5 mm
Size made: C
Project hours: 84 hours and 9 minutes
New skills: None
Dates worked: July 15 - November 13, 2024

Lessons Learned

More basics! I knew I wanted this in my wardrobe and this sweater confirmed it. I’m actively on the hunt for more basic, timeless styles I can add to my crafting rotation. I’m also trying to find patterns that use lighter weight yarn so it’s more seasonally appropriate for our life in Las Vegas. And yes, it does get cold enough there to need sweaters in the winter!

Houndstooth Scarf

My annual make-something-for-the-spouse knit! Last year, I had knit him a scarf using this yarn and it looked lovely… until he started wearing it. For whatever reason, the scarf curled horribly, even though a mosaic knit stitch is supposed to lay flat. I think it may be because my tension was too tight and it pulled the fabric inward.

It had bothered me when I finished blocking the scarf, but he was so excited to wear it, I tamped down the perfectionist inside my head. As the year went on, I noticed he reached for his scarf less and less. Finally I asked him why he didn’t wear it anymore, and he confessed he didn’t like how it was curling inward into a small strip. This was all the motivation I needed to completely unravel the entire project and start looking for a new pattern that had a similar vibe, which is how I landed on this houndstooth colorwork knitting pattern.

Since the scarf had been worn for a whole season, it was incredibly crimped and a little haggard-looking. I knew that if i got it wet, it would become straight again, but this sounded like a lot of work, so the noodley mess sat in my knitting basket while I continued knitting all of my sweaters.

As the year was coming to an end and Stuttgart was hit with some early cold temperatures, I knew I needed to get on with knitting this scarf if he was going to be able to wear it in the coming winter. I decided to do the lazy thing and just knit with it all kinked up, knowing hoping it would block out once I was finished. Admittedly, this was a gamble since I have never actually knit with reclaimed wool before and didn’t know for sure it would happen. This also ended up driving me crazy while I was working on the project because my usual tidy stitches looked deformed and sloppy.

Once I laid the finished scarf on my blocking mats, I was met with instant relief as the yarn blocked beautifully and looked brand new again. Once everything was dry, I added fringe, which was my first attempt and I love what it added to the finished piece.

It was totally worth reclaiming and giving this scarf new life. I think it looks even better than the first one I made him. And most importantly, this one actually gets worn.

DETAILS

Pattern: Houndstooth Scarf by Cheryl Self
Yarn: Wolle Rödel Soft-Merino in Navy & Camel
Amount used: 464 yards (425 meters) Navy / 355 yards (325 meters) Camel
Needles: Metal US 8 - 5 mm
Size made: One size
Project hours: 23 hours and 12 minutes
New skills: Knitting with reclaimed yarn; making fringe
Dates worked: November 25 - December 15, 2024

Lessons Learned

Reclaiming yarn from an unused item is worth it. Not only do I get more joy out of the same yarn (yay for saving money), I get the satisfaction of seeing my hard work appreciated every time my spouse bundles up for a nightly walk or to go into work on a cold day.

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So, it’s a little later than I originally intended to share this post, but better late than never, right? I’ve officially closed out my 2024 knitting adventure—and I’m curious which project caught your eye the most? Did any of them spark a new idea for your own crafting? Drop a comment below and let me know! As far as my knitting goals for 2025 go, I’m hoping to start working through more of my stash. I recently spent some time planning which knitting patterns should go with which yarn, so I’m ready to cast on!

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