Saturday marked my one year blogiversary! Hooray! I have enjoyed keeping this blog far more than I ever thought I would. I have learned many new techniques and met some wonderful fellow knitters!
Bradyphenia at The Knotty Gnome posted a retrospective meme of her sweaters and how her opinions change, yarn has held up etc. I thought… hmm, it’s been about a year since I started knitting sweaters (I think I made Rusted Root around this time last year) so it seems as good a time as any to join it! Please note that you will not be seeing an appearance by the Hourglass sweater, which has the honor of being the only sweater I have knit this year that I won’t wear under any circumstances.
And I do wear my knits all the time, incessantly, even in hot weather (I was wearing the fitted knits shrug this morning in church!) I do occasionally feel a little self conscious, but for the most part I am proud of everything I have made!
Top to Bottom:
Wicked: Wicked turned out to be a surprisingly flattering sweater. I wore it all the time last winter. Sadly, the Debbie Bliss Merino Aran yarn is not holding up well at all. It is showing a distressing tendency to pill and fuzz, so a sweater stone may be in is future!
Dollar and a Half Cardigan – My most successful cardigan, I wear it all the time. It isn’t really good as a summer cover-up because of the extra long sleeves, and it does need to be frequently blocked to avoid puffiness, but I love it! The Cotton Fleece is wearing extremely well. I’m not happy with my seaming (I hadn’t learned to do seaming in reverse stockinette) but no one would notice!
Josephine top: Love this sweater. I have worn it lots, even though it is a fairly recent fo. The Karabella vintage cotton is really wonderful, and I really can’t wait to use it again for another project!
My camera does not photograph green well!
Top to bottom:
Bedjacket: I have worn this a few times, but it is waiting for cooler weather. I have gotten compliments every time, so I will ignore that I still don’t love my seaming job. Still love cotton fleece here!
Rusted Root: My first sweater, it lay abandoned for months until I finally wove in all the ends and found that I love it! The Shine Sport is wearing pretty well, and it is so soft and lovely to wear! The lower bind-off is a bit tight because I hadn’t learned about using bigger needles, but it is within tolerable limits.
Lorelei: I’m not as happy with this one. I love the eyelet rows and the band of silk garden, but it has a distressing tendency to roll at all of its edges, despite a crocheted border. And while knitting the bottom sideways was fun, it does tend to stretch horizontally. I don’t think I would do that again. I do wear this occasionally, but it is not a favorite.
1. Marilyn’s “Not so shrunken” cardigan – Silky wool is so light and wonderful! This one came out a tiny bit big, but I still wear it all the time. It wears well, and it goes well with my wardrobe.
2. Camisa – I have worn this constantly since it was finished. It’s very flattering, and I’m really into the red color right now. This one is going a bit fuzzy, unlike my other cotton fleece sweaters – maybe it is the color? Or maybe that I am wearing it to death? Yes, I think that’s it.
3. Blue Sky Fitted Tank – Second to the hourglass sweater in sweater failures. I hate the yarn, and the sweater came out too big. The neckline, in spite of many modifications, is still wonky. I might wear it in a pinch, but I consider this one a “learning experience.” Ahem.
1.Shrug from Fitted knits: Love it and wear it all the time. The yarn is fuzzy, but so what? It’s so lovely and comfortable!
2. Drops designs cropped cardigan: I do not like this one. I was trying a new way of seaming, and the seams are majorly bulky. I also do not think cotton ease should be knitted to its advertised gauge (at least by me), because the stitches are strange and uneven. I do like the color!
3.Fad Classic: This one sees a lot of use, mostly because it works in both winter (over a long sleeved tee) or in summer (as a tank/vest thing.) It does stretch out after awhile, but as in Rusted Root the Shine Sport yarn is wearing extremely well. I am much more impressed now than I was when I first made it! The stitch pattern also seems to impress non-knitters.
Puff Sleeved Cardigan – My button saga continues. I recently tried snaps, but those aren’t working either. I think I need button/snap lessons for my knits, as they consistently give me issues! Other than that it’s lovely, but I still await a better way to wear it!
Ms. Marigold: The Classic Elite Classic Silk just gets softer over time. I love this one, and I would make another sweater from this yarn (I have some in stash, awaiting a good project!)
Jess Jacket: Again, the Debbie Bliss merino is disappointing, although soft. It really likes to stretch too! I love this jacket, but I need to tack down the collar better. If I could do it again, I might make the collar separately and sew it on. It is difficult to wear because of the collar issue, and I would really like to wear it more often!
Cropped Cardigan: Unfortunately, I might be allergic to alpaca. I didn’t notice while knitting it, but it took 3 days so I didn’t have that much time. I tried this one on and started feeling stuffy… never a good sign. The cardigan is lovely though!
80s sweater: Still love it! The rayon yarn does stretch out a lot though, so I don’t wear it as much as I could.
Yes… that is a whole lot of sweaters. They aren’t perfect, but I am happy with what I learned from each one. I’m looking forward to many new projects in the next year of knitting!
Green apples - Stitchywitch Creates 
wow that is a LOT of sweaters! I’m very impressed with the number of sweaters, and that you use all different colours. I get constantly worried about how yarns will hold up as well. It’s such a shame when something needs to be binned because we’ve all spent so much time and effort into making it 😦
What a great retrospective…and congrats on bringing your projects to fruition and wearing them. Hope you’ll show us a new crop next year at this time.
Not that you care…but just noted that the website I left on my comment comes up with lovely shots of raw meat…how embarrassing! This is my knitting site.lol
Happy Blogoversary. I hope you went out and bought yourself a present – like yarn.
An impressive array of sweaters over a year. I wish I was so productive! I think I like the fad classic the best.
Did you REALLY knit all htose sweaters this past year? Do you knit with both your fingers and your toes?
Great post! I always appreciate hearing about sweaters from the long-term point of view – if the style turned out to be something that you have worn, how the yarn holds up, etc. I’m glad you enjoy blogging too because your blog has become one of my favorites!
I’m impressed with all the sweaters you’ve knitted in one year. Thanks for sharing your experience with the yarns you used.
The hour glass sweater is one I was wanting to knit. May I ask what went wrong with yours?
happy blogiversary, you had some beautiful knits this year
Happy bloggiversary! Your sweaters are so beautiful! I discovered your blog few weeks ago.
Regards from Buenos Aires
Happy Blogiversary! You are an inspiration to knittes.
WOW. If you count the hourglass, you averaged 2.89 weeks per sweater, and I KNOW you had some other projects floating around in there as well. That seems like a reasonable amount of time for a SINGLE sweater, if you get really into it, but I could never maintain that pace. Amazing. More importantly though, they’re all lovely. I particularly like Camisa.
Thanks for the yarn reviews, too! Very helpful.
That is a truly impressive number and variety of sweaters for one year of knitting! But what’s wrong with Hourglass? You seemed very happy with it in your FO post.
Happy Blogiversary! Your sweaters are so impressive…in quantity and in quality. Best wishes in your next knitting year!
Whooohooo! congratulations! I love the reviews, very helpful as far as how the yarn is wearing and what you would do differently. Excellent.
Jess, would you recommend not using DB Merino Aran? I have a WIP that is hibernating now that I started in that yarn. I need to rip it back to the beginning anyway, so it would be easy to start with a new yarn. Is is pilling a lot? Thanks!
wow, that is a LOT of beautiful sweaters. great to see them all in one post. Happy Blogiversary!
Happy Blogiversary! That is a whole lot of awesome sweaters!! And thank you for the notes on how they are all holding up! I think that’s an awesome idea!
Happy birthday to your blog – and what a neat idea to do a year-end round-up of your sweaters. I like hearing how things are wearing, and what you think of the patterns after you’ve knit them. I may steal this idea next year…
Wow, what an accomplishment! Someday I hope to be able to knit sweaters and quickly and frequently as you!
Happy Blogiversary!! That is a whole lot of knitting in one year. I’m pretty jealous. Love the dollar and a half cardigan. My mom has has really bad luck with Debbie Bliss yarns too.
Congrats, you are a knitting machine!!
amazing! I knew you knit fast but wow! Glad to hear you like and wear so many of your knits!
Great recap… and it’s nice to hear you’re enjoying most of your handknits!
OMG!! let me repeat OMG!! you have knit more sweaters in this year of blogging than I have my whole life! You are amazing. I love the recaps and I am now starting to thing that I need to get my hands on some Cotton Fleece pronto!
Wow! Happy Blogiversary!
I really appreciate the information about how the yarn has held up. I keep thinking that I need to do a post like this, and it just never seems to materialize. Thanks for getting one together. This was extremely informative!
Happy Blogiversary! What a great idea to post a one-year recap! I should do the same thing. I found it very interesting to read about how you liked each sweater and how it held up.
Happy Blogiversary! What a great way to wrap up the year with a run down of all your sweaters- wonderful by the way!
happy blogiversary! i’m so glad i found your blog.
Such a prolific knitter and such beautiful work. Beautiful enough to bring me out of lurking and into commenting. You should be proud of your work!
That’s quite an impressive collection! 🙂
Holy wow, you knit all of those in a year? I expected the photos to end, but they just kept going and going. I’m extremely impressed!
I love hearing retrospectives about projects after the fact.