2019 Craft Plan

I have long learnt not to bother making new year resolutions. But I am determined to do one thing this year - not to buy any more yarns until November. Why November? That's because yarn companies generally do big sales around that time of year, and it'll be a gross negligence on my side to miss the chance. :p

I haven't been spending as much time tinkering these days. It's because of this furry creature.

We adopted her from Humane Society Silicon Valley late last year. She's a cattle dog mix and is super energetic. Before she joined our household I used to spend most of my evening knitting - that's at least 3 hours a day - but these day I'm lucky if I get 30 min. She's still worth it though, at least that's what I'm telling myself. Not being able to tinker to my heart's content is tough and I'm hoping once she's matured I'll have more time for myself.

Despite all this, I did finish a jumper. Woohoo!

I loosely followed Alouette which is a 1940s pattern reinterpreted by Sarah Dallas, but incorporated the neckline and the back zip from a 1960s Fan and Feather sweater pattern. The bodice of Alouette doesn't have any shaping, so it is boxier than what I'd expect from a vintage sweater. I think it'll be a nice project to use up my odds and bits of fingering yarns but next time I'll add a bit of shaping.

It was the first time I used a zip closure for the neckline. It's a detail I see on vintage jumpers especially from the 50s and 60s, and I always wanted to try it out. This being a lace pattern, I thought a zip would work better than button closure and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. I followed the zipper tutorial on Purl Soho and it was pretty straightforward. I think I'll use this technique more often from now on.

Now to the plans for 2019! The focus will be on using up my stash - I inventoried my stash using the 'Stash' feature in Ravelry and it really shed light on just how much yarn I've got. So, the first is this 1950s jumper called 'Bobble Pullover' that I'm going to knit with a Drops Alpaca yarn that I had in my stash for just over a year. It'll go nicely with my rust colour skirt.

The second is a slip stitch jumper to re-create something like the jumper that the girl on the right is wearing. I discovered from my previous slip stitch jumper project that this kind of pattern is great for stash-busting and keeping things interesting.

And last but not least, I should use up the yarns I dyed with avocado. I'm thinking to make another Kasha cardigan with the yarns but I may end up just knitting a plain v-neck jumper.

This is on top of a sewing projects that I have in mind. I want to make a shirt and a jacket - not ambitious at all. What with the puppy and everything, I'm not sure how much of these I'll get done. But one shall endeavour!