2021 Knitting Plans

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I decided to try and do a Make Nine for my knitting plans, these may change but actually I think that they are a pretty solid list of things that I want to achieve, partly because a number of them are brought over from previous years and because there are multiple socks…

Socks:

There are 4 pairs of socks on this list but I will possibly knit more than that in 2021, depends on how much time I am still spending isolating with Nan, but my new 25cm 2.5mm needles came in the post today so that will help speed up sock knitting.
* I treated myself to some new wools this month and finally bought some RiverKnits sock yarn so I will have to knit these into some super socks for me soon. I also bought a small wool wash bar so that I can hand wash my socks instead of having them wait till I have enough of a load for the washing machine… (Also Yay for plastic-free options)
* For Christmas I gave both Mum and Nikki a single sock each, as the pairs had not yet been finished, Nikki’s were two strands of DK held together and the second sock was soon finished. Mums, on the other hand, were knit on 2.5mm needles and it still waiting for its pair and has turned into a pair for me! So not only do I need to knit its pair I now need to knit a whole second pair for Mum, it turns out that our toes are very different shapes and even though she has smaller feet than me, by one size, the sock was too small because the toe was too pointy.
*One of the other wools I treated myself to when buying the needles was a ball of Regia Pairfect to see how they knit up. I like the idea of two exactly matching socks and the blue gradient seems quite nice.
*Other sock knitting plans include reknitting a few pairs of socks, especially my travelling souvenir socks because I just didn’t knit them at a tight enough gauge and they are a bit painful to walk on and I would far rather unravel them and knit again to have something that I use regularly.

Arthurs Gansey:

So this Christmas Arthur asked me to knit a Gansey for him, and I was more than happy to oblige in knitting him something that he genuinely wants, and give me a kick to think about the construction of them because I have always wanted to knit myself one as well (this idea first appeared on my 2018 Make Nine list!). This one didn’t get finished before Christmas because well life got in the way and I decided to use more of my pre-Christmas time spending time with Arthur rather than powering through the knitting of the jumper. I am currently at the stage where I have nearly finished the body and will have to see if it fits before picking up for the sleeves. I will blog more about this soon as I have modified the construction from a traditional Gansey to enable me to knit some on the knitting machine.

Aran Sweater:

Well, this has been on the to knit list for a while now, it has been on both my 2019 and 2020 Make Nine lists and I have made some progress. I am making up the pattern myself and have knit the front, back and most of both sleeves then tried to put them together and realised that I am going to have to completely redesign the sleeves! So back to the drawing board for that one and consequently it is currently in time out in the naughty corner. Thankfully I did actually knit most of the sleeves because I realised that I am going to need more wool than I had originally bought and the wool is now discontinued. Thankfully Wool Warehouse got a supply of it after they took it down from their website and after a bit of confusion after receiving a back-in-stock notification that took me to a non-existent page on their website I managed to get some balls by phoning them up to place the order. So now I probably have too many balls but that is better than not enough in my mind…

Riddari:

Yet again the Riddari jumper features on my Make Nine selection, I have knit two of these in the past and now don’t have one for myself as I managed to shrink my one slightly in the wash so my Mother now owns it! After knitting the one for my cousin last year I decided that I should have a jumper for myself and knit a Lopi style jumper of my own design (I WILL blog about this soon I promise) but looking back through my photos there is just something about the Riddari yoke that I love so will have to knit myself one soon. I will probably have to buy wool for the main colour of the jumper but not for the colourwork as I have a number of balls of colours already.

Raglan Jumper:

My first ever jumper knitting project, started in 2014, was a seamless raglan sleeved jumper in a lovely greeny teal colour that a wore a bit but not that much because it was just not shaped to fit me properly, so last year I ripped it back to salvage the yarn and am planning to knit myself a replacement. Just as the first jumper taught me a lot about knitting I am planning on using this project to learn something new, I am planning on knitting the whole thing on the knitting machine (If I can get the ribbing attachment working). So far I have only knit sections of jumpers on the machine and have not had to do any form of shaping yet. I don’t know yet if I will find a pattern to follow for this or try and make it up myself.

Step Aside Cardigan:

This is the wild card on this years list is the Step Aside Jumper, I only came across this jumper on Instagram a couple of days ago, it is so unusually constructed that I had to investigate and well I now own the pattern! This might be the last one to start as it was last to the list, but then again it might jump to first place as I am so interested in how it knits up. I am trying not to buy any more new wool so I will have to have a scrabble through my wool stash to see what there is and if I have enough of any one yarn to make this. Although it did cross my mind to see if I can dye the wool myself for the colourwork… I am also going to modify the pattern to be a cardigan and not a pullover but that is a mod that the designer references so it shouldn’t be too hard to do.

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11 thoughts on “2021 Knitting Plans

    1. Pippa Post author

      It look amazing doesn’t it, I haven’t studied the pattern yet but looking at other peoples project photos it looks like the two sides of the jumper are constructed seperately with just a join at the front yoke. But we will see how hard it is once I delve into the pattern.

      Reply
  1. Trisha Sayers

    I enjoy knitting aran jumpers, but designing the pattern yourself, wow! Makes my headache just thinking about it.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      Lol, yeah it has been making my head ache as well. The problem isn’t the aran pattern itself it’t the raglan sleeves and getting the proportions right in those. Hopefully I’ll get there with that soon

      Reply
  2. Rainbow Junkie

    The Regia Pairfect yarn looks interesting. I tried to match my current pair but am a little bit out. Not that I mind. Looked at the Step Aside cardigan pattern. Looks brave attempting it. Interesting to see how you get on.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      Yeah I am looking foward to seeing how it knits up. Some times I try to match the socks but other times I don’t bother at all, depends on how I am feeling.
      Yeah I’m really intreigued by the cardigan and kinda of itching to start with it but I really need to finish other things first…

      Reply
  3. Pingback: A/W 2021/2022 Making Plans – Beads and Barnacles

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