2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week - Day 2

 Skill + 1UP   2KCBWDAY2

WOW my skills have grown by leaps and bounds over the last year and my knitting addictions have grown exponentially as a result!  A little more than a year ago I would have rated myself a beginner knitter and in the past year or so I have greatly increased my skills and enjoyment of knitting. Unfortunately I have spent less time crocheting.

In a nutshell the skills I have learned over the last year include lace and socks.

I have learned to knit lace shawls!  I have not yet conquered using lace weight yarn (except for the scarf that is partially complete and hibernating since I find the lace weight trickier to work with!)  Here are two examples of shawls I made in 2010:

 

I have also learned to knit socks! This was something that was on my New Years Resolution list made January 1st 2010 and one of the few resolutions I actually kept!! 

In knitting socks I have learned and tried several techniques.  These include: top-down socks, toe-up socks, double point needles (both four and five dpns), magic loop two at a time top-down (not my favorite technique...), two circulars (I think this is my favorite way to make socks!!) both top-down and toe-up, but only one socks at a time (so far).  I have discovered that I prefer using two circulars to make socks, that I am indifferent (so far) to whether I make socks top-down or toe-up, and that I am truly addicted to knitting socks!!  Since I cast on my first pair August 10th 2010 (and finished those October 25th 2010 - I picked up speed a lot since then) I have completed 11 pair of socks and cast on number 12!!  As you can tell - addicted big time!!  Rather than posting lots of sock pictures here is a link to my RAV page with all my socks.  Here is a picture of my very first socks: