Wrapping Up 2024
The years seem to whiz by at an ever-increasing pace. As has now become my tradition, at the end of December I like to take stock of my knitting life over the past 12 months to see how I spent it. What and how much did I knit in 2024? Which project took the longest to make? And what were my the most popular blog post in 2024?
Here's a summary of what I knit, designed, and blogged about in the year 2024.
Projects
This year I completed 17 projects and knit over 15.1 kilometers of yarn. That's over 16,000 yards or nearly 9.5 miles! On average, each project took 73 days (or 2.4 months) to make and used up 890 m (or 970 yd) of yarn.
The year 2024 was a year of socks and sweaters for me. Out of the 17 completed projects, 7 were garments (sweaters or cardigans). I also made 6 pairs of socks, 2 accessories, one blanket, and one shawl.
Comparing to last year that's two fewer completed projects but more in terms of yarn used, owing much to my biggest project of the year. And it wasn't a knit at all but a crocheted blanket: Revelation, Helen Shrimpton's free blanket CAL for the year 2023. The blanket used up nearly 4.7 km (5,000 yd) of yarn, weighs 2.3 kg, and took me 11 and a half months to complete.
On the other end of the spectrum is the smallest project for the year with only 267 m (292 yd): a pair of toe-up vanilla socks with peasant heels and short-row mini gussets, knit in a hand-dyed self-striping yarn.
The title of the fastest project this year goes to this colorwork cowl. A Very Merry MKAL, designed by Claire Slade of Verily Knits, was supposed to be a six-day mystery knit-along during December 1–6 but it still took me 16 days to complete.
Designs
In 2024, I released 7 new knitting patterns:
4 garments: Terho Cardigan, Guilty Pleasure, Salt Tide, and Mundo Novo
1 pairs of socks: Saru
1 shawl: Solaris Veil
and 1 pair of mystery mittens: Fair Isle Mitten MKALendar.
The advent calendar mystery is always the most popular new pattern of the year. This year's MKAL has already garnered over 1,000 likes and 200 projects on Ravelry. And you can still join the knit-along! The clues will be available free until the end of January 2025.
I've also got new designs in the works! Happenchance is an updated take on the classic grandpa cardigan with some hidden details. The pattern is slated to come out in early January.
And the next garment design is already on the needles... but let that one stay shrouded in mystery for now. The best way to keep updated on new designs and upcoming testing calls is to subscribe to my mailing list.
Blog Posts
My aim is to release a new blog post every other Friday and, by and large, I stuck to that schedule this year. In 2024, I wrote 23 blog posts (including the one you're reading right now).
The most popular blog post published in 2024 was Five Ways to Purl a Stitch (April 2024) with over 5K views. In this blog post I explored tension issues associated with purling: rowing out, uneven ribbing, and unbalanced stitches. You also learned five different methods for purling a stitch, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
The second place goes to Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 Knitting Trends (August 2024) with 3.3K views. In this blog post you learned what was (and is) trending in knitwear in the colder months: European shoulder construction, large colorwork motifs, blue-and-white designs, marling and dickies. Incidentally, this blog post was the shortest of the year with just 2.8K characters and 472 words.
The third most-read post in 2024 was Lifted Invisible and Median Increases in Knitting: What's the Difference? (February 2024) with 2.5K views. This blog post examined three less-commonly known pairs of mirrored increases and demonstrated how to knit both left- and right-leaning versions of each increase type. This was also the blog post that visitors spent the most time on: the average reading time was 2 minutes and 32 seconds.
The title for the longest post in 2024 goes to Knitting Styles Survey Part 4: Exploring the Diversity (August 30) with over 13K characters and 2.2K words. In this blog post I wrapped up the analysis for the 2020 knitting styles survey and explored how cultural background and heritage, continual learning and adaptation, and embracing the diversity within the knitting community shape individual knitting styles.
How was your knitting year 2024? Let me know in the comments!
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