Happy New Year! Best Posts of 2016

Happy New Year!  I wish you every blessing in 2017!

Here are my favorite picks from my 2016 posts.  I stuck with my discipline of putting up a video each month, so many of these are videos:

• Curved, slanted pocket lesson in a video.  This one's a little longer than most, but it's quite a thorough lesson.


• Video showing how to knit both sides of a neck at the same time.   


• Take the Ronnie Challenge!  I was so impressed with Ronnie, the lady who let me stay at her home while I taught at the Chicago seminar, her knitting expertise, kniting creativity, and her amazing charitable knitting output, that I wanted you to get that shot of inspiration, too.


• You don't need a special Intarsia carriage or special setting to do picture knitting.  It can be done on just about any machine, with a little planning and manipulation.  Here's the video.


• Want to learn picture knitting, and you DO have an intarsia carriage?  Here's a video teaching how to do Intarsia with the Brother carriage.  It's a 3-color cable design, by the way, but I do go through the usual Intarsia basics, especially how to manage all those yarn ends.


• I love lace, and I do peculiar things to "hack" the knitting machine's lace capabilities.  Here's an old favorite of mine, Mirror Image Lace, shown in a video.  I often show this at seminars.  It gets you thinking about the directional movements of the machine and stitches.  


• I interviewed Kris Basta, the creator of the wonderful, made-in-America, very cleverly designed garter bars for all sorts of gauges, bulky as well as mid-gauge.  Here's yet another hobbyist who has used her unique talents to help all of us.


• Here's a post about stumbling onto and acquiring a fascinating vintage Juki machine.


• February's video was a simple little craft project that is a huge favorite - stuffed hearts for Valentine's day!  I've made these into pin cushions, sachets, throw pillows, and heating pads.  


• Based on reader feedback, I believe the most popular video of the year was the Cloche Hat project.  I hope you'll try this one and learn to make two-stitch English Rib as well as the flower embellishment.


• Now this video teaches a darn good buttonhole technique.  

How do you plan to spend your Near Year's Day?  John and I aren't exactly worn out from partying, since all we did was watch a couple Netflix movies and then watch the ball drop.  This morning, we went to church.  We're relaxing right now with hot tea, but one thing for certain - I plan to have some time for knitting today!  Lately I've been having the best time with my antique sock machine and I've also been playing with Red Heart Scrubby yarn.