What Are We Making This Time of Year?

I’ve been writing about knitting for a long time (on this site and others, more than 15 years!), so I can tell you that it seems like people don’t knit as much when it’s hot outside. This based on pageviews, which tend to be higher in the winter months than in the summer (except this year, y’all have been friendly and I so appreciate it!).

A story in The Washington Post looked at Ravelry’s data since 2019 to determine when crocheters are starting more projects and how long they tend to take. I assume the data would be similar for knitters.

The month when the most projects are started? January. Though that could be all the crafters who have “use Ravelry better” as one of their new year’s resolutions.

The exception to that was the spring of 2020, when more people took up yarn crafts, are were probably making more, when they were home during the pandemic.

The month projects are most likely to be finished? December. Probably a combination of holiday crafting and “I’ve got to finish this before the end of the year!”

The data showed that projects started in the summer (in the Northern Hemisphere) tend to take the longest. Because who wants to work with yarn in this heat?

But what kinds of projects are we making at different times of year? Again this is crochet, but I imagine it’s similar for knitters:

Blankets are most popular in January
Tops and bags are started most in the summer months
People start making hats in August
September is when scarves become popular
More people are making sweaters in October

They also looked at the projects most likely to remain unfinished and found that more than half of the crochet coat and jacket projects listed as started on Ravelry haven’t been finished. But people who use Ravelry to keep track of their projects are, in general, finishers: 75 percent of all projects on Ravelry have been completed.

This is not my life. I use Ravelry as a project tracker in fits and starts and have plenty of projects that look abandoned because I never bothered to update them.

What about you? Do you use Ravelry to keep track of projects? How good are you at keeping up with it? Do you agree with these notions of what’s popular each month?

If you want to look at the article I’ve got a gift link for you here.

[Photo via The Washington Post.]

Next Pattern:

I hadn’t heard of Laura Sebastian’s fantasy series Castles in Their Bones until I stumbled upon Mary P. Hunt’s knitting patterns inspired by the series, but if you’re already a fan (of this series in particular or fantasy in general) you’re sure to enjoy these designs.

The book series, in case you’re curious, follows triplet princesses who each marry a prince on their 16th birthday as part of their mother’s master plan to take over the whole continent of Vesteria. (Thanks, GoodReads!)

I don’t know how I found the (all these links ahead are to Ravelry, FYI) Star-Touched Hat knitting pattern, but it was the first one I saw. There’s also a coordinating cowl and mittens if you want to complete the full set.

All of them prominently feature stars and have a sort of Art Deco feel. They call for DK weight yarn in two colors, so you could make them all to match or use different colors for each.

The hat comes in five sizes, ranging in circumference from 18.5 to 22.3 inches (or 47 to 57 cm). It can be worked with a short brim or a folded brim.

The mittens come in small and large adult sizes, with extended sizes for both (more length is included in the extended sizes). These feature a cool Latvian braid at the top of the cuff, which is a fun skill to learn.

And the cowl is one size, on the smaller side as cowls go, measuring about 13.5 inches/34.5 cm tall and 26 inches/66 cm around.

The designer suggests you can hold a bit of metallic thread along with your yarn to give it more of a sparkly, regal, celestial feel, but that’s totally up to you!

As mentioned above you can get all of these patterns on Ravelry. As of this writing there doesn’t seem to be a discount from buying all three, but maybe that will change.

[Photo: Mary P. Hunt]

Next Pattern:

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