12 Months; 12 Projects

Here at last in, August 2026, is my round-up post for my 2025 knitting projects. I had a reasonably productive knitting year in 2025, and got twelve projects done, but I did not get around to writing about them until recently, my writing time of late being very much taken up by writing a book which is to be published in September 2026. However, the post is ready at last, and let's take a walk down my 2025 knitting lane. 

 

 

My grandniece Cauliflower turned 16 in the summer of 2025. She's at the age where she's more or less full grown and may be wearing the sweaters I make her for some years to come instead of growing out of them in a year or two. She's also gotten to an age at which she wants to pick out her own clothes. However, I still want to make her sweaters for a few more years yet, so I play it safe by gravitating towards classic designs when picking out a pattern for her annual birthday gift. Even the pickiest people with the most specific tastes don't tend to object to a gift of classic knitwear.

When I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern for Cauliflower's birthday present, I came across the Holly design you see pictured above, from Marie Amelie Designs. It's simple, wearable, and flattering, with a nice bit of texture to give it some distinction. 

As for the yarn, I visited Romni Wools during Boxing Week 2024 to see what they had. In 2024 Romni Wools was forced to close their main store on Queen Street where they'd been for decades because the rent had gotten too high to make the location financially viable, and now their only Toronto location is their Weston Road store. It's much smaller than the Queen Street store, so Romni Wools' selection is now far less than what it was. When I looked for a machine washable DK wool for this sweater, I only really had one brand to choose from -- Garnstudio Drops Karisma -- and not a lot of colour selection. I ruled out the blue yarns, because Cauliflower's 15th birthday present sweater was blue. I ruled out pink, as Cauliflower hasn't liked pink in years. I ruled out some other colours as being too drab or unflattering or unattractive, and that left me purchasing 450 grams in shade 39, "Dark Old Rose", which I think is more of a plum, and hoping Cauliflower would like it.

The completed sweater. I think it turned out quite well, though I'm afraid I might have gotten the sleeves a little long. I followed the pattern's directions exactly, and it seems I should not have. But it will otherwise look nice on Cauliflower -- I just hope she thinks it does!

This project added 14 grams of yarn to my stash. 

 

 

 

For some years prior to 2024, my father kept mentioning wanting to buy me some alpaca yarn from Alpaca Time, a little alpaca farm, mill, and yarn store located in Harriston, Ontario, where Dad's favourite cousin's son's wife worked until her retirement in August 2024. Dad is fascinated with knitting and takes an especial interest in different kinds of yarn, in much the same way as he likes using as many different kinds of wood for his woodworking projects as possible. When he and my mother travelled to the Yukon back in the early 2000s, he brought me back some Qiviut yarn. He wanted the two of us to go to Alpaca Time together, but we never got around to it on my occasional visits to my parents' place. Finally in August 2024 he and my sister went there together to carry out the mission.

 

Dad bought the three hanks of yarn you see above, then gave them to me for my 51st birthday the following week. (Along with five bags of sawdust, which you shall hear about in a later post.) There was no fibre content or gauge information on these hanks, but they're fingering weight, and judging from the yarn products listed on the Alpaca Time website, they could be 100% alpaca, or 85% alpaca and 15% bamboo, or 90% alpaca and 10% nylon. The skeins were 113 grams each, for a total of 339 grams. This was a little on the low side for me to make a sweater of (a fingering weight sweater in my size usually takes about 380 grams), and when I searched Ravelry for suitable patterns that evening, I had to rule out a number of patterns because they would take more yarn than I had. I toyed with the idea of adding a second yarn, but decided that I preferred this sweater to be a solid neutral tone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some pattern browsing, I narrowed my choices down to three, and then selected the Aptenia pattern, designed by Coraline Kerisit, that you see depicted above. I didn't know the yardage of my skeins of yarn, but looked through the pattern pages of other site members who had made the Aptenia design, and it seemed to me I would have enough. I set happily to work on it in early September with the idea of getting the sweater done long before Christmas, so that my father would get to see me wear it during my holiday visit to my parents' place. 

I hardly ever have gauge problems, and as a rule I don't bother to swatch. But I had gauge problems with this one pattern. The yoke turned out huge, and I had to redo it several times, ripping it out, cutting down the number of repeats on the second take, finding the yoke still too big, and then ripping it back and cutting down more repeats. On my third attempt I found the yoke still a bit on the big side, but decided to leave it the way it was. Then I had problems with the gauge on the body. At one point I made a swatch, but my work didn't seem to knit to gauge even after that. Finally I finished the body, weighed the remaining yarn because I was concerned I was going to run short of yarn for the sleeves, knitted one sleeve and weighed the remaining yarn again... and found I was going to run 20 grams short for the second sleeve. I should have made sure that yoke was exactly the width it was supposed to be. I've done plenty of ripping out in my knitting life and have gotten quite hardened to the necessity of it, but I don't think I've ever found it harder to rip out a piece of work. I must have worked on that sweater for six weeks, and it was lovely. 

Back to Ravelry I went to pick out a second pattern. This time I looked at designs that involved two colours, with the idea that once I picked one out, I'd go shopping for a second coordinating yarn to piece out the fawn alpaca. (I did check my stash but didn't find anything suitable.) I didn't so much pick out another pattern as get a concept for another design. I got the idea of making a sweater that would have a flat collar, buttoned placket, cuffs, and waistband that was striped in the fawn and a coordinating colour, which I intended to design myself. I went to Michaels to see what kind of contrast yarn they might have, and purchased a skein of Patons Kroy Socks FX in Clover Colors, which is a variegated fingering. I thought the extra 50 grams plus the alpaca would surely be sufficient yarn for that sweater, and if not, I could buy a second skein of the Patons Kroy and make longer cuffs or something. I also bought some buttons for the placket.

I began again, and made the body of the sweater, knitted in the placket and the flat collar, then began knitting the first sleeve... and discovered that I was, again, going to run short of the fawn yarn. I think the problem was that I knitted the body in too small a gauge, and it consequently soaked up more yarn than necessary. Oh, these misguided misadventures in knitting! It is to laugh! It is to stab oneself in the eye with a knitting needle!

 

But there was nothing for it but to go back to Ravelry again, and pick out another design. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time I zeroed in on Lea, by Marzena Kolaczek, as pictured above. It was one of the three original patterns I had been considering the evening of my birthday celebration. The amount of fawn alpaca yarn I had should have been more than enough to make this sweater, but by this time I was so paranoid about running short again that I decided I'd use the Kroy sock yarn to do the yoke in order to be absolutely certain I could finish this third take.

And here's take three, finally finished. I had to go back to Michaels and buy another skein of the Patons Kroy Socks FX to have enough for the yoke. Ultimately, I used an extra 90 grams of the contrast variegated fingering, and then had 88 grams of the fawn alpaca left... which means I could probably have done this entire sweater in the alpaca, as I made the sleeves slightly longer than necessary. Again, this sweater was one of the three patterns I picked out originally, so if I'd just decided on this pattern in the first place, I could spared myself a lot of extra work and frustration, not to mention the expense of two extra skeins of yarn, an extra pattern, and buttons I now have no use for.

But I mustn't dwell on that, as it leaves me feeling stabby. I do like the result, and while that first all-fawn sweater would have been lovely, this version is probably more flattering on me, as that fawn colour isn't so great next to my face. I'm very pale, and look better in a rich, warm colour than I do in light neutrals. This skirt doesn't quite go with the tartan wool skirt you see here, but it will go with jeans and olive khakis. I just had to have something to pair the sweater with that would go on my dress form. 

I have 88 grams of the fawn left, and 10 grams of the Patons Kroy variegated. I'm thinking socks... but at some indefinite point down the road, as my experience with the alpaca yarn has left me a little too battle-scarred to work with it again for the time being. 

 

 

 

 

In 2018, I knitted myself a cardigan from some dusty rose worsted I had on hand in what was supposed to be a size 40 but was actually much smaller than that. I never wore it because it was just too snug on me to be wearable. The gauge wasn't what it should have been, and the front was smaller than the back, sigh. I toyed with the idea of fixing the cardigan for some years, and ultimately decided to take it apart and knit a completely different sweater, as I've realized that I don't like cardigans that much. I had not only the yarn from the cardigan but also 98 grams of the old rose yarn left in my stash, so I had no worries about running out of yarn. I searched Ravelry for a suitable pullover pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

The pattern I settled on was Mrs. Grimmet's Pullover, designed by Carol Sunday. It looked to me like a very satisfyingly comfortable and good-looking sweater, the kind of thing one can throw on for either downtime at home, for running errands, or for a trip to the park. 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished pullover, which I knitted in a size 39 in March 2025. It turned out smaller than I would have liked (I notice that other Ravelry users who have made this sweater complained about it turning out to be smaller than what they were aiming for), but while it's not the relaxed fit I had wanted, it's still a good fit. 

The most memorable thing about this project for me is that it introduced (and immediately converted) me to the sewn bind-off technique. For some years, I'd been using the "yarn over" stretchy bind-off technique, in which one wraps the yarn around the knitting needle before each stitch. The resulting bind off did create a very stretchy edge, but I was never really happy with it because it looked so untidy. For this project I tried out the sewn bind-off technique, and was immediately sold on it. It's just as stretchy as the yarn over method, and it looks so nice and neat. I've used it on nearly every knitting project I've done since. 

This project used all the yarn I was able to salvage when I took apart the cardigan (there were some ragged scraps of yarn that had to go in the garbage), and also 22 grams of my stash old rose worsted, so that's a net stash decrease of 22 grams for this project.  

 

 

 

 

My sister Alanna loves the TV show Supernatural. In 2023, I came up with the idea of making a Supernatural fan girl kit for Alanna for Christmas, which would consist of the official cookbook for the show, and some crafts that I would make for her: a painted box, a painted mug, and some bottle cap fridge magnets. I didn't get it done that year. In 2024, when I again intended to get the fan girl project done for Christmas of that year, I discovered that there was a Supernatural knitting pattern in the Ravelry database that I wanted to make: the Winchester Plaid Anti-Possession Mittens, designed by Kathy Lewinski. I thought it was just as well that the gift was delayed as it would be better to include the mittens with the other four items. I had some gray and black fingering yarn that would be perfect for them, and they would go quite well with the black capelet I had already made for Alanna for Christmas 2024.  

 

I began working on the mittens in October 2024 with the idea of having them done by Christmas. Then it turned out I had the hardest time getting gauge that I've ever had. Usually I don't have issues with that at all, my gauge being exactly what the pattern and/or the yarn skein band says it should be. Alanna has large hands for a woman, so initially I thought I'd knit them on larger needles than the pattern called for, aiming to make them a men's small instead of a women's medium. I began work, and three inches in found the pattern was way too large. I switched down a needle size, and knitted another three inches. Still too big. I began again with the pattern recommended size of 2.25 mm. Again too big, and again I ripped out what I'd done and began again with 2 mm DPNS, the smallest size I own. Guess what? Still quite a bit bigger than the pattern gauge. And this isn't a pattern I could adjust for width, as the anti-possession symbol takes up the entire width of the mitten. 

 

In retrospect I should have bought a set of 1.75 mm or even 1.5 mm DPNS, but instead I just adjusted the design as much as I could, shortening them considerably by doing only two repeats of the fair isle pattern before the thumb instead of four as the pattern calls for, and narrowing them by a stitch or two on each side. They weren't much too wide for me when I tried them on, and Alanna has larger hands than me, so I thought they wouldn't be such a bad fit. Another complication was that I ran short of black yarn and could not get more of the same brand, though that at least wasn't a big deal as I was able to get a skein of nearly identical black fingering, and in a project like this the switch would not be discernible at all. 

 

But, between all my futzing around with different needle sizes and the fact that a chart-intensive, fine-gauge project like this is slow-going work at the best of times, Christmas 2024 found the mittens unfinished (though to be honest, so were the other three items I planned to make for the kit). I had the capelet I'd knitted for her and a number of awesome stocking stuffers all ready to give Alanna, so she was not deprived, and I again kicked the can down the road to Christmas 2025. 

 

I finally finished these mittens in June 2025 (and ultimately finished the other items in the fangirl kit in time for Christmas 2025). They're not so bad. I do wish I'd thought of sizing down the thumbs by narrowing the hole for them, but by the time I realized they were too big both the mittens were all done but the thumbs, and after all the ripping out I'd already done, I was not ripping two-thirds of the mittens out. Perhaps if Alanna wears these out I'll make her a better-fitting replacement pair. 

 

This project used up 34 grams of gray and 22 grams of black stash fingering, and I had 43 grams of newly purchased black fingering left when I was done, so that's a net stash decrease of -13 grams.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the time came to plan my grandnephew Bug's 12th birthday present, I began as always by searching Ravelry for a suitable pattern.

 

 

 

 

For the first time in Bug's life, I found myself having to search the men's patterns for a suitable sweater for him. While this gave me some of those "how is he this big already" qualms, it did open up my options (there just aren't that many patterns for older boys), and the design I chose was 208-3 Reykjavik from Drops. It's a free pattern. As to the yarn, I went to Romni Wools here in Toronto and bought 400 grams of Drops Karisma yarn in Blue Turquoise, and 150 grams of Off White. 

 

 

 

 

As best as I can recall given that I'm writing these words about fifteen months after finishing the sweater, this project knitted up with no problems. This was definitely not my favourite project ever, but it's okay. It's serviceable and wearable enough, and blue is Bug's colour.  

 

 

 

 

I did rather enjoy that this design is nearly reversible. 

 

I had 30 grams of the blue yarn and 14 grams of the ivory yarn left over, which was a net stash increase of 44 grams for this project. 

 

 

 

 

When I was planning my honorary niece Olivia's Christmas 2025 present, the plan began with a sweater.

 

 

 

 

I searched Ravelry for a good pattern, and ended up deciding on one I had made before: s34-7 Daisy Delight, by Drops. My first go at this pattern was in 2021, when I made the sweater and cap for my grandniece Cauliflower. I'd been really pleased with the design at the time and it seemed like the best possible pick for Olivia's 2025 Christmas sweater. This time, I envisioned the sweater in red rather than in the old rose I used the first time. I purchased 400 grams of Drops Karisma in Weinrot (or what I would call a burgundy red) at Romni Wools, and found some small amounts of cream and green DK yarn in my stash for the daisies and their centres. 

 

 

 

 

Here's the sweater in a size 9/10. As I remember, it knitted up quickly with no problems, and I liked the red, which was both pretty in itself and would flatter Olivia, who has brown hair, hazel eyes, and pale, slightly olive-tinged colouring. 

 

 

 

 

I made the hat as well, and it was a quick easy project. As for the rest of the gift, I bought a thrift shop copy of Bernice Thurman Hunter's Booky trilogy (which I enjoyed reading as a kid), and then bought a bracelet weaving kit, set of temporary tattoo markers, and a tri-pack of flavoured lip balms at Dollarama, and shipped them all off to Olivia before Christmas. According to her mother, Olivia was very pleased with everything and began balming, tattooing, and weaving at once.  

Once I was finished this sweater and hat, I had just 7 grams left of the newly purchased red yarn, and I used 20 grams of the cream and 3 grams of the green stash yarn, so that was a net stash decrease of 16 grams for this project. 

 

 

 

 

 

For my grandnephew Sawyer's Christmas 2025 project, I didn't have to look too far for a sweater pattern.

 

 

 

 

I quickly decided to go with the Sverrigsgade pattern, designed by Sanne Bjerregaard. I'd used this pattern before, when knitting my honorary niece Olivia's Christmas 2022 sweater. It is quite a nice design, but the real selling point was that I'd been able to make it entirely out of stash yarn. For Sawyer's version, I didn't have enough of any colour yarn to use for the background colour of this sweater, but I had some DK yarns that would work for almost all the contrast colours. I made a sampler of wine, sage green, heather green, dark green, and cream yarn scraps and took it with me when I went to Romni Wools to look for a coordinating main colour and one of the contrast colours. I purchased 200 grams of Wendy With Wool DK in Biscuit and 100 grams of Drops Karisma in Orange (or what I would describe as a rust). 

 

 

 

 

The completed pullover in a size 4. It's not bad. I had to get creative with the contrast colours and use more of them than the pattern called for in order to be able to finish the sweater with the yarn I had, which affected the cohesion of the total look more than I liked.

 

 

 

I bought a toy truck from Dollarama to complete the gift, figuring that a boy who was two months shy of four was not going to be too interested in a new sweater, and Sawyer has been obsessed with vehicles and tools since before he could walk. All the interactions I had with Sawyer on Christmas Day 2025 were vehicle-themed, because Sawyer ignores everything else as irrelevant. When he was playing with the train set my sister-in-law had set up to run around the Christmas tree, I said to him, "The train is going to run over your toes and cut them off, Sawyer," and nudged his foot off the track with one of mine. He took that as his cue to repeatedly and joyously kick me in the leg, which as I told him, was not a nice way to treat his aged and decrepit great-aunt. 

At any rate, I could be sure the truck would be well-received. And it was. When Sawyer unwrapped his gift, he wasn't able to open the box the truck came in by himself, and so took the two items over to his father, my nephew Luke. So far as I can recall, the conversation went as follows. 

Luke: Oh, you got a crane truck. And a nice warm sweater. Here, put on the sweater.

Sawyer: Can you open the box?

Luke: Put on the sweater!

Sawyer: No!

Luke: Put on the sweater and I'll open the box for you.

Sawyer: [put on the sweater] 

Sawyer didn't wear his pullover for more than five or six minutes, but he was not to blame for that. The house was warm and he was running around so much that he must have found it too hot. I did get to see him wear the sweater for those few minutes, and it fit well and really suited his colouring of brown hair, greenish-brown eyes, and fair skin. 

I'll have to be sure to select a vehicle-themed design for Sawyer's Christmas 2026 gift. He might be able to open his own toy boxes by next year, and then what leverage will his father have for getting Sawyer to wear his sweater? 

When I finished this sweater, I had 23 grams of the biscuit and 6 grams of the rust yarns left. I used up 31 grams of the wine yarn, 21 grams of sage, 16 grams of dark green, 12 grams of heather, and 10 grams of cream. That's a net stash decrease of 61 grams for this project.  

 

 

 

 

In late 2024, when I was planning my knitting projects for 2025, I searched the Ravelry database for a pattern that would suitable for my grandniece Holly's Christmas 2025 dress. 

 

 

 

 

I soon decided to go with the Seamless Flower Dress, designed by Ewelina Murach. Back in 2016, I used this design to make a dress for my grandniece Cauliflower, and I had really liked the pattern. As for the yarn, I purchased 300 grams of Garnstudio Drops Karisma in Rose. I would have gone with a red this time, but Romni Wools didn't have a nice red DK in stock at the time. No matter, as this is definitely a dress that looks pretty in pink. And it turns out that Holly really likes pink. 

 

 

 

 

The dress, which I made in a size 2, knitted up without any issues. (That is, none that I can recall well over a year after finishing it.) I did remember that I didn't like the lacy effect of the lines leading to the floral design on the front when I made Cauliflower's dress, so this time around I knitted those stitches in a way that didn't leave holes. 

 

 

 

 

I didn't have a pink button that was the right shade to work on the back neckline of the dress, so I used this odd white one. It's actually one I found in my backyard garden years ago, where it must have been lying among the soil for decades. It wasn't at all damaged or worn, so I brought it into the house, scrubbed it up, and tossed into my button tin, figuring it would come in handy at some point. It has a slightly iridescent cast to it that made it work pretty well with the pink of this dress. 

 

 

 

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you'll know that my rule is that when I make a little girl's dress, there must also be a purse made to match. For this one, I used the Squircle purse pattern that I have used many times before. The purse looked a little plain, so I made a little rosette and tacked it on. I should have looked harder for a nice rosette pattern, because this one looks too rough and ready.  

 

 

 

When I make a Squircle purse, I always cut a round piece of stiff interfacing to fit into the bottom, then knit a second bottom piece and stitch it in place over the interfacing. The purse will then sit upright on its bottom instead of just flopping over. I ran a little short of the rose-coloured yarn I had bought for this dress, so when it came time to knit the bottom insert, I knitted it in some cream yarn I had on hand. 

I had so little of the rose-coloured yarn left when I finished this project that the small amount of cream stash yarn I used for the purse bottom insert and centre of the rosette more than offset it, leaving me with a net stash decrease of -10 grams for this project.  

 

 

 

 

Of late years, I've been trying to avoid making myself any new knitted tams, given that I have seven of them. But in 2025, I began thinking about how I didn't have a hat that worked with a certain scarf that I have. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scarf, which you see depicted above, is one I bought from a Salvation Army thrift shop here in Toronto in 2002 for $2. It's made of a floral print copper-coloured velvet on one side with a dark red velvet and three brass buttons on the other side. Velvet scarves like this one were a trend in the late nineties. They don't seem to be in style now but I don't care. As far as I am concerned, a beautiful, useful item like this is always in style. I've gotten many compliments on this scarf, and after all these years it's still in nearly perfect condition.  

 

But none of my hats looked quite right with this scarf. I decided I wanted a hat that would coordinate with it, and also work with my quilted velvet olive jacket and olive wool overcoat (which were also purchased at Toronto thrift shops in the early 2000s, for $17 and $8 respectively) that I usually pair with this scarf. So, I let myself make just one more hat. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern and came up with the Lacy Swirls Hat, by Ann Regis. Then I shopped around for yarn that would work with the scarf. That was a longer and more time-consuming search, which I had to conduct in person, taking the scarf along with me for comparison. I should have been sensible and selected a superwash DK, but when I saw some gorgeous skeins of  Sandnes Garn Tynn Silk Mohair in a rich copper colour in Toronto's Eweknit yarn store, my raging mohair fetish got the better of me and I bought two skeins of it. 

  

 

 

 

The finished hat. I made some modifications to the pattern. The pattern called for two colours and I just used one. It called for a DK, and I had bought a lace weight. I used two strands of the Tynn and 4.5 mm needles to knit this hat, which got me close to the gauge the design called for. The pattern also called for a plain ribbed brim. My vision for this hat involved putting three decorative brass buttons on it. I won't usually put non-functional closures on an item because that tends to cheapen the look, but in this case I had some crested brass buttons in my button tin that would look so nice on this particular hat, and I also thought they would make the hat and scarf look more in accord. I consulted my knitting library to find a suitable cable pattern, with the idea that the buttons would look more integrated into the design if I could sew them the cables. 

I consulted all the knitting stitch books in my knitting library, and ultimately selected edging no. 222 (p. 118) from the Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible, by Hitomi Shida. I just had to cast on 96 stitches instead of the 90 the pattern called for to make the brim cable repeats work out evenly, and then increase to 99 stitches for the body of the hat. 

 

 

 

 

 

The hat is beautiful, and goes quite well with my treasured velvet scarf, but... it's not very warm at all. And now I'm planning another, much warmer, sewn hat in a butterscotch colour (which I hope to make out of a thrifted, felted sweater) that I can wear with my olive green coats and the velvet scarf. I'll just have to try to take enough pleasure in my lovely new hats that I can forget that my hat moratorium is in tatters.  

There was just 16 grams of the newly purchased yarn when I finished this project, so that's a stash increase of 16 grams. 

 

 

  

For my honorary niece Olivia's seventh birthday in 2023, I made her a knitted doll and a wardrobe of seven outfits. Since then, I have been giving Olivia one doll outfit per birthday to freshen her baby's wardrobe. I decided I would stop doing this after Olivia turned ten. Ten outfits is a good array of clothing for a doll, and Olivia will soon be too old for dolls anyway. The choice for final outfit, which Olivia would receive for her tenth birthday in May 2026, was easy. The Raincoat outfit by Sarah Gasson, which you see above, is adorable, and how could I not make a rainy day outfit for a doll named Rainbow Sparkle Unicorn-Animals?  

I decided to make the outfit in just yellow and red, as I thought I'd prefer the look and it also cut down the expense a little. I purchased four skeins of Patons Astra for this project: three in Maize Yellow and one in Cardinal. I also had a little left of each of these two yarns in my stash: 9 grams of the yellow and 17 grams of the red.  

 

 

The completed rainy day outfit. I had some trouble finding wooden toggles for the raincoat. Eventually I settled for these, which are slightly smaller than they are supposed to be, and not quite the same style as those used in the sample photo. I adjusted the design a little to make them work. And I never did get around to looking for one of the cute doll-size toy umbrellas that are in the design's sample photo, but I suspect I wouldn't be able to find one anyway. 

When I finished this project, I was left with 15 grams of yellow and 18 grams of red yarn, or a +7 stash increase. And now that Rainbow is fully furnished with clothes and Olivia is on the verge of outgrowing dolls, that does it for my knitting of doll outfits, right? Well, no, because since I planned Olivia's doll and wardrobe for her, another little girl has shown up in my life. I think my grandniece Holly should have a knitted doll that looks like her with a ten-outfit wardrobe too. So here we go again!

 

 

 

   

 

 

I'm going to be using almost all the same patterns for Holly's doll that I did for Olivia's. I think there will be just two substitutions, though there *might* be more if Sarah Gasson comes out with any irresistible new designs. I came up with a four-year plan to get this project done: to knit two outfits in 2025, to knit the doll and two more outfits in 2026, and to knit three outfits a year in 2027 and 2028. Who knows if I'll actually be able to stick to this plan, but at least the 2025 component of it went well. 

The first two outfits I made for this second doll (I'm going to give her the provisional name of Ivy, although of course Holly will be naming her own doll when she gets it) were the Flower Pinafore and Ballerina outfits you see above, both designed by Sarah Gasson. 

When I looked through my stash to see what I had that might work for these two outfits, I found 68 grams of Loops & Threads Luxe Merino in Bridal Pink (it was actually yarn I had left over from the baby blanket and booties I made for Holly when she was born), and 149 grams of Loops & Threads Meandering in Dark Salmon that I thought would work for the pinafore and ballerina outfits respectively. Then I purchased a 150 gram skein of Loops & Threads Luxe Merino in Avocado and a second skein of the same yarn in White.  

 

 

 

 

The completed pinafore outfit. I didn't modify the pattern in any way as it's so cute exactly as it is. I even knitted it in similar colours to those used in the sample because I like the combination of pink and green. 

 

 

 

 

The ballerina outfit, which again is knitted in a pink and green colour scheme. Holly will be able to mix and match the pieces from these two outfits. I made just one change to this pattern. 

 

 

 

When I made this ballerina outfit for Olivia, I really wasn't happy with the look of the flower on the headband, and then as I said above, I wasn't happy with the little rosette pattern I used on Holly's Christmas 2025 purse. For this project, I hunted for a nice rosette pattern to use instead, eventually selecting the Rose flower design by Sammy Bristow. When I got the rosette made and wasn't satisfied with the way it looked on the headband by itself, I found a leaf pattern (designed by Linda Cyr) so I could put a leaf on each side of the rosette. I was very satisfied with this rosette pattern and will definitely keep it in mind for future projects.  

When I finished these two projects, I had so little of the 68 grams of Bridal Rose yarn left that it didn't register on the scale, and I'd used up 96 grams of the Dark Salmon. As for the newly purchased yarns, I had 51 grams of the Avocado and 115 grams of the White left. This left me with a net stash increase of +2 grams.   

Now that we've had a look at all twelve of my 2025 projects, it's time to do the math and see whether I added to or whittled down my stash this year. Here are the numbers in a convenient list form:

 

Cauliflower's sweater: +14 grams

alpaca sweater: +98 grams 

old rose pullover: -22 grams

Supernatural mittens: -13 grams

Bug's sweater: + 44 grams

Olivia's sweater: -16 grams

Sawyer's sweater: -61 grams

Holly's dress & purse: -10 grams

butterscotch tam: +16 grams 

Rainbow's outfit: +7 grams

Ivy's two outfits: +2 grams

 

And the net result is....  a +59 gram increase. Crap. In the years since I've been keeping track, I have had a net stash decrease most years. In my defense, I will say that the main culprit of 2025 seems to be the alpaca pullover, and the yarn for that was given to me, with my having to buy a second contrast yarn for it. 

I'll just have to hope that the 2026 numbers will shake down a bit better than this. And to bear in mind that while I would like to whittle down my stash somewhat, I do have a relatively modest stash as it is, and the main point of my tracking my yarn stash decreases and increases for each project and annually is to keep myself mindful of how much yarn I buy and whether I use it.