Fearless Knitters

I loved the recent Knitting Daily posts (here and here) about fearless knitting. Sandi asked four questions she thinks all knitters should ask themselves:

"Was the knitting I did the kind of knitting I REALLY wanted to do? Was I happy with the finished projects? Did the knitting end up looking as good as I'd hoped it would? Did I, in fact, Knit Fearlessly?"

For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the projects I completed last year. I even tackled some new techniques like socks and mittens on dpns. But did I really knit fearlessly? Can I do better this year?

I can. Item one: Toe-up socks.

The first toe-up sock pattern (that I might actually finish) is a modified Diamante, with yarn-overs instead of M1 increases. (I wanted lacy socks.) I've long wanted to just knit and knit and knit a sock until I get to the end of the yarn, instead of stopping short out of fear of running out. But how to cast on? What happens when I get to the gusset? Here's a hint - you can find instructions for any technique if you really want to try something new.

Item two: Sweater in the round.

The long awaited Jimmy Neutron sweater is done, minus its duplicate-stitch atom motif. This sweater is version 2, in fact. The cheap acrylic I used on the first one betrayed me in a viscious manner after knitting the entire body. Frogged. Redone in Wool-Ease. (Yes, cheap wool/acrylic blend, but this time I matched the dye lot!) The whole thing is in the round and the bound-off edge can be undone and reknit as Boy1 grows. (That's the idea anyway.) I'll post more detail on what I did when it's finished.

Item three: Dyeing yarn.

Celena dyed the yarn for my Diamante socks. But I want to dye yarn like that. Time to step up to real dyes.

Item four: New camera.

Hubs bought me a new camera for our recent anniversary, so I have lots of bells and whistles to figure out, starting with installing the software so I can actually show you some of this stuff.

How are you being fearless this year?