Looking forward and looking back

It's that time of year again - looking at where I've been and where I'm going. First, a look back at 2008:

I knit the following things:

5 sweaters

10 pairs of socks

7 scarves

3 blankets

2 toys

2 adult hats

3 pairs of slippers

2 ornaments

1 shawl

2 dish/wash cloths

1 pair fingerless gloves

1 shrug 

and 34! baby items!

It's easy to see where my priorities where in my knitting last year! 

I wanted to knit from these books:

Kid's Knits -Heads Hands and Toes - done - Teddy Bear Hood, Inca Hat, Duck Hat, Ladybug Hat

Jo Sharp Knit Issue 1 - started - shawl collar sweater

Ella Rae Book 7 - not done

Handknit Holidays - done - Snowy Triangle Scarf

Greetings from the Knit Cafe - not done

Knit 2 Together - done - slippers

Folk Mittens - not done

Vintage Knits - done - Salina

Favorite Socks - done - Embossed Leaves

Knitting Vintage socks - done - Child's First Sock

Opinionated Knitter - done - Baby Surprise Jacket

Knitter's Almanac - done - February Baby Sweater

Pretty good! 

In keeping with this theme, I've found these books I'd like to knit from this year:

Treasury of Rowan Knits - Carpenter

Vintage Knits (Sarah Dallas) - short sleeved striped sweater

Adorable Knits for Tots - hearts and stars blanket

Special Knits - ribbed baby jacket

Celtic Knits - lace alpaca scarf

Simply Baby - pompom beret

Knitted Toys (McTague) - cheeky monkey

Itty Bitty Nursery - Flower Cardigan

Mason Dixon Outside the Lines - felted trees

Irresistible Gifts to Knit - Gnome

Street Smart (Patons) - cabled hoodie

I did not make my goal of reading my knitting books  - maybe I'll try that some this year. 

Let's look at the numbers - in January of 2007 I had 604 balls of yarn. In January 2008 I had 821 balls and 166,195 yards. This January I have 900 balls of yarn and 193, 453 yards. I used 97 balls and 17, 004 yards. To be fair to myself (and my efforts to knit up the stash) I did really go through and analyze and add a lot of partial balls to the stash. I also "inherited" some yarn - leftovers from The Bug's feet blanket and some leftovers from mom. Even so, I knit 11% of my stash. I knit almost 10 miles of yarn! That's pretty impressive, for feeling like I wasn't getting any knitting accomplished for much of the year. 

Obviously, I want to knit more from the stash this year. To accomplish that, I've set up some little "plans" for myself. 

I haven't officially joined NaKniSweMoDo (or whatever it's called), but I would like to knit 12 sweaters this year (same goal as last year). I've got several started (almost enough to count for all 12!), and I have a few gift sweaters to work on.

 

I have also bagged up a few small projects (yarn and patterns) and plan to pick one each month to knit up, to get some odd balls out of my stash. 

And I have 12 "plain" socks worth of yarn bagged up, some stuff I've been holding onto for a while that I want to be socks already! 

And I have my 12 "fancy" socks picked out. I'll be (hopefully) knitting these, in no particular order: 

Cider Moon - Bellatrix

Vesper - Groovy Socks

Jitterbug - Vinnland

Firebird (STR) - Firestarter

Chewy Spaghetti - Aquaphobia

Fleece Artist - Flicker

Malabrigo - Knitty Twist

Wollmeise - Brigit

Shibu - Conwy

Madelinetosh - Little Child's Sock

Zen Yarn Garden - Charade

Hazelknits - Hourglass

And then there's the laundry list of other things I want to knit, gifts and such, including stockings for the girls and sweaters for next winter for The Bug. 

One big thing I want to do is clear out the WIP pile. Some of these knits have been hanging around for over a year now, and they need to be finished! I ripped two sweaters (Ariann and Buttony) and both will be reborn, possibly this year. To work on other things, I've made a plan: I assigned a number to each project, and each  night I'll draw a number and work on that project for at least 30 minutes. I can work on any of them at any time, but this way they should all get worked on at least once a month. I've got 34 active WIPs (and a few that will stay hibernating for the near future), and I'd like to end the year with no more than 5 still on the needles (my sock yarn blanket is one that won't be finished this year for sure). 

As usual, I'm being way over ambitious about the number of things I can get done. But that's OK - shoot for the moon and all that. 

I'm off to get started! Wish me luck!