Sunday, January 04, 2009

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!

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:19 PM

    Ooh, I really like that "pick a number" idea. It would make working on a boring, forgotten project a bit more exciting.

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  2. You may have some ambitious goals, but you have some great plans for accomplishing them. Gooooo you!

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  3. So excited to see all this this year. I was thinking of not planning too much this year, but it's really not going well . . .

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  4. All of that plus having a baby?! Dang. I am such a slacker.

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  5. I think I've written this before, but you're a knitting machine.

    It's worth it checking on your blog just to see your little "avatar" of "the bug." There's nothing as fun as a baby laughing.

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  6. Holy crap you are productive! Those are some good sock patterns you've picked out - looking forward to seeing them knit up :)

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