Happy New Year and All that Jazz
Not quite the year in review, but an end-of-year wrap-up, and some thoughts on this coming year. My final finished (sort of - they are both halves of pairs....) objects for 2007 are the awesome Snail Mittens from The Book of Yarn, and the first of the Marie Antoinette socks, part of a slow-going KAL with Miss Max.
The Marie Antoinette pattern - well, it's just lovely! the pick-up loopy-bits along the back of the foot and the back of the heel are funfunfun to work, the yarn is wonderful, the color is great. I stupidly misread a portion of the pattern and didn't notice until some 60 rows later, so I've almost knit 2 socks already what with the tearing out and the re-knitting. I finished this lovely with about 5 hours to spare of 2007. While Max is completing Joelle's Favorite Yoke Sweater, I knit up sock number The First. I'll put the other one aside until Max is ready to take a shot at it, and there begin the knit-along portion of this project. Anyone else care to join us?
And because I am so good at procrastinating the proper Christmas projects that I had planned, I started up on these mitts a few days before Christmas. I managed to complete this one (these lovelies will be a gift for Miss Amy) using Baby Ull and US1s - they were a blast! And went so quickly.
Here I am modelling one of them - the only completed one thus far. These puppies are double-thick throughout - the other side looks like a fish belly of red and grey stripes. They are super duper warm and comfy.
But for the New Year! As mentioned in a previous post, Miss Max and I had been toying with the idea of a year of Knitting From the Stash. And here we are in a new year........
With minimal discussion, the following decisions were made concerning this venture:
∙ knit exclusively from our stash for 2008
∙ all bets are off for Rhinebeck (stash re-acquisition) and/or Taos.
∙ should some yarn *need* to be purchased for the completion of a project, the yarn purchased cannot exceed the yarn in the stash, i.e. I cannot purchase 9 balls of yarn to accompany the 1 ball that I already have in order to make a sweater.
∙ gift yarn is fine, as well as gift certificates.
∙ if all stash is eliminated, new stash can then be acquired. (HA!)
I'll also mention that I plan on remaining in my 2 fiber-of-the-month clubs, so I will be slowly creating more stash through the course of the year. When I get my act together - hopefully this week! - I'll have all of this stash business sorted out in my Ravelry, so as to be able to really track this to-do.
Oh! I also plan on rewarding myself a wee bit for a job (jobs?) well done - a little bit of Stash for Cash. For every ball of yarn eliminated from stash, for every finished object, for every ounce of newly spun fiber, I'll throw some money at the knitting kitty. Stash can also be traded or sold - any funds acquired through selling of stash will also go towards future fiber-related ventures. Ultimately for more yarn. Or a new wheel ;)
