2009 Year in Review

Wow, what a lot of FOs this year! It is really freaky when you see the all put together like this. That's not even all of it. Look:



Shew. Now that's all of it, I think, except my mom's socks, the elusive FO #40. I can't BELIEVE I made forty things. FORTY THINGS! Many of them were fairly small, but still... OMG.

A couple of things I can see right off--my hair looks MUCH better short. Right? I can never get it past my shoulders because it just seems so heavy and thick at that point, but really? I shouldn't even bother. It looks great short, and sort of dumb longer. It's currently about chin length, and I think I'm going to leave it there until probably next March or so. Then I might just cut it all off again. We'll see. What fun!

Another thing--I knit a lot of baby things this year. A LOT. What is with the babies, people? I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Just because you get married does not mean that a year or so into it that you HAVE to have children. I know that most people do, but still. For anyone still on the fence? It's ok to say no. Or to opt out. It's really ok. It doesn't make you less of a loving couple if you don't choose to procreate. (At least that's what I keep reassuring myself.) Now that I've gotten that out of my system, other people's babies do give me the chance to knit fantastic little ensembles. And speaking of... I just got the news that YET ANOTHER coworker is pregnant. And guess what? I'm going to try to make that hat with the cross-stitch on it from the baby book I just reviewed.

What else? Oh, these projects are not in any particular order. I think they're vaguely chronological, but there is probably some mixed up every once in a while. Also, a lot of stash busting projects. The baby socks were all left overs from socks I made for adults. The orange scarf was from yarn I got at the first Stitch and Pitch. And yet there were a lot of projects made with yarn I bought in 2009 too. I don't know if that counts as stash, as the yarn wasn't there very long in some cases, but I guess I would say yeah, it would count as stash if you bought it with no project in mind and didn't use it right away. For example, the red and green cowls were both knit with yarn bought when the Point went out of business, and mom's socks (both pairs) were knit with yarn that was bought during visits this year. The light green cowl and hand warmers were knit from yarn bought on a business trip. In fact, a lot of that yarn was bought on business trips this past year--to Springfield, IL, Seattle and New Orleans. I'm just about to start projects with the yarn I bought in Denver this past October, so I have to say that the traveling does bring me into possession of quite a bit of yarn. However, I do think that my acquisition of yarn on travel has become more selective over the last year or so, and the stuff I'm ending up with is much better quality, and I do enjoy knitting with it.

2009 was obviously the year of the small project. I didn't really create too many garments. Just the three shrugs, two of which I haven't even managed to wear anywhere yet. They may end up being given away. I don't think I'm really a shrug person, for the most part. We'll see. But in 2010, I want to start knitting more sweaters. I'm really excited about that. I have yarn for a variety of garments--probably about 7 or 8 sweaters of various types. I think I was trying to do all these small projects in order to clear some room in the stash, but obviously that isn't working. One or two balls at a time is not enough. I need projects that eat 9 or 10 balls at a time, or more!

Just before Christmas, I went through the yarn stored in the living room, and took out some of the stuff I liked the best, or wanted to work with the most, and put everything else away in deep storage. I'm going to work through this stuff first, and then start with the sweaters. First up is some Koigu that I've had for years. I bought it because I loved the colors, and then... didn't use it. What is the use of storing yarn for later? One of my new year's resolutions is to work with the good stuff first. I also have my first two sweaters already planned. One is this one, and one is this one. After that, we'll have to re-evaluate. And I'm going to keep doing small projects too, just alongside the big ones, as travel knitting. I owe Spanky more socks, and I wanted to make my friend Jon in Denver a scarf. And there will be at least one shawl. I haven't done one of those in a while. Oh, and my knitting group might be doing its first knitalong in 2010. We're going to knit the Hemlock Ring Blanket. So lots going on in the new year. I'm pretty excited. This year, I'm hoping for quality over quantity, in everything I do. It's going to be a good year.