Hello 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope everyone had a good night however you chose to celebrate or ignore the passing of another year. I may have drunk more beer than I should and may have a slightly sore head today, just maybe.

I have high hopes for 2011 and ambitious knitting project plans as well as some new skills I hope to learn or improve on.

2011 Knitting Goals

1. Finish blasted cardigan of doom
2. Learn how to do colourwork (I've knit a little on my Christmas stockings but I want to do more and do it faster)
3. Design my own project (I got a "design your own knits" book last Christmas which I've flicked through but I haven't attempted to do it, I'll probably go for socks)
4. Knit 12 pairs of socks (got to have this one in there!)
5. Knit another adult sized garment from stashed yarn
6. Reduce stash (ha!)

Number 5 is where the ambitious project plans come in. My stash includes adult garment quantities of 5 different yarns and whilst I'm only making a goal of a second adult sized garment I'd rather like to attempt to knit 5 adult sized garments and use up these yarns.

Sirdar Peru - this is a chunky weight yarn so anything knit from this shouldn't take too long. I bought it from readicut for about £10 in one of their offers where you get cheap yarn but they pick the colour. Fortunately I got a lovely shade of purple and it will make a very warm jumper or cardigan, I've seen a possible pattern for this.

Rowan Luxury Cotton DK - this is possibly my most difficult yarn to find a pattern for, I have 12 balls so plenty and it's lovely soft yarn in a delicate light purple colour but I'm really not sure what possessed me to buy 12 balls of cotton. Well, I do know, it was cheap from Kemps! It's not really very me though. I don't own any clothing in this colour at all and I'm really not a summery clothes person. I am sure I'll find something suitable though.

Debbie Bliss Rialto Aran - this yarn is LOVELY. It's soft and squidgy and a gorgeous rich, deep pink. It's the only shade of pink I wear and was purchased in the John Lewis post-Christmas sale with the intention of knitting something wonderful last year. I need to make something with this! Also for fear if I don't knit it soon my mum will come and whip it out of my stash to knit herself. I have 12 balls of this.

Rowan Felted Tweed Aran - this was from my recent John Lewis yarn sale splurge and it's my most favouritest colour, green! A gorgeous sage green with little tweedy flecks, just wonderful. I bought 10 balls and am thinking February Lady Sweater which had been my original plan for the pink until I bought this.

Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply - a yarn actually bought with a project in mind! My latest copy of The Knitter has a lovely pattern called Nessa which is a seamless jumper with some simple colourwork on the yoke. I intend to practice colourwork on smaller projects first but the moment I saw this pattern I wanted to wear it which means knitting it! The pattern called for Fyberspates Scrumptious 4ply which would have cost about £65 which is just silly so I got this for much less in the John Lewis sale! I just hope I have enough...I just have got a 9th ball as I only got 8 though that should be enough.

For the colourwork I was thinking of combining the blue Rowan Pure Wool 4ply I got as part of my Rowan subscription which is a very pretty shade of blue and looks rather charming with the chocolatey brown of the Rialto 4ply.

I realise this is A LOT of knitting (for me, I'm pretty slow!) but this is just an ideal world amount of knitting, realistically if I finish the blasted cardigan of doom and I knit one new cardigan in 2011 I'll be very pleased with myself.

Do you have big knitting plans for 2011?