2014 Knitting New Years Resolutions

Last January I posted this about my 2013 knitting goals.  I wanted to:
1. Knit more sock yarn from my stash
2. Keep my stash under 30,000
3. Card and spin my alpaca fleece
4. Knit a hexipuff a day
5. Finish up some UFO's

So, how'd I do?  Well, one out of 5 ain't bad:

654 hexipuffs! I knit my goal of 364 in 2013.  I got a bit behind with the holiday knitting, but I caught back up on my 5 day Christmas weekend.  Now it's habit, I'm going to keep it up.  It's possible I might even finish my BeeKeeper's Quilt this year, depending on how many more I need. I guestimated 1000, but basically I'm going to knit it until it's the size of the white comforter underneath.  However many that is!

And I didn't do too bad on my other goals, either. I barely touched my fleece but I did knit from my sock yarn stash. I didn't buy ANY sock yarn for myself in the past year.  I don't need to as I still have plenty to keep myself knitting socks for the next couple of years.  And I barely bought any yarn for myself, either. Almost everything I bought was stuff I needed for projects for craft shows or for other people, mostly my nieces.  Or I dyed the yarn myself.  And it really wasn't that much, either. My stash is over 30,000, I'm sure, but I'm not really keeping track anymore. It's still (mostly) contained. I'm trying to work my way through my Ravelry queue, which is all projects I already have the yarn for, and only buy yarn when I need it for something I want to make for someone else (since 90% of my stash is for ME ME ME.)  I've pretty much weeded out all the yucky yarn out of my stash. I will look again, but at my first perusal, I couldn't find a single thing to donate to our knitting group's annual yarn swap.  I'm kind of proud of that. I don't buy stuff I regret later.

I have made progress on some UFO's, but not anything substantial. I'm going to try to work on that again year.  But, since I really didn't do that great in 2013, I'm going to try to keep thing simpler this year.  So, my 2014 Knitting Resolutions are:

1. A hexipuff a day! 
2.  Bind off 2, cast on 1. 

The second is a new thing I'm going to try. I'm not allowed to cast on a project until I've finished 2 first. Maybe this will help with the UFO's.  I know it's pushing me to finish some things I have on the needles now because I have a serious case of castitis and really want to start a new project.  Like the Thinking of Spring Mittens I have the yarn for, but haven't been able to start yet.  They have robins on the hands.  Robins! I must knit these! But seeing as how NONE of my knitting Christmas presents are done yet and I'm having a sweater slog...

I'm going to extend BO2CO1 to spinning, too. I can't buy more fiber until I've spun 2 skeins.  Hopefully, it'll help me start to tackle my beautiful alpaca fleece. 

What are YOUR knitting resolutions this year?  And how did you do in 2013?

Cloudy Day and Alana Dakos Love

I finished my Cloudy Day Beret this week!

It was a lot of fun to do, and turned out oh, so pretty.

I did it in fingering weight instead of sport weight like the pattern calls for because I have a tiny head.  It worked out really well. I just added one pattern repeat before decreasing at the top and it worked fine. The ribbing was still a bit loose, but I added some elastic and it fits great.  This is what I always do for hats and it's working out pretty well for me.

I love Alana Dakos' patterns and have been a long time listener of her Never Not Knitting podcast.  I love the organic elements in her patterns. She often draws inspiration from nature and uses lots of leaves, vines and interesting cables.  And she picks such lush rich yarns to knit her patterns in!  This hat has a fun raindrop motif, each raindrop has a bobble in the middle to give it a fun 3D texture.  Lolo did her Autumn Vines Beret in a gorgeous rust colour (which I was totally going to post a picture of, but she doesn't have one up on Ravelry. Boo!) and one day I am definitely doing the Cedar Leaves Shawlette and the Shawl Collared Cowl.  I even have the yarn in my stash for the cowl, I just need to get around to it!! 

She has patterns for women and children, and if that wasn't enough, Alana has a new pattern book out: Botanical Knits!  There are so many patterns in here I'm excited about, I want to knit the whole book RIGHT NOW!  So, if anyone was looking for a gift idea for me, this book (and yarns to knit ALL the patterns!) would be a great idea.  :)

So, back to my beret!  I started with 2 skeins of MadTosh Sock in Silver Fox, which I overdyed to make more silvery. I knit my Cladonia Shawlette...

...that I adore beyond words and wear nearly every day.  There was a full skein plus leftover so I knit Cloudy Day and I still have 280 yards left!!!!  So, I decided to make a pair of fingerless gloves to go with so I'll be all matchy matchy with my silvery wintery accessories.  The pattern I'm going to try is the Onion Market Wrist Warmers.  I'm going to adapt them a bit, add a thumb and do a bit of ribbing top and bottom and make them shorter.  I'll probably STILL have yarn leftover when I'm done, but that's ok, it'll go to make hexipuffs.  Can't have too much hexipuff yarn!  (I had 379 hexipuffs as of last night!!)

Happy Knitting!

SereKnitty