January 25, 2012

Catching Up and Looking Ahead

I know, I know, it's been a while. Life just got in the way. You know how it goes.  So let's play catch-up for 2011 and consider what 2012 will bring.

I have a little over eight hundred yards of the BFL natural multi 2x2 cabled yarn finished.  It is a heavy DK or light worsted weight yarn.  I seriously doubt this will be enough for a sweater so my next decision will be whether or not to use the white BFL I have already or buy another bump of the natural multi-colored. I'm leaning towards buying more. Then again I'm supposed to be using my stash so I should use what I have before buying more. As I keep changing my mind about which sweater pattern to use with this yarn, I have time to decide. 

I've finished washing the Cotswold/Shetland fleece.  I started combing it, but found I didn't get all the lanolin out in some sections, so I will have to go over the whole bag and rewash the sticky locks. 

On My Spindles are the merino cross and the never-ending Clun Forest. Also a hand dyed top I got at the Long Island Sheep and Wool Festival in May in the Valley Stream colorway, as well as some top from Crown Mountain Farm in a melon/pink/white colorway whose name eludes me.  It breaks up the monotony of all that white fleece. 

Stash Dash ended in August.  I didn't reach the 5k goal but I got more than halfway there. More important to me is that I actually finished stuff: four pair of socks, a shawl, and a bunch of spinning: the Perendale and Montadale, and 804yds of the BFL 4ply 2x2 cable yarn.  That was fun, and I'm hoping The Knit Girllls will do it again this summer. 

I cast on for the Charlotte Bronte shawl in September and am almost finished with the first lace edging band. I modified the pattern slightly by adding beads to the first lace edging band. I haven't decided whether to include them in the second edging band or not. 

Also on my needles or hooks are scadzillion socks, a old sweater, pillow cover, washcloths....I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff.


2012 goals:
1) Knit and/or spin ten miles (17,600 yards) of yarn (about 16 kilometers I think for the metric minded).
2) Once again use stash instead of buying more yarn
3) Finish or frog UFOs
4) Patterns for 75% of what I knit/crochet this year should come from books, mags, patterns in my library.