First things first

I mentioned earlier that I was a little disappointed in how much knitting I did in 2010, as compared to 2009. A few astute readers have reminded me that planning and participating in a wedding does tend to cut into one's knitting and spinning time, but this year I will have no such impediment. As Brenda Dayne said in her final podcast of 2007, this year I will start as I mean to go on. So here we go!

Goal the first: Finish the g.d. blanket





I know three isn't really a large sample size, but I'm seaming one block per day at this rate. I wonder how long I can keep up the pace? Whether I keep up the pace or not, this really ought to be a reasonable goal to meet.

Goal the second: Fair Isle

Okay, so that's a really nebulous goal. But the fact remains that I purchased Fair Isle Sweaters Simplified back when I was still in college (2003? 2004?), have acquired four books of Alice Starmore patterns (only the easy-to-get ones) and Anne Feitelson's The Art of Fair Isle Knitting, but have yet to make anything more complicated than a pair of fingerless gloves. I, like so many other knitters, have a deep-seated fascination with the technique. So I'm starting the year by cataloging my stash of Shetland wool:

Here's the leftovers from those fingerless gloves, along with two straggler half-skeins from the Squirrel Sampler mittens:


Here's yarn I have stashed away for the Polar Chullo hat from Twist Collective (which may never become the Polar Chullo hat):


Another batch of yarn, this time for the Autumn Tam from Simply Shetland (I have both tam patterns, but only yarn for the Autumn one):


And finally, some new stuff that I have vague notions of turning into actual gloves:



There's 30 colors, and at least three projects worth of yarn in there. This year, I will stop dreaming about fair isle tams and gloves and sweaters and am determined to actually knit some of the darned things.

Goal the third: Get serious with this design stuff

And for that, there are not too many more logical places to start than this:



Book and DVD courtesy the in-laws, who gave me a very generous gift certificate to the LYS I haunt whenever we visit them. It was generous enough, in fact, to pay for the book and DVD and something else besides. After flipping through the book for approximately 4 minutes, I learned two new fundamental things about knitting, and had one of my long-standing suspicions confirmed about the backwards loop cast on and the long-tail cast on. I have three days this week and all of next week to myself, and I plan to knit right along with EZ in my living room. Somewhere in the region of my lungs I've got that feeling of drive and determination that I used to get at the beginning of the new school year. Time for another adventure.