This Should Be Fun

I have my camera back! All rejoice! I have lots to catch up on but first is the big New Years Resolution. I read a good article about keeping resolutions and the part I really liked is having friends doing the same thing. Hence, the great yarn diet and stash busting of 2011! Yarnpiggy started up a great group on Ravelry and thankfully I caught the end of the registration for this competition. You could enter one group or the other (the yarn diet and the knitting only from your pre-existing stash) but entering both seemed like a good idea.

I spent my time between Ikea (biggest bookshelf thingie ever) and New Years dinner (yummy dairy-free mac n' cheese (with bacon!) and a lemon buttercup martini!) going through my yarn. I went through and for the most part, designed a design or at least an idea for all the yarn for 2011. I know I already showed it in this video so if you want to skip this post, no hard feelings.

So first I have some pretty random stuff that will go to baby things. Lots of baby things this year.

Some rainbow acrylic....
my fantastic novelty yarn (I think more hedgehogs are in order)...
my bamboo tape that I have no idea what to do with but gosh darnit I have a lot of it!
my assorted neutral colour collection of odds and ends...
and my massive collection of odds and ends. I have some mohair in here, some cashmere, some sparkly, some malabrigo, some linen (knitting with that is less fun than stabbing a fork in your eye), some sari yarn, lots of sock yarns and cascade, and goodness know what else.
Either baby toys or baby knits or a reallllllly ugly blanket. We'll have to wait and see what the year brings I guess.

On to the good stuff!

First, my two blankets of the year. I have here the makings of a beautiful arrrgyle baby blanket out of some extravagent blue sky alpaca.
Second is my yarn from my Mom for my UNBC grad. Fleece artist goodness and lots of it. This will make an amazing blanket and it will be an easy knit so I'm excited to start.
Next are the scarves!

A striped scarf out of my brushed suri (it's red and white since Lala was obscuring the light in this photo)
and a Noro striped scarf out of my two silky malabrigo skeins that are similar, but really not quite the same.
Shawls are big this year.

This is hopefully going to be citron, but frankly, no promises. That stitch count gets pretty ridiculous pretty quickly. This yarn was a present from Katy for kittysitting and is Hand Maiden Silk. Mmmmmm......
Here's a trio of shawls to be. The blue shibui should hopefully become Holden, no idea for the blue sweet georgia, but the pink will be cast on for the Laminaria tonight.
I have no idea what to do with my laceweight but I want to dye it afterwards so we'll see. We'll see. I might just be crazy enough to try Sound of Waves again. Maybe.
These skeins are going to be a very warm and loving Gaenor I think.
On to the sweaters! Oh so exciting! Aren't you excited?!?!?

Another Paper Dolls out of STR (Bleeding Hearts Colourway)...
a steeked colourwork cardigan out of Kauni....
no idea but something warm and toasty out of my BFL from Gibsons...
and a Lace Hug Me Tight out of my birthday yarn (Sugar cane yarn! For reals!).
Those are all the project assigned yarns. I hope you all know that I can change my mind at any given second for any yarn or project, and then go back to the original plan if so desired, at any passing whim. I'm loyal to yarn, not so much projects, but the yarn, yeah.

I found some yarn while cleaning too. Which is good because that yarn in the left upper hand corner is my beloved vintage yarn. The middle yellow is going to become a shawl for sure.
This is unassigned good yarn that is being left until the mood strikes.

And here it is! My 2011 Project Bag! 2 Blankets, 4 sweaters, 2 scarves, and 7 shawls! Whooo!
Know if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go curl up with a hot chocolate, a couple of kitties, my 2010 shawl to finish and my 2011 shawl to start.

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for reading, cause, you know, that's pretty cool of you. Hugs!

Xmas List

It's hard to blog without my camera. I think I left it in Vernon. I'm so absent-minded and dyslexicesque these days it's a gong-show. I've said such classics as 'let's brain our pools' and 'the streets on the light went out'.

I'm pretty stressed but thankfully I have a tonne of awesome things in my life (family, friends, kitties, knitting, living in beautiful cities). The best thing about Christmas is I get to have all these things around me. And I get to show the people how much I care with presents! And I have already started to think about what I'm going to get them! Honest thoughts about what people might like! I think shopping with start sometime around the 18th. Should be fun.

Another fun part of Christmas is getting to do xmas lists. I don't necessarily expect I will get the things on the list and frankly, every Christmas presents that rock my world are ones I may not have even thought of so the list is more decorative than anything else, if you will. Holy long sentence, Christmas Batman. I just enjoy making these lists. It's fun to think about things and to look around and poke around and idly imagine. You should make one too.

So here is my xmas list for 2010.

1. Loose Tea I am nearly all out of tea. It's a pathetic way to live life let me tell you (I still have a lot of green tea, it's the herbal and specialty black I'm low on).
2. Kitty Scratching Post Poor kitties. I daydream of one that is pretty high and has some hidey holes and dangling toys. They've pretty much destroyed their current one and Spike puked on it yesterday.
3. Ceramic sugar bowl or coffee mug These are my favorite. I like any hand-made mug. They make me happy.
   
4. Yarn Gift Certificates (link) I'm thinking 2011 will be a time for sweater knitting. I love getting skeins of yarn and my family is great at picking them out, but for people who aren't sure, gift certificates are a great way for me to get enough of the same yarn for a big project.
5. Fabric Quilting is awesome. And yes, the hammer head shark is going to take me longer than expected but that's no reason to collect more fabric in the meantime. I like Moda, Amy Butler, anything that is fun and quirky. Basics are great too.
   
6. Acrylic paint/paintbrushes That one's pretty self-explanatory.
   
7. Graphic Novels Bone(never mind, bought them), The Sandman, any well done, interesting, and beautiful books.
   
8. Interesting and/or Multi Picture frames I want to do some more decorating around here.
9. 2011 calendar book, softcover and pretty, that will fit in my purse.
   
10. Cardigans I like cardigans.
11. ETA: Crockpot!
    

Now I'm all cheery. AND I just took a quilt out of the dryer. I'll take some photos with my cellphone and show you the blurry goodness soon. Promises.