2011 - A year in knits

Healthwise 2010 was a pretty rough year for me and I found I wasn't able to knit as much as I would have liked.  I am hoping 2011 will be a different story. 

In preparation for a super knitting year I have tidied up my downstairs stash.  Most of my knitting 'stuff' used to be upstairs neatly stored in a cupboard, but then, somehow, it started migrating downstairs.  Each time I started a new project different sized needles would end up downstairs in the living room.  Then new yarn would arrive and it would stay downstairs as well.  Homemade markers and lengths of yarn for stitch holders started multiplying and really it was becoming quite an unmanageable mess!  So now an old magazine holder has (some) of my patterns and books and a plastic box has all needles and 'current, and soon to be, projects' yarn in it.  I also put my markers and stitch holders into a little ziplock bag so I can find them when I need them and can stop making more!  The tidying was a relief (though I wonder how long that box will hold everything I need it to...!).  I also bought a notebook so I could write down pattern notes and stitch tension and other useful knitting things in one place.  No longer will I rely on the backs of old envelopes or other odd bits of paper that were close to hand at the time I needed them (and that of course would always disappear right when I needed to go back them!).

So with the tidying done I could start on new projects.  A couple of days ago I started knitting a tension square in vine lace for a cardigan I'm hoping to make.  I was using the remains of the BWM 8ply luxury yarn from the horizontal scarf to see if I needed 8ply or 10ply.  Anyway, I thought the pattern was so lovely I just kept knitting and now I have almost finished a scarf!  I am still going to make the cardigan, I just have to decide which colour yarn to order from BWM.

So, in addition to that surprise scarf, I promise that 2011 will see me finish my husbands stripey jumper, knit myself the vine lace cardigan and a turtleneck jumper, and a gift for a friend.  They are the only definites this year and I wonder what else the knitting year will bring (2010 had several baby jumpers).