2007 Ambitions

I’m a casual adherent of the “knit your stash 2007” movement. It’s not so much a goal for me as a fact: I’m a)broke and b)swimming in old yarn. I have a lot of what I call “problem” yarn—half-skeins leftover from family commissions and numerous bunches of 1-3 skeins in the same dyelot, picked up when I was young and daft, or had a small gift certificate in hand, or it was so dreadfully on sale that I could pretend I would find something to do with it. I’m itching to do larger projects, these days. I know there are yarn exchanges online, but that would defeat the challenge of finding something to do with the scraps and the spare skeins and the unraveled thriftshop sweaters. So, I have tons of stuff I could potentially be knitting up, and I certainly have enough on the needles right now. “Mariah” is coming along quicker than I expected, although I’ve done neither of the arms yet and the cables will slow me down.

Yet I keep checking out the four drop spindles that came into my possession awhile ago, due to the largesse of an acquaintance downsizing her hobbies. I know the basics of spinning, but have never done much with it. And that makes me think . . . I need roving.

I don’t need roving right now. Nor do I need to buy yarn for the “We Call Them Pirates” hat. And I really don’t need to prototype a pac-man scarf. Just to lay it all out for myself, these are the reasons why:

• felted green lunch tote with strap (hopefully with shibori embellishments)
• red-and-black wide winter scarf
• wrap with leftover burgundy yarn (my design)
• a möbius-style cowl with color #204 mohair (my design)
• Mrs. Beatons with scrap purple mohair and sexy brown sheep company prairie silk
• Trellis prototypes in Peruvian alpaca (my design)
• socks with blue variegated sock yarn (falling leaves? crusoe?)
• socks with red variegated sock yarn (pomatomus?)
• more cat toys with leftover Bernat Disco (they love it-- you’d think there’s coke catnip in that hideous tinsel)
• finish Samus with thriftstore angora blend
• drop-stitch cardigan in blue variegated thrift-shop sweater—finish unravelling
• wide-shouldered cowl with black mohair and lime Ritratto? (my design)
• Lionbrand homespun scrap sack for cat toys
• Something not boring in the Jo-Ann simplicity mega-skein (not boring being optional; that yarn doesn’t show stitch patterns well at all)
• ScarfStyle “interlocking balloons”

Those are my plans thus far. Look out, 2007. You will be knit.