2009 in Review

I have lots of fun plans for this New Year's weekend and of course knitting is involved! I decided to re-publish my goals from last year with evaluation and then tomorrow I'll publish my 2010 goals. So here we go!

2009 Goals and Evaluation

1. I will totally conquer stranded knitting (and Fair Isle). My misshapen swatches will not have the last word. Selbuvotter, here I come. NHM #7 fulfilled this goal!

2. I will knit a gigantic shawl, one of them 5 footers...ok maybe next year on this one. Errm, nope, and quite honestly I don't think I'll get to this any time soon!

3. Knit from my stash. I'm not avoiding buying yarn (I love my LYS too much!) but I'll try to stick to the stash for several months at least. Meh, I did ok. My stash boxes are still overflowing though, so I should have probably paid more attention to this one.

4. Gift knitting. I'm a selfish Knitter, I admit it. I'll try to be better. I did good on this one (I gave knitted gifts to six people), those Selbuvotter especially were definitely a trial of patience and perseverance.

5. Try new yarns (umm, is this negated by #3?). Tried Kathmandu Tweed, Berroco Ultra Alpaca, Sandnes Garn Lanett, my own handspun (!), Cascade Heritage, Reynolds Sunday Best, Elann Lara, and Elann Camila to name most. I enjoyed knitting with most of these, though I'll think twice before buying any more Kathmandu.

6. Knit from my pattern books. At least one pattern per book. NHM #7...otherwise, not really.
A lot of my pattern books are for socks, and currently I'm more excited about sweaters so I don't know that they'll see a lot of use this year either.

7. Work on some of the pattern designs floating around in my head! Yep! I knit two shawls from my own designs and a tank top. This shawl (tentatively named Bramling) will hopefully be published for sale by late January/February.

8. Buy a good stitch dictionary (suggestions?) and use it! Most are divided into books of Knit and Purl, then Lace, then Cables so I don't know where to start! Hehe, nope.

9. Take Risks. (cough Victorian Lace Today cough) Frogging allowed. Well, I consider knitting my own designs a bit risky, but the whole Victorian Lace thing didn't happen so yes and no.

10. Think before knitting. I chose a few projects last year that were more of a punishment than a joy to knit so I'll be a little more careful!I'm excited for Knitting 2009! Stay tuned, Corona is practically flying off the needles! With a few issues ignored (cough NHM #7 cough) I enjoyed all the projects I knit this year.