Late night musings on the knitting year ahead...

Because who doesn't need a gratuitous cupcake picture? For the record, this is what my work-mates get when they behave themselves...


Perhaps it's just a beginning-of-the-year thing, but over the last few days, I've found myself thinking more about the things I'd like to knit this year (why yes, I am a little obsessed, thank you for asking, and help yourself to tea and biscuits on the way out). Obviously we knitter-type-people do this a lot in terms of seeing patterns online, or garments worn by people on the street, which then cause us to get inspired and start trying to knit or replicate the design. But this time I've found myself thinking less of specific patterns and more about themes/basic elements.

So for the record, in the year ahead I'd really like to try and knit:

More cables.
Or more to the point, more traditional cables. While I did dabble in cablework over the course of last year (my Gathered Pullover being the most recent example, and who can forget the never-ending saga that was my Sylvi), it was not exactly conventional cablework. I adore both of these designs, but I think that I'd really like to try something a little more basic. I have an entire book of aran and cable patterns on my knitting shelf - it's really about time I cracked it open and got stuck in.

Stripes.
I worked a bit with stripes last year, but it was generally in a minor way, an uninteresting way, or with a self-striping yarn which to me isn't really entirely the same thing. None of these really scratched my itch at any rate, so I see more stripes in my future. *sigh* Better start perfecting that whole jogless stripes in the round thing, Anna...

Shawls.
As I mentioned during the write up for my Wandering the Moor, shawls and I didn't see eye to eye for a very long time. I had knitted a couple of shawls before, and although I'd put quite a lot of work into them (*cough* my Luna Moth Shawl *cough*), I never really wore them all that much. Mostly because I couldn't figure out how to wear them, or because I didn't have anything that went with them, and so on. But over the last few months I have actually found myself wearing both of the above mentioned shawls, so a part of me is itching to explore this area a little further, now that I know that the fruits of my hard work aren't just going to languish in my cupboard.

More Basics:
Wonderfully coloured knitwear is all well and good, but sometimes you just don't feel like cranking out something as vivid as a lot of my garments seem to be. Sometimes it's just a little too early in the morning. Given my bleedingly obvious penchant for making clothes, it's kind of galling to end up resorting to some dodgy black jacket that I bought from Target, just because I want something neutral and un-attention-grabbing. So, in order to alleviate this, I would very much like to knit some nice, wearable pieces in greys, blacks, subdued blues and greens, maroons, and so on. With an emphasis on the wearable: I'm not going to start a new paragraph for this because I am seriously thinking about devoting an entire post to it in the near future, but I want to knit more wearable things. Most of the things that I knitted last year I have worn, and worn a lot, and I would like to continue that way. I enjoy the knitting process, really I do, but I equally, I want to knit things that I will love wearing, and not look at guility every time I open my drawers, only to pass over it for the fiftieth time.

There are other priorities - more handknitted socks because my existing pairs are falling apart, more hats, more gifts for other people (because really I'm not sure I actually need as many knitted garments as I am ending up with as a result of this hobby!), and so on. But those are the big four. Let's see how I go!




In conclusion, here is a project that I finished before I went away but forgot to blog about earlier. It's a mildly ridiculous hat that I made from the wool/alpaca blend yarns that I acquired at the Bendigo Sheep Show last July (purple and brown stripes, but the picture completely and utterly fails to convey this fact). I'm quite happy with how it turned out - originally I was going to do something original, but in the end I got complacent and basically just turned it into a Felicity style hat. I don't regret this. And please excuse the sunglasses - I don't know why I'm wearing them indoors (and for that matter, I don't know why I decided to take a picture in the bathroom either). Go ahead, mock away...

A constructive day...

I'm having one of those glorious days when I feel constructive. Only problem is that now it's evening and I've just eaten, which means I'm feeling too full and sluggish to actually do things. So what do we do? We make lists, and plan things, and feel constructive that way, that's what!

There's lots of knitting things I've got lined up at the moment. I don't have a lot of money right now, so I'm trying to burn through the not-insubstantial stash instead of gallivanting around the yarn shops and making merry with my meagre funds. All of the things I've got lined up in my brain are things I can make with yarn I already have. Especially after Friday (Clegs sale + Anna being owed a belated birthday present by certain parties = yarn acquisition).

Behold the ill gotten gains:




I got a whole bunch of 100% wool (12 balls odd?), some lurvely green merino/silk yarn (6 balls), and a single merry ball of grey Patonyle. Very nice indeed. And I know what I'm going to do with it all!

(eeew, but now I'm dissatisfied, because the above picture gives the heinously false impression that I might have bought pink yarn... the very idea... It's actually more of a pinky purple. I definitely do not do the colour pink)

Oh, and on the note of yarn sales, I'm finally using some poor languishing yarn that I've had kicking around since the Cleg's Boxing Day sale... It's been hanging around for so long because it's... mohair. And I don't do mohair. I honestly have no idea why I keep buying it. It just really isn't my thing. I don't like fluffy (or not in my yarn, anyway... it's forgivable in small animals). It's not something that features in my wardrobe with any great frequency. But, for some reason I bought it, so now I'm using it, and it's actually pleasing me for some inexplicable reason. I'm making a Simple Yet Effective shawl using it and some black fake mohair that somehow found its way into my possession as well. And, well, it's pleasing me! It's fun to pat, it's rainbow and black, and very relaxing to knit.

That said, I don't know if it will ever make it out of my front door. Fuzzy (and stripey rainbow fuzzy at that) isn't something I think I can pull off. Maybe it might work if I was small and cute and had pigtails. But the fact remains that I am nearly six feet tall, frown a lot, and generally can't pull off cute to save my life. I don't think that fuzzy is something that's going to happen. But you never know, do you?

Wow, that was a tangent. Anyway, the knitting list is as follows:

• Finish my poor languishing alpaca cardigan, while it's still winter and alpaca remains a valid wardrobe choice - all it needs is it's zip put in, and a little crochet (whimpers in fear) to fix up the neckline
• Finish my Woodland shawl (over 2/3 of the way through now)
• Finish the garter mitts I've been making for Richard's birthday (which, Anna you lazy bum, was on May 13th... get off your arse and knit, dammit! It will take you all of two measly hours to finish)
• Make the lining for that poor bag that's been kicking around my study for the last six months - it'll take all of five minutes once I finally get out the sewing machine and get down to it
• Either rip or finish that crazy, abnormally coloured cable jumper that's hiding half-finished in my bedroom... before it evolves into something living and tries to gnaw my leg off while I sleep

And once I've done these things (or at least enough of them to justify starting new stuff), there's other stuff on the agenda (because I am now organised enough to have plans for my stash yarn!):

• Make a Tempting with the awesome cables mod I saw on Ravelry out of my beautiful, shiny, lovely, verging on edible Naturally Me yarn
• Some Endpaper Mitts in my grey/black Patonyle
• A Luna Moth shawl in my Naturally Merino et Soie yarn
• A top down raglan with some self-designed colourwork with all of that 8ply wool
• Socks! I don't care what kind, but I want warm feet and have the yarn with which to attain this goal!
• A vest (something with a cable, I dunno, I'll make something up) out of that maroon acrylic/wool blend that lives near my bookshelf

There are other plans too, though most of them are either things that I need to buy more yarn for (I want a Noro shrug, but that will unfortunately need to wait until I have more money, as right now I have all of one skein of the yarn that I want to make it from), or uses for yarn that I have that haven't quite coagulated (hehe, yeah, that's definitely the correct word) into projects in my head yet.

Hmmm, I should probably conclude this post now. But at least it's here to motivate me. Now that the "Internet" has heard my plans, I need to follow through and do them.

(I have this weird mental thing where I think of the "Internet" as being like another person who will judge me if I procrastinate... well, whatever works, I suppose, though I think that all this really does is reflect just how technologically backwards I am)

And now I must go and write stuff. I've decided (in non-knitting related constructive thought) that I'm going to submit an entry to the Melbourne Uni creative writing anthology publication this year, and since it's full of people who can actually write, I'll need to lift my game and put in some effort if I even want the slightest piddling chance of making the cut... and even then I'm not getting my hopes up - I suspect that these things only publish people who have a much better command of the English language then me.

(Back to my original paragraph... at least I did constructive things earlier... I went into uni, studied diligently for a few hours, returned library books, made a hairdressers appointment, etc. And at least lunch was lovely and a half... my favourite spicy hommus from Queen Victoria market, turkish bread, some lovely fresh dates... man I love dates, washed down with a glass of rather nice Cabernet Merlot. If all lunches could be so good, I would be a happy Anna indeed).

Oh my, I am very brackety indeed today, am I not?