happy new year!
i've been pondering that whole concept these past couple of days and, frankly, i just don't know why we should be sooooo happy about starting a new year. ok, so 2009 wasn't a stellar year but we really shouldn't wish things away so fast. we should spend some time contemplating the ups
and downs of the past year and what actions and events we want to repeat and what we want to totally forget and never revisit. hopefully the 'want to repeats' will heavily outweigh the 'total regrets'! hey, i'll be pondering that one for months!!!
then there is the issue of new year resolutions! why do we enjoy setting ourselves up for failure each and every january? i mean really! don't we get beat up by others enough - must we continue to self-inflict more pain and suffering? i just don't get it, but each and every january there we are making lists of what we hope to accomplish - shoulda, coulda, woulda!!
one thing i do know... i started 2009 knitting and i ended 2009 knitting - god willing, i will repeat that in 2010! i did complete the first part successfully, knitting in the new year! whew, i'm half way home on that one!
here's another thing i know for sure - i've got a really, really, really bad yarn addiction! i have never met a yarn shop that i didn't love!!! and if i am forced to go shopping, the only stop that really interests me is a lys!! i am amazed how velma (my volvo vehicle) manages to incorporate a swing by a lys on all of our travels - amazing how she knows all the shops around town and she isn't even equipped with 'gps'! go figure!
soooooo.... where does this leave me?
well, before i move into the new decade, let me reminisce a tad bit about december, 2009.
december is when i take my big vacation of the year and spend two whole weeks laying under a palm tree, watching and listening to the ocean while drinking drinks with paper umbrellas in them! it also affords me with lots of uninterrupted knitting time (isn't that what a vacation is supposed to be - doing what you want to do?). here's what is truly amazing about this year's vaca - i only took yarn for three projects and i completed all of them! (excuse me while i break my arm patting myself on the back) perhaps i'm finally getting my act together and developing the ability to judge just how much i can really accomplish and not over pack my suitcase with oodles of yarn that will come and go untouched. tada, this is what i completed:
#1 - 'scroll lace scarf' by ysolda. i am also addicted to patterns by ysolda (well written and wearable). this one certainly didn't disappoint. i knit it out of malabrigo silky merino in the color 416 - indiecita. this yarn is such a pleasure to work with - like knittin with butta! i would throw the word 'addiction' into this mix but really, i think you already know how i feel about malibrigo yarn!! yum! yum! yum!
here's the rub - was i able to cast on and knit away? well, of course NOT! i got about half way through the lace edging and realized that things looked a little loose and that if i didn't change my gauge i probably wouldn't have enough yarn - argh! so, after a visit to the only yarn shop on the island (not too tough an assignment) for a size smaller needles, i was on my way! oh, yay, another little problem, the skeins of yarn were indeed the same color but from two different dye lots - an error on my part, been a long time since i've committed that faux pas!
#2 - 'traveling woman shawl' by liz abinante (free on ravelry). nice yarn and easy pattern to follow. the yarn is: araucania ranco multy in a sock weight in a mouth watering combo of roses, reds and purple. luscious. certainly a much better match for this yarn than what i originally had planned. this was a quick knit that i managed to get right from the getgo - i checked my gauge (an amazing feat for me) and as usual, had to back down a size or so on needles!
#3 - 'old shale scarf' by tiennie (another ravelry find). the yarn for this scarf is artyarns ultramerino 4, both skeins from the same dye lot but here's where it gets funky - they may have been from the same dye lot but they were way, way, way different! this presented quite a problem when the original shawl i had intended to knit was about three quarters complete and the difference in the skeins became glaringly apparent! argh! so.... i spent several unenjoyable hours froggin' my original plans! since my fall back 'vanilla' pattern seems to be 'feather and fan', i decided that i had plenty of yarn to knit a scarf of a reasonable length by alternating the skeins every two rows so the differences were undetectable! voila! a beauty that left me with about a foot of yarn left over - now that's the way to totally use up yarn!
