Finally Updating...

just not quite yet. I have all kinds of projects I need to update both on here and Ravelry. I haven't uploaded pictures of knitting for almost two months, and have finished quite a few things in that two month time period. 29 off the top of my head (Only 12 different patterns though (one with 5 variations), and three of the 12 I've knit before!); I'm probably forgetting one or two. Or will be finishing another one or two before I finish updating.

Before I jump into the yes, I blew my 50 projects goal out of the water posts (mostly, I'm counting the first few days of '10 as still '09 because I was on vacation!), I'm going to set some goals for 2010. This year, I'm going for quality rather than quantity. I want to finish four pairs of socks, three huge projects, two felting projects, and a couple of languishing projects before August, because they are all gifts for people in the States, and since I'll be going then, it would be easiest to bring it all with me and give it to the recipients there. In addition to that, all yarn that was brought to Japan above laceweight needs to be used up. Or at least, it needs to be down to leftover scraps. My yarn closet is currently overfull (due to recent shopping expeditions!) and needs to be emptied. I've used up nearly 10 skeins of my 22 Patons Classic Merino so far, and I have another couple of felted clogs to make, a work vest to finish, then maybe another work vest and/or cardigan, so I am not worried about using all that up. I have plans for a good chunk of the laceweight, but I don't know if I'll get to it all this year (lacweight is time consuming!) and would rather get the larger skeins into my wardrobe instead of in my yarn closet.

I think I know what everyone will be getting for Christmas this next year, and plan to purchase yarn and knit their items accordingly, and early. I've knit four pairs of Fiber Trends Clogs for this Christmas, am finishing two up for Lee and myself, and think that these will be the main gift for those who had not gotten them this year. That will be my main large needle project for the year, and if I always have one on the needles, I can get them done in time for Christmas definitely. I think I'll finally be able to make Pocket Creatures for my sisters if I can get some Patons Classic while in the States. I haven't been able to find a good substitute here, and could order some Cascade, but I like the feel of Patons better. So, another goal, is to have what I'm knitting for everyone decided before August and to have it all finished by the end of November.

I'm also joining the 10 Shawls in 2010 group and Ravelympics. For the shawls, 8 of them can be under 500 yards, which is perfect for one skein fingering weight shawlette/scarves that I've been considering making out of my gorgeous handpainted sock yarns. The other two, well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm not 100% positive what I'll do for those, since my plans for larger laceweight projects involve a scarf and a dress (Butterfly), not shawls, and the one shawl I will be definitely making over 500 yards is already started, so doesn't count. I love having my sock blockers show off my completed socks; I'm thinking of making some kind of shawl-hanging bar to show off these small-ish triangular one-skein shawls I'm planning to make. I suppose I could just put it on blocking wires, then just hang those up on the wall somewhere, or just pin it up. Something to consider...I'm not sure if I'll have one or two of those shawls be my Ravelympics project(s), if I should use that time to try to bust out some pre-Japan WIPs, or if that should be my major attack on one of the three large projects that need to be finished for my trip to the States. I have about a month to decide, I'll figure that out later.

Non-yarn-wise, I need to photograph more WIPs and FOs and blog about them (no point in taking a bunch of WIP pictures if I don't show them off 'till the item is done!) and just blog a bit more. Some months were good, some sucked. December, I'm looking at you. I have gotten pretty good about photographing things when I've finished, though I forgot to photograph three of the 29 most recent FOs, but should show off progress more. I think in conjunction with Ravelympics, my goal will be to post updates of how far I've gotten every day that I knit, even if it's just a quick snapshot of something that doesn't look any different than the day before. Maybe that will get me in the spirit of photographing things more often. Like the vest I'm working on right now, which is already split for the two fronts and the back. I should have taken pictures of it already.

Anyway, projects that are currently up: Finishing my second Lady Sunshine, an excellent glove pattern from Laris, Basil, a work vest for Lee that's about halfway finished, and knitting up some Fiber Trends Clogs for Lee and I along with photographing anything I still have around that hasn't been photographed!