Happy New Knitting, 2010!

It's 2010, and so far, all is well! Happy New Knitting, everyone, and many wishes for a year filled with new opportunities. May this year bring an improved economy and a better world all around. As for me, while I'm fully appreciative that I have a job with benefits, I'm rather hoping for an even better one this year, so wish me luck with the job search. Or rather -- may a job that is a decided improvement over the job that I have appear in my searches, may I be qualified for it, and may I be the one hired!

Now, the old knitting: Christmas knitting is all done and presented. My aunt, who visited shortly after Christmas, received this olive beret and neckwarmer, along with homemade jelly and cookies:

Hubby got his first pair of handknit socks, made from Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Haida, one of their Raven colorways (which rubbed black dye onto my fingers and needles!):


And I started AND finished a Forest Canopy Shawl, using a couple of skeins of DK alpaca that I had in the stash from long ago and from an LYS long gone. I still have two more skeins of the stuff to play with. The shawl went amazingly fast. Started it on the 28th of December:


Finished knitting and weaving in ends on New Year's Eve, blocked it this morning:


And wore it to the knit-in at Rose and Ram, the LYS that is oh-so-conveniently on my way to work:


I've gone over my Ravelry projects page and have done an accounting of the projects that I completed in 2009. It was a busy year, knit-wise! Counting the shawl that I finished knitting last night and blocked this morning, I had 32 finished projects listed, which are made up of the following:

• 2 shawls
• 1 lace kerchief
• 7 pairs of socks
• 3 adult hats
• 1 baby hat
• 25 preemie caps
• 2 neckwarmers
• 1 lace cowl
• 1 pair of fingerless gloves
• 1 cabled shrug
• 3 stuffed toys
• 1 baby vest
• 2 baby sweaters
• 1 pair of baby jeans
• 2 baby bibs
• 1 baby blanket
• 1 CD drive cozy
  
• 1 mug cozy

Plus 4 UFOs to finish in 2010. Holy cow, I really did all that? And people wonder what I do instead of dribbling away each evening watching TV...

To kick off a new year of knitting, I went to the knit-in at the Rose and Ram, along with several others in the Salem Area Ravelers and local knitters and spinners. A good knitting time was had by all:

Helen, one of the mods for Salem Area Ravelers, has been collecting preemie caps for the last couple of months, hoping to have a sackful to deliver to the hospital for St. Distaff's Day. Our final count was 75 hats!

Since Jan was nice enough to open the shop on New Year's Day for a knit-in, lots of folks made it a point to buy something nice. I picked up two skeins of something new to the shop, this Hacho sportweight wool by Mirasol, intended for a Lacy Baktus shoulder shawl:



After a couple of false starts, I got a pair of Sailor's Delight socks from 2-at-a-Time Socks
started for my first new WIP for 2010:

The instructions in the book are for Magic Loop knitting, and I wanted to do them on two circulars. After fiddling, fiddling, fiddling, ripping out all the cast-on stitches, casting on again, I finally got started by doing the first three rounds of one sock, casting the second on DPNs, doing the first three rounds on that sock, and sliding the second sock onto the circular needles. Hey, whatever works. I'm loving this colorway -- it's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Edgewater (208) that I bought at Dublin Bay on last spring's yarn crawl.

So on to 2010! My knitting plans for this year:

• Last year was the Summer of the Sock, where I knit my first pair of socks and tacked several more pairs. This year is going to be the Year of the Shawl. The alpaca shawl was just the start. I'm planning to work on some lace knitting skills.
• Finish all of last year's UFOs. Maybe... maybe... before starting any more WIPs? Maybe?
  Well, except for an upcoming KAL and whatever service knitting comes along.
• Knit down the stash! I intend to knit down what I have until the stash box can comfortably close again! I must knit at least two skeins before buying one new one! Hey, there's a new Sock Summit planned for 2011, so I've got to free up some stash space before then! Exception: yarn purchased for gifts or service projects.