Y4: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #1

Hello! Welcome! Uh......hi.

Welcome to my Fourth Self-Imposed Year of Projects. Today marks the beginning, the very beginning, of this year's adventure. The true adventure started four years ago, not long after Little Man entered my life, and upon the occasion of my 32nd birthday.

I declared 2014 as THE YEAR OF THE STASH. I think that trend will continue into 2015. I have so much yarn and I really do love it but I think I'd love it more if I actually, you know, did something with it. So, 2015 will also be THE YEAR OF THE STASH!

As always, I work in lists. It helps me organize my thoughts and focus and so on and so forth.


Finished Objects (FOs):
1. Elefante: started December 19, 2014; finished December 28, 2014
2. Hat #1 - FoH: started December 31, 2014; finished January 1, 2015

Now, technically, there shouldn't be any finished objects here...but I finished Elefante last week and I thought you should know...she's kind of an "in limbo" project because, technically, she's from the Third Self-Imposed Year of Projects. The wrap-up for that was last week and she was listed as a WIP because, at the time, she was a WIP...and then I went and finished her. Soooooo....she's going to make an appearance here as the first FO for 2015 :)

I'm quite proud of her ears. The ears are supposed to be crocheted but I don't crochet and wasn't exactly keen to learn just for the sake of making ears for this project. I looked through the "helpful notes" section for this project and found a few versions of knitted ears, none of which were quite what I was going for. I wanted to do stockinette, flat, no folding...the closest I came was in garter. So, I borrowed from that, made a few changes, and now I have stockinette ears with a two-stitch garter border. They're perfectly floppy and I love them. I expect I'll have an FO Friday post this week, starring this little elephant.

And then, because I finished Elefante, I pulled one of my Secret Sock Club Bags (see below) and inside were four skeins: three Lion Brand Cotton Ease (two different shades of blue and a white) and one of Pima Classico Cotton from Aslan Trends (blue). The pattern was already in the bag...and it's not exactly a pattern but it came with one of my Hiya Hiya circular needles...it's more of a recipe for a Family of Hats (FoH). They're sized for baby, child, small adult, medium adult, and large adult. I've decided to make as many of the baby sized hats as I can using the yarn contained in the bag and then donate them to the NICU at the hospital where Stormageddon was born. But...I don't want to donate them one at a time so I'll probably make them all and then donate them. And then I finished the first one...and it's made to fit a baby. Observe:

Stormageddon in his new hat

Yep. It fits a baby alright....my baby. So, he's getting a new hat. And I've started the second one (see below) to the same size...so he'll be getting a second one. And because Little Man may be jealous of his brother's two new hats, I'll be making him two hats, probably in the same colors. ::sigh:: Then on to the NICU hats :)

Works-In-Progress (WIPs): - carried over from 2014...and maybe earlier...
1. Dragon's Egg Socks: started September 2, 2013
2. Pacific Shawl: started June 8, 2014
3. Snape's Stockings: started August 20, 2014
4. Traveling Socks: started December 23, 2014
5. Hat #2 - FoH: started January 1, 2015

The WIPs I've actually worked on this week are the second FoH Hat (which is almost finished) and the Traveling Socks. The Traveling Socks are quite addictive, even if they are plain vanilla socks...I can't wait to get to the next stripe and the next one and the next one and...you get the idea.

I've also figured out what I'm going to do about the NICU hats that I want to make...I think. I expect at least one of those will show up next week. Maybe. We shall see...

But anyway, let's see what else I have planned for this year :)

Children's Items
1. George's Vest (for Stormageddon - sock/fingering)
2. Nottingham (for Little Man - worsted)
3. Nottingham (for Stormageddon - worsted)
4. Alvin (for Little Man - worsted)
5. Alvin (for Stormageddon - worsted)
6. Harry Potter Blanket (for The Family - worsted) - from various Harry Potter inspired square blocks
7. Albert the Absent-Minded (for Stormageddon - any weight)  *need pattern*
8. Mirkwood (for Stormageddon - bulky)
9. Smaug (for Little Man - worsted)
10. Dandy Sir Cephalopod (for Little Man - any)  *need pattern*
11. Moe the Mustache Monster (for...someone - worsted)

Items for Me (Selfish Knitting, FTW!)
1. Vanilla Socks (using one of my Harry Potter yarns)
2. Drip Drip Drop Socks (using either a solid or semi-solid sock yarn that I haven't decided on yet)
3. Hermione Hearts Ron (sport)
4. Wink (using Knit Picks Superwash Wool of the Andes)
5. Ginny's Cardigan (DK)

Secret Sock Club Bags (Pick a bag at random)
1. Scotch and Soda Scarf (using Briar Rose Fibers Wistful - leftover from my Icarus Shawl)
2. CashSilk Fern Scarf (using a skein of Online Supersocke 100)
3. Jabberwonky (using KP Felici in Abracadabra)
4. If You Know Where To Go (in KP Felici in Green Veggies)
5. Gardener's Socks (using Malabrigo Sock)
6. Paradiddle Socks - my own design (using Malabrigo Sock)

Because I love Husband
1. The Dude

New Techniques (one of the following stranded/multi-yarn kits)
1. University of Wisconsin Ski Hat
2. University of Wisconsin Christmas Stocking
3. University of Wisconsin Button Beanie

Christmas Presents
I have absolutely no idea what's going to end up here, if anything. I suspect something will end up here and I might pull it from other lists but we shall see. Maybe I won't do any Christmas knitting. Maybe all I'll wind up doing is Christmas knitting.

Designs
1. Susan's Hat
2. Traveling Vines Socks
3. Little Man's Baby Blanket
4. Paradiddle Socks (see Secret Sock Club Bag section)



Now, as we've discovered in years past, I never finish everything on my lists...and I almost always wind up adding things to my lists...and I almost always wind up changing something on my lists. And guess what? I do what I want!

Soooooooo.............let's just go with it and we'll see where the year takes us :)