Personal Sock Club 2009

This morning I read about the Ravelry Stash Knit Down 2009 group on Theresa's blog. The plan this year is to knit 100 balls of yarn. I did a quick calculation in my mind of all the upcoming projects I have planned and realized that this is a goal within my grasp. So, I hopped on over to Ravelry and saw some great sub-groups to cheer this endeavor on.

The Personal Sock Club 2009 really grabbed my attention because I have way too much sock yarn that has been accumulating through the years and far too many patterns that I have longed to knit. Unfortunately, those patterns never get attention because I've been focusing on whatever challenge Socknitters Anonymous has going on for each month. This has left me with little time to knit the patterns that I have bookmarked.

Now, don't get me wrong - Socknitters Anonymous has exposed me to several designers that I would not have known about had I not been participating. But the negative side of that exposure is that the designers I love get no attention at all from my pointy sticks.

The idea behind the Personal Sock Club is that you package up in a brown paper bag a sock pattern with accompanying yarn and staple the top. You do this for each month of the year and then select a 'mystery bag' each month. I like this idea. You KNOW you will like the sock and you are knitting down that massive stash!

I spent the morning combing through patterns I have printed off and sock books and came up with fourteen pairs of socks that I MUST knit this year. Then I picked stash yarn for each pattern and packaged them all up together. Thirty-two balls of yarn all in brown bags ready to go for 2009! I am going to call this Brown Bag Mystery Socks. Mix them up! I'm ready to go come January 1, 2009.

Now I'm off to figure out the other sixty-eight balls of yarn. Which ones will make the cut?

Stash Knit Down 2008

Last January I made myself a promise. The promise was that whatever WIP left on my needles come December 31, 2008 would be frogged. This promise was made in hopes that I would:

1. Finish all projects started
2. Knit down my stash

With the completion of my Nordic Mittens I looked through my projects to find another 'old-but-loved' WIP.....something I really did not want to frog come December 31st. I found ALCEA sitting in a basket under my coffee table lovingly neglected. Not only did I find stashed yarn, I also found stashed sunflower kernels that some little night creature had stored under the yarn. Thankfully, that is ALL I found!

I'm resuming the knitting of my Alcea sweater because I am going to be faithful to my promise come December 31st. Like the Nordic Mittens, my stranded technique has come a long way since I started Alcea but this time I am not going to frog and start over!