On my needles

The other day, a friend catalogued her yarn stash. I started to do mine yesterday but petered out at the point where I had to move to go and find more yarn to catalogue. Today I intended to continue, but got distracted by tidying my knitting basket and instead made a list of my WiPs. It appears I have 39 of them - one technically may not count as it's been ripped back and not yet cast on again, but for the purposes of this update I am including it as a WiP. I know I had a bad attack of startitis a little while ago - I didn't realise quite how bad it had got.

So what am I knitting. Well it appears just over one-quarter of my knitting is cardigans/shrugs/waistcoats etc., followed by jumpers and socks.

However, not all of it is for me.

Obviously, I have plenty to be getting on with.

So feel free to place your guesses - how many items will I finish by the end of January 2012 and how many new items will I have cast on in that time. I'll give a mystery prize (not of great value- don't get your hopes up excessively) to the person with the closest guess (please only guess once for finished and once for new; guesses must be made in the comments to this post by 23:59 GMT on 7 January to prevent people from having any advantage from things I might say about my knitting over the next month).

Books, glorious books

Here are a few of the books I got for Christmas that may help me make things in the future:

I have seen this book recommended on a few blogs I read and I'm looking forward to reading it.

I really enjoy Kirstie's Homemade Home/Christmas. I'd watch any episode again, but I think the first series, when she was making over the house at Meadowgate was the best. It has given me certain ideas for my own home, although they have not yet come to fruition.

I can't wait to get stuck into this and see what sort of projects it comes up with. There's plenty of junk in the world, so I'm hoping this will give me plenty of ideas.

I loved Milly Molly Mandy as a child. For some reason, we used to get Milly Molly Mandy stories read to us sometimes as part of the children's talk during a church service. I can't remember why, but I guess there were some parallels or moral points drawn from the stories.

I'm planning on making more gifts this year - and returning to making Christmas gifts after my year off. I'm hoping this will provide me with lots of inspiration.

Aren't those sleeves amazing! I wouldn't wear them myself, I'd be forever catching loops on door handles and other things and pulling threads, but I love the look of them. I've flicked through this book and already spotted several patterns I'd like to knit.

I love the Yarn Harlot's blog. A book by her has to be just brilliant - well certainly the first one I read (At Knit's End) was - as was the bit of this I read as soon as I opened it.

So I'm all set for my crafty reading for a while. What are your current/awaiting craft reads?

Sad

I have just had a Christmas present returned to me. You may remember I mentioned a shawl I was knitting (for which I broke my decision not to make presents this year). It was in alpaca and was lovely and warm and snuggly - a gift made with love for an amazing lady (my grandma-in-law's best friend) who was diagnosed this autumn with motor neurone disease. I wanted the shawl to be something of a comfort for her as she was able to move about less and less. My father-in-law took it up to Yorkshire on Saturday to deliver (along with Christmas presents for other relatives in the area). Sadly, she passed away on Saturday evening and the shawl, still in its wrapping, came back to me today.

I do not know what I will do with it other than not keep it for myself. I think I shall put it carefully aside and make that decision when the loss is less raw.

Shrinking yarn stash

Back in November last year, I challenged myself to reduce my yarn stash. At the time, it looked like this:

Over the year, I knitted, I bought yarn, I gave yarn away, I was given yarn.

Now my stash looks like this (please excuse the messy floor in the background):

Not a huge reduction, but there's definitely less there. I'm also pleased to say I have plans for a large proportion of it. I have my eye on a large basket that I'm hoping to move it into, so I have it in one place. I'm not sure if this will need more reduction or not. I'll have to try and see.