And Begin Again!

It's January third already. Why is it that the years you anticipate always seem to whizz by? Amazing. Nevertheless, while I tend to hate the build-up to the new year, I definitely like the sense of putting off whatever negative things may have happened last year (a family full of cancer, anyone?) and looking forward to what the new year will bring. I feel like the last couple of months have set me up nicely for a fresh start as well as completing some goals, some of which are even from my neglected and in need of editing 101 in 1001 list! (I cooked 5 new-to-me recipes in the last month! There will be brief write-ups.)

I started this year at the apartment of my friend Suzanne and her new boyfriend, accompanied by my dear friends Scott and Michael. We drank champagne and ate scallops wrapped in bacon over pasta with homemade alfredo sauce. It was a good New Year's. Then Scott and I went down to his parents' house in San Jose and hung out for the rest of the weekend. Since we've both moved away from the Bay Area (some of us farther than others, SCOTT), we spend a lot of time hanging out over video games online but not a lot of time face-to-face, or in the case of this weekend, face-to-Dr. Who. It was lovely. 

Now I'm back home and today has been a very puttery sort of day. In about 10 minutes, the pile of boxes in the front of my living room went from this: 

The pile of to-be-unpacked boxes is only slightly larger than this. Progress!

to this:

Clearly I need more DVDs. And books. Or fewer...

I obviously found the cord to my Canon, so there are pictures of the last knits of 2010:

Primavera Socks, Creatively Dyed Calypso Sock Yarn, "Gris."

Basic Mitts, same yarn as above

Basic Mitts, Fannie's Farmhouse Sock Yarn, "Victoria"

These are made from the leftover yarn from Crazy Sarah's 2009 birthday socks, which were nearly finished at the Great Alameda Pub Crawl of 2010 and finally made it to her at the Sacred Family Skate Night this year. I apparently never photographed or blogged them, so just imagine this same yarn, but socks.

And also the first finish of 2011: 

Basic Socks, 316 yds.

These are my standard k3p1 rib with a 9" cuff. I bought six (6!) skeins of this Paton's Stretch Sock in a haze of I-don't-know-what during a trip to Michael's over Thanksgiving. I figured that I'd get 3 pairs of socks, but it's looking more like five (5!). Or perhaps a three pairs for me and one for an as-yet-undetermined male. I'd say THB, but he's on Knitwear Probation. Good thing I have other brothers!

I also started a new scarf: 

Is it my imagination or does this yarn smell faintly of graphite and wood shavings?

I am in love with this yarn; no wonder Madeline Tosh is so popular right now! My only gripe is that it has only one knitting life; don't think you're going to be able to unravel it and try another project, or rip back several rows with impunity. Beauty comes with a price, mis petits amis, and this is definitely beautiful. I think my favorite thing about it is the way the dye job makes it look even more three-dimensional than it really is. Mmm. Pattern: Aria Delicato from Knitspot.

In my last post, I promised to show you the pictures of my neatly arranged stash closet and the overflow pile in front of it, and since starting the new year with broken promises is not really on the agenda, here you go: 

It's tidy! And organized! But there's more:

More. Sigh.

Yipes. There was also a list of things I wanted to do before the new year, and I got all of it done except cleaning the cherry Schact. Darcy "helped" me organize yarn: 

I forgot I had all that CashSoft Aran. And Crystal Palace Creme. /facepalm

I managed not only to get that pile of boxes down to only the two big ones at the bottom, to pick out my Stashdown 2011 projects, but also put them all in paper bags to maintain an element of surprise! 

These bags make up the second big box. The other one is full of yarn, of course.

The fiber ranges in weight from 2oz of 50/50 merino/yak from A Verb for Keeping Warm to 25.5oz (!!) of superwash merino from Crown Mountain Farms, which will be this year's Tour de Fleece project. I tried to choose a range of dyers, colors, and blends. I'm somewhat inspired to try this 12-month thing with sock yarn too, but I haven't decided yet. At least the sock yarn stash is already organized and doesn't require (much) tossing!

And lastly, I've made an important executive decision. This year's quest will go to ELEVEN. It  seems only right. If you wanna play, grab the button!

Or a smaller version for sidebars, etc.: