Mystery Solved - Happy New Year

OpArt Mystery

You may recall from last year (a mere two days ago) that I was perplexed about running out of black yarn on OpArt when I had only gotten to the size of the "small" version of the blanket. I became more perplexed yesterday, when I realized that my two remaining balls of white, plus a little extra, were not going to allow me to get my last stripe ten garter stitch ridges wide. The first ball only got me 7.75 rows (that's almost four complete stripes).

As I knit, I kept thinking, well, this is still plenty big, for being the small size. It will be OK. And by the end of last night, it was pretty clear that I'll get at least 9 stripes on the last row, which means it won't look too funky.

This morning, I got the bright idea to look on Ravelry to see other people's OpArt projects. Well. Once again I DO wish I would look at these things before the end of a project. There are all sorts of comments about the small size really being the one ending with 8 ridges, not the one ending with 10. So, I am actually almost finished with the large size, so it is not so bad to be just a tad short of yarn. And I am not the only one for whom the 6 balls of each color weren't quite enough. I feel so much better.

It looks like I'll finish OpArt tonight or tomorrow, but, no extra baby things from leftover yarn! That's OK, because I got another idea for making an organic cotton baby surprise jacket...or using some of that luscious Louet Gems I bought last week. I can always get more of that for mittens.

The plan is to be sure to take pictures of the blanket before and after blocking, because it really looks funny coming off the needles, but great blocked.

Knitting Resolutions

Everyone's putting their knitting resolutions on their blogs. I know I am a total failure at that, but I am trying to make reasonable plans for the year. I know times are hard, so I will have to moderate my stash aquisition. I also know I have a goodly number of projects lined up to knit (plus a couple I really want to finish--the orange alpaca sweater and Maelstrom, for example).

So, my plans are:

1. I will knit at least two items from my stash for every one item of new yarn. This is a minimum goal. I will try to knit primarily from my stash this year, but I know how the siren call of new yarn can be (witness the buying spree last week).
2. I will only buy sock yarn from independent dyers or limited edition others. Anything that will be around a while, I will wait for.
3. I will get back to concentrating on socks more and knit other stuff from sock yarn, too. Must use stash. (I actually have an idea that may work for making that Raglan Rust sweater I love in the current Knitter's from 5 or 6 different balls of Trekking rather than 3 each of two colors.)
4. I will finish the items I am working on. I hope to get one item, the orange sweater, done this weekend (so optimistic) and then I vow to spend at least some time each week on Maelstrom, then each other item until they are done. I will feel good if I do that.