Sometime over the Christmas holidays, I completely lost my knitting mojo. It might have been burnout from all the present knitting, or the endless sweater class cardigan being knit in hard-to-see navy blue (which I'm in the middle of seaming, I swear), but knitting just wasn't fun anymore. The wisdom teeth saga might have had something to do with it too (did I tell you that one of the wounds got infected after I returned to Boston? And that I had to have it drained? Fun times). Anyway, Adrienne = not a happy knitter. So to counter the knitting blues, of course I went shopping (before I made the resolutions, I promise!): 
Yummy Handmaiden Cashmere from Colorsong Yarn. A Devin's Toque kit in the Mineral colourway so I could knit a hat for Jason, because he is utterly lacking in winter accessories. If that's not a knitter's siren song, I don't know what is. And plus, cashmere! So, a few days of knitting later: 
A delectably pettable hat. At first I was having serious pooling issues, but then I think my tension changed somewhat and I ended up with this fun swirly pattern. The yarn is super-soft and slippery, and breaks really really easily. I had to be pretty careful with the knitting, even on bamboo needles. But I think it turned out pretty well, it keeps the head warm and wards off wind-induced headaches, so mission accomplished. And we are knitting again, I'll have to list all the UFOs that I'm working on sometime. =)
I'm not normally a very resolution-y sort of person, but this year, I'm turning over a new knitterly leaf. Whereas last year seemed to be all about being a Bad-Ass Knitter, about buying whatever yarn whenever I wanted and not feeling guilty about it, so there (although to be perfectly honest, I still felt guilty), this year is going to be a little different. For one thing, I've catalogued the stash and there's too much of it, I've got yarn exploding everywhere. For another thing, I've started thinking somewhat about the Future, about maybe someday moving beyond this poor-yet-single-and-fancy-free-living-in-the-present existence, and part of moving forward will probably involve not spending money like a drunken sailor (not that I do technically, I never spend more than I have, but let's just say that I could spend less, shall we?). So, here is my current list of Knitty Resolutions for 2006: 1) The stash is not to grow beyond 100 balls of yarn. It is currently at a little over 100 balls, but I am setting that as its maintenance level. 2) To help maintain the stash at a reasonable level, we will start actually knitting from stash instead of finding new and novel things to buy because we are bored with everything we already have. 3) We will stop inventing imaginary projects in order to justify purchasing yarn which is either on sale or newly discontinued. 4) We will try our very hardest to not use shopping for yarn as retail therapy. We will try to find comfort and satisfaction in buying inexpensive or practical things, like, say, scotch tape and tampons. I think that's all for now, it's been 13 days in January (Happy Friday the 13th!) and I haven't bought any yarn yet. Perhaps there is hope after all. =) ETA: I just realized that all those resolutions basically amount to one thing: No more haphazard yarn accumulation. =P
