Spring Cleaning - Part 2

What you see here is the result of two days of contemplation, reorganization, dreaming and work. It has been both fun and extremely rewarding. At the same time, it's also been rather enlightening.

You see, last year I tossed my knitting list during a particularly low point in my creative life. What had begun as an organizational tool had become an albatross that was draining the joy out of my knitting. With the help of my BKB, I realized that what I needed to do was to throw away my list, clearing myself of any and all obligation so that I could knit freely. And it worked. Within a few days I had found my knitting love again, and every since then I've tried to keep my planning to a minimum.

As I began my own version of spring cleaning earlier this week by clearing out the workbasket, I realized, though, that I had cycled back around again and was ready to pair up my yarn and patterns. In fact, I was excited and rather energized by the prospect. The alpaca project left me rather drained, and this was exactly the exercise needed to refill the well. New, and very exciting, patterns on Knitty and a trip to the my favorite LYS Friday morning fueled my efforts, and the rest is history.

I spent yesterday laying out on my bed my patterns/books and the yarn intended for the project. I pulled both stash bins and my leftover basket to find just exactly the right matches, pouring through books, patterns and magazines. The result is a list of 22 projects which will be fun and - I believe - rewarding because of their diversity. Sweaters, socks, lace, children's projects and beaded knitting....they are all covered in my list. I found a project home for yarn that I bought just because it was pretty and for yarn reclaimed from old sweaters. A small bag of leftovers was designated for the charity knitters at my LYS, and I gifted my Mom with a bag of forest green silky-wool that is really more her than it is me. It feels very, very good.

When I was finished, I packed up all of the unclaimed yarn and put it back under the bed. I'm thrilled to say that I am now able to get my leftover stash into those two bins! I now have two baskets full of project yarn sitting next to my knitting bookshelf - one for sweaters and one for everything else. It's more than enough to keep me busy for a very long while, and I can't wait to get started!

In case you are curious, my list includes (in no particular order and w/o links because I would rather go knit right now):

1. Two Jane Austin dresses and shrugs for the girls' Easter dresses. (I did buy new yarn for this yesterday, and Mom picked out the matching fabric this morning.)
2. The Princess Shawl
3. Whilrpool beaded socks
4. Aeolian Shawl - also beaded
5. Flutter Sleeve Cardigan
6. Town & Country Cardigan
7. Herringbone Rib socks
8. Blossom - short sleeve pullover
9. Laminaria - another shawl
10. Fiona's Top - again x2 for the girls
11. Hanging Garden Stole
12. Tangled Yoke Cardigan
13. Bella's Mittens
14. Fiesta Feet
15. Rhiannan - crazy, cabled knee socks
16. Tilia - pullover
17. Waves of Grain beaded scarf
18. Autumn Arbor Stole
19. Honeybunch - lace scarf, designed by a blog friend! (Beautiful Bonnie!)
20. Christmas colorwork gift bags
21. Fir Cone Scarf
22. Borghild - cardigan