Back to My Future

Back to it being the beginning of the year;  back to making plans for the year ahead:

Two facets of my seven-point plan that dictate help determine how the year should pan out. Stash-busting my big-yardage stashes determines the projects; giving hand-made gifts dictates the programme.

The following are my big-yardage stash (in order of decreasing yardage:)

Brand	Yarn	Weight	Remaining yards
Fyberspates	Lace	Lace / 2 ply	1964
Noro	Sekku	Lace / 2 ply	1840
Malabrigo Yarn	Merino Worsted	Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)	1680
Lane Borgosesia	Alpaca	Fingering / 4 ply (14 wpi)	1540
Colinette	Prism	Bulky / 12 ply (7 wpi)	1500
Fyberspates	Scrumptious DK	Worsted / 10 ply (9 wpi)	1440
Kauni	Wool 8/2 Effektgarn	Sport / 5 ply (12 wpi)	1314
The Dublin Dye Company	Alpaca Lace	Lace / 2 ply	1312
Artesano	Inca Cloud	Sport / 5 ply (12 wpi)	1310
Zettl	Cotton-Classic Cable	DK / 8 ply (11 wpi)	1308
Artfibers	Andromeda	Fingering / 4 ply (14 wpi)	1295.3
Debbie Bliss	Donegal Aran Tweed	Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)	1209.6
Manos del Uruguay	Silk Blend	DK / 8 ply (11 wpi)	1200
Jojoland	Melody Superwash	Fingering / 4 ply (14 wpi)	1100
Ivy Brambles	Romantica Merino Lace	Lace / 2 ply	1000
Wendy	Happy	Fingering / 4 ply (14 wpi)	918
	Pure Laine	Aran / 10 ply (8 wpi)	905.5
Brown Sheep	Lamb’s Pride Bulky	Super Bulky (5-6 wpi)	875

As I already have designs – quite literally – for the Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Bulky, I’ve included all yarns down as far as that. That’s a whopping 23,900+ yards of yarn though. It’s not feasible to expect that I will get it through it all this year. So other factors come into play to prioritise the order they get worked in.

The design and gift-giving deadlines are sprinkled throughout the year, like milestones along the way; and I’ve already ear-marked the yarns needed for them. For the rest of the stashes, I need to pair a project to the yarn to get better idea of how long each project is going to take. Those yarns that I can’t yet pair-up with a project, or the project is more an idea than a true pattern, get relegated to 2012.

When selecting the project to go with the yarn, a limiting parameter on myself was that I must have the pattern already. The volume of patterns that I have overwhelm me as much as the yarn-stash I have  accumulated. It makes no sense to add to one when trying to reduce the other.

I’ve also promised myself, for the longest time, that I want to make a pattern by Carol Feller – a home-grown designer from Cork, whom I’ve admired since I first saw her Doddy pattern in Knitty. This meant that Trilo in Fyberspates Scrumptious DK pipped Swirl Shawl in Jojoland Melody for knitting this year.

So here’s the plan for 2011: yarns are listed with their selected projects and arranged in order of what deadlines there are or when I’d like to have them done by. The number indicates their position on the yardage ranking above:

	Brand	Yarn	Project	Deadline
	Ecolution	6 Strand Fine Dyed Hemp Beading Twine	Tubular bag – proto-type	03 February 2011
10	Zettl	Cotton-Classic Cable	Tubular bag	27 February 2011
18	Brown Sheep	Lamb’s Pride Bulky	Seamless Set-In Sleeve	01 March 2011
7	Kauni	Wool 8/2 Effektgarn	Double-knit bag	04 April 2011
1	Fyberspates	Lace	Peaseblossom Tunic	22 May 2011
8	The Dublin Dye Company	Alpaca Lace	Petals	22 May 2011
2	Noro	Sekku	Enigma Hooded Cardigan	31 July 2011
4	Lane Borgosesia	Alpaca	Apres Surf Hoodie	17 August 2011
16	Wendy	Happy	Tubular bag	31 August 2011
13	Manos del Uruguay	Silk Blend	Maggie Wrap	30 September 2011
5	Colinette	Prism	Long Coat with Chevron Lace	31 October 2011
9	Artesano	Inca Cloud	Gathered Pullover	30 November 2011
6	Fyberspates	Scrumptious DK	Trilo	31 December 2011
3	Malabrigo Yarn	Merino Worsted	Cozy Cable Hooded Cardigan
11	Artfibers	Andromeda	Wisteria
12	Debbie Bliss	Donegal Aran Tweed	TBA
14	Jojoland	Melody Superwash	Swirl Shawl
15	Ivy Brambles	Romantica Merino Lace	TBA
17	Cigalaine	Pure Laine	Loppem

Let’s see how it all pans out. As I learned last year, I’m a divil for allowing myself to get distracted and veer off-course. I’m hoping that at the very least, those items with a specific deadline get done… on time!

It’ll be fun to read back over this post this time next year.