A Journey Where Few Have Gone

Now that the new year has officially begun, I thought it only appropriate to take a look in the stash to see just what it is I have to work with in the coming months (remember the yarn diet?). For all of the following photos, you can click on them to see the notes in Flickr and find out exactly what each skein is.

There is certainly a lot of sock yarn. Here's the selection from what I call the "affordable" sock yarn stash (that is to say, each skein is $5 or less):

The vast majority of this yarn is Knit Picks; their Essential is my go-to sock yarn for socks for J. It's superwash, comes in J-friendly (read: boring and muted) colors, and is highly affordable.

Then, there's what I call the "luxury sock yarn" drawer. This is the higher quality stuff, specifically Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock and Koigu.

See the black and white skeins at the front of the drawer? That's the very first Lorna's Laces I ever bought, and as you can see I haven't yet come up with a good use for it. The majority of this yarn, however, has specific patterns already selected. The green Koigu up top? That's destined to be a pair of Dublin Bay socks. The mint green Lorna's in the top right corner will be for Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks (a pattern I tried once before, but which came out way too small). The purple Lorna's skeins below that are for socks for my Sockret Pal. The blue and purple Lorna's in the middle will be a pair of Baudelaires. Haven't come up with anything yet for the pink/red Koigu or the black and white Lorna's. Ideas, anyone?

This would be the lace yarn stash. The six skeins at top left are all Knit Picks, and I have no project in particular in mind for these. The hand-dyed Peacock colorway (dyed for me by my Sockret Pal) in the top right corner will be a Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style. The bright red in the bottom right corner is intended for an Icarus Shawl, and the Misti Alpaca is left over from the shawl I made for my mother for her birthday; there's enough to make another of the same shawl, if I so desire.

Finally, here's the yarn that's overgrown my storage bins and now lives in one of those big zippered plastic storage cases. With the exception of the three skeins of sock yarn in the lower left corner, the dishcloth cotton in the top left, and the three skeins of red Knit Picks Telemark in the top right, this yarn is all for sweaters. The light blue Knit Picks Shine Sport is enough for another Tivoli/Picovoli. The deep watermelon Knit Picks Shine Worsted below that is for another Sizzle (this one not so modest). The deep red and shocking pink is Knit Picks Merino Style for a Union Square Market Pullover. The French blue at the bottom right is Cascade 220 for Forecast, a sweater that I started last year but could never get gauge quite right. I've found my original swatches, so they will be ripped, washed, and re-swatched.

There's some yarn in the stash that I haven't shown you -- spare skeins of wool, random skeins of novelty yarn (some of which were freebies), some acrylic for baby knitting, and some recycled sweater yarn -- but I hope this gives you a sense of what I'd like to knit in the next year.

What's on your to-knit list for 2007?