Resolved.

This time of year, it's very common to hear about resolutions and big goals for the year ahead, even as they pertain to knitting. Now, I'm not usually one to make resolutions, particularly as I can only remember ever keeping one (and that was to floss my teeth every night -- not exactly a life-changing thing).

Still, when the new year rolls around, I like to think about my knitting, my stash, and my plans for the 12 months ahead. I like to think about all the projects I intended to knit in the year before and all the intentions I had for my yarn. So, rather than making specific resolutions for my knitting in 2009, let's say that I have some very specific aspirations.

First, and I know this will shock some of you, is that I don't think I'll be knitting my usual number of socks this year. I have no doubt that I'll still have a sock on the needles much of the time, but they just don't give me the thrill they used to. I think that some of that has to do with the fact that my sock drawer is extremely full right now, as is The Mister's. Certainly those socks will wear out and need to be replaced one day, and I do intend to continue to work my way through New Pathways, but for the forseeable future, I think it will be mostly handspuns socks.

So what will I be knitting in 2009? I predict this will be the year of the sweater. I fully intend to seriously try to knit from my stash this year, particularly as I have sweater amounts of yarn for about six or seven adult sweaters. I may have to knit a few baby sweaters this year, but I'm going to embrace the idea of selfish knitting and seek to replace the old, store-bought sweaters in my dresser drawers with handknits. The Mister's Big Thaw Pullover is likely the next sweater on the needles.

I also predict you'll see a fair amount of lace on the blog this year, with the first order of business being finally finishing the Icarus Shawl that I cast on in August 2007. After that, I plan to work through my laceweight stash, especially some of my handspun.

Though you haven't seen it on the blog, I've been working on a design for about a month now and hope to finish it in the next few weeks. Then I will need to decide what to do with it (offer it for free here? make it a free Ravelry download? try to sell it?) and may ask your opinion in the future.

Finally, in continuing my efforts to "go green," I'm going to keep up a pretty steady supply of knit dishcloths and other household cleaning items. I've gotten one cloth done already this year (knit during the Steelers game on Sunday), and I hope to knit at least two a month.

At the very top of my knitting goals for 2009, however, is finishing my Ivy League Vest. Only a handful of rows on the neck and dealing with some ends stand in my way.

What are your knitting aspirations for 2009?