Hello TwentyTwelve!

Can you believe it?  I almost can't - but all the great knitting retrospectives I've been reading (and have waiting still in my blog reader) tell me otherwise!

I'm not organised enough to do a photo review of my knitting year, but thanks to the magic of Ravelry and my trusty moleskine knitting diary, I can tell you I started 34 projects, and I finished 34 projects.  If only the new projects matched the finished projects, heh!

Some of my FO's were big - my Olive jumper and Big Woolly vest, plus 2 skirts - Lanesplitter (which I have still to blog properly - woops!) and my Super Special Birthday Skirt.  Some were small - crochet snowflakes and a bunch of crochet dishcloths, plus a BALL!.  There were things for the little guy - a cardigan, 3 vests and a pair of pantses; gifts for friends - a baby cardi, a shawl, a hat, a tea cosy and a crochet ball; and of course socks - Nutkin, Heritage socks and husby's Frankensocks. And a few other bits and pieces - two scarves, a hat, another shawl, some mitts and a bag.

Amongst those FOs I managed to finish 7 pre-2011 WIPS.  And yet at the end of 2011, I still have 15 WIPS!  So it will be a Binding Off 2012 year again...but more of that in another post.  One thing that won't be bound off in 2012 - of course my Beekeeper Insanity! 

As for stash honesty...well, I am sad (sort of!) to report that I have not broken even, let alone reduced the stash in 2011.  But it hasn't grown much...heh heh.

In December, I just had to buy 2 bags of Rowan Calmer - a unique yarn, discontinued!  And a great price, thanks to Jannette's Rare Yarns.  I forgot to take a photo but I got a bag of garnet (a lovely red) and a bag of Tree, which is a fab green.  I can't decide which to knit up first!

I also received some lovely gift yarn - a skein of Cascade Heritage Silk from Bells - which I think just might be too nice to knit sexypuffs with!  It is so soft.  Yummo.

And a couple of balls of red yarn from my friend MissJ, who wanted to be a part of my Beekeeper insanity!  I must say, it is a lovely thing that so many of my friends are a part of my quilt, through their leftover yarn donations and gifts.  It really is a bit of a group project in that way, which makes it even more special.

So let's not put off the final tallying any further:

In: 22 x 50g balls
Actual balls used:  6 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent:  9.5 x 50g balls
metres used:  1076m

For the year 2011
Actual balls used: -16.5 x 50g balls
8ply equivalent:  112 x 50g balls
metres used:  13,054m

I was surprised to find I'd used the equivalent of 112 balls of 8ply yarn this year - I didn't think it would be that much!  And whilst I came out with a bit more yarn than I started with, it wasn't a crazy amount (and if I'd just ignored that Calmer, I would have been ahead!!  Oh well, I can't ignore a discontinued yarn bargain, that's nothing new!

Christmas snowflake sexypuff!

I will keep up the stash honesty next year, I think I need the bit of discipline that it gives me - because trust me, if I wasn't writing it all down each month, I know I would have more yarn than I currently do!

I will leave you with my first sexypuff of 2012 - I spent the last few minutes of 2011 and the first few minutes of 2012 knitting this in lovely Wollmeise whilst watching the NYE fireworks (yes, my life is that exciting!). You know how they say you should start a new year the way you want it to continue - well, knitting with great yarn, donated by a lovely friend, on my crazy but great big 5 year plan project.  Yes, that's how I'd like to continue TwentyTwelve.

Happy New Year!