Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  I have high hopes for 2020.  Honestly, I'm not sure how realistic my hopes are.  We'll have to see about that.  I'm excited to be unemployed and hope to have more time to spend on the blog and the Etsy shop.  My poor Etsy shop has seen no love from me in over a year.  I hope to change that in 2020.  At the moment, it's state is a bit of an embarrassment.  So far, since quitting my job in October, I haven't had as much free time as expected.  But, we did move in with my mother-in-law on November 1st and between getting settled after the move and the holidays....  I have higher hopes for 2020.

Besides spending time on the blog and in the Etsy shop,  I also hope 2020 brings more knitting time.  At the moment I'm struggling with a major case of startitis.  I'm supposed to be knitting the secret baby thing, I'd love to get my Weekender sweater finished in time to wear it this winter, and then there's the matter of needing to knit a shawl to replace the Reyna shawl that was supposed to be a replacement for the Colorburst shawl that I knit as a Christmas gift but didn't give away.  Apparently I'm not giving away the Urban Girl Reyna either.  Good grief!

But as I said, I have a bad case of startitis.  And a current obsession with gray yarns.

Knit Picks Simply Alpaca

I've had this gray alpaca in my stash for a while and I'm dying to knit a Cashmere cowl for myself.  The yarn is Knit Picks' Simply Alpaca in the Alfie colorway and it is probably the softest thing I have ever felt in my entire life.  I have no idea how I let it sit in the stash pile for so long.  I can't wait to knit with it and since the Cashmere cowl pattern is written for fingering and this is aran weight, the knitting should go super fast.  And yikes!  I see that it's on sale at the moment.  I'm supposed to still be on a yarn diet but.... 

Five By Five Scarf

I started and abandoned this Five by Five scarf back in the summer.  I'd like to finish it.  I'm also not sure I can technically call it a Five by Five.  The idea behind Five by Five is that it's five yarns held together to knit five columns of five-stitch ribbing.  This scarf has nine columns and only four yarns.  But hey, the difference between nine and four is five so....  Whatever.  The scarf uses up multiple skeins at once and its purpose, besides my current gray obsession, is to use up my yarn stash as quickly as possible.  The yarns are Knit Pick's Palette  in Silver, Mist and an unlabeled shade of white plus a skein of their Aloft mohair in Carbon.  If I'd only spend some time with it, it would knit up super quickly.

Simple Cabled Boot Cuffs by Sarah Leslie

And lastly, I have multiple gray skeins of Knit Picks' Wool of the Andes that I'd like to turn into boot cuffs.  

Breckenridge Boot Toppers from Ryan Page Haas

When they first became popular I thought boot cuffs were maybe the dumbest thing ever.  But, I wear a lot of leggings and I recently bought a pair of short boots... and now I see the need and understand their popularity.  Now that it's officially winter and January which means we're finally feeling mostly winter weather here in Virginia, boot cuffs are getting moved to the top of my knitting queue.

Did you notice?  Today is Three on Thursday and that was three gray things I want to knit.  Join me over at Carole's for today's Three on Thursday link up.