I think knitters bring their own special brand of craziness to the craft. There is the compulsive stashing of yarns, of course, and the obsessing over hard-to-get yarns (Wollmeise and Sundara, anyone?). Add to that Opinions on the best knitting needles, the right techniques and the right way to knit wool from a ball. Knitters with a capital K could be called outspoken obsessive-compulsive perfectionists, but I'm sure most of us consider ourselves to be little fluffy balls of zen (Knitters with a capital K can be a tad self-delusional sometimes: "I need that ball of yarn, yes I do"). I'm mentioning this because I am beginning to worry about myself. Whilst I have been knitting my Lopi sweater (pictured left), I have been thinking about where to take my knitting. I'm not talking about taking my knitting to the park or on public transport - I'm referring to what I want to DO with my knitting. I rediscovered knitting a few years back and at first I had modest goals: make a sweater, learn Magic Loop and do a lace shawl. This year has been about knitting at least twelve items in twelve months (and I've knocked that one out of the ballpark), learning intarsia and how  to spin. Where to go, I wondered?

Firstly, one of my next projects will be to knit an entire sweater in a KidSilk Haze-type yarn. For those uninihiated, KSH is thin, slippery and maddingly tough to work with. Secondly, I'm considering doing NaKniSweMoDo next year.

NaKniSweMoDo equals knitting twelve adult-sized sweaters in twelve months. It's slightly mad, but I've done the math and I think it is entirely doable. An adult-size sweater for me equals 1000yrds of worsted weight yarn and so far this year I have knitted around 13,000yrds already with three months left to go. I have concerns though: I do not know whether I will have as much knitting time next year (or whether I'd have even more!), I might grow mad and sad only knitting sweaters all the time and while my stash is .. er .. substantial .. I would need to buy quite a bit of wool in order to make twelve sweaters (and surely I should work on a stashdown?).

Am I nuts?

Anyway. My lovely Lopi sweater is nearing completion. I have eight rows of the yoke's colourwork to do and then just the sleeves. It looks really nice on me and I'm very pleased. I have named it Snorri after an 11th Icelandic scholar who wrote down skaldic poetry and Norse mythology. It seemed apt.