FOs, WIPs, and plans

So here we are, a little over two weeks into the new year, and so far things are going well. Work is nice, no drama has exploded in my personal life, and I've been pretty productive knitting-wise.

I've even got a FO already!

I got to meet my little brother's girlfriend when I was home for the holidays. I pretty much expected her to be a sweet girl, based on comments from my Nani and parents, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover that she (like me!) is a great big Harry Potter nerd. We talked a bit about the series, and our favorite characters, and when I found out that her fave is Hermione, I knew I had to make her this hat. Still need to mail it off to her, but I think it'll be a great surprise to get in the mail. I'm looking forward to hearing her reaction to it.

The hat was a quick and easy knit. The pattern actually calls for a DK weight yarn, but I used worsted instead since I do tend to knit a bit tighter than average and I figured it wouldn't affect the finished hat overmuch. The end result is a pretty dense fabric that is very warm. I used Cascade 220 superwash in the colorway Ridge Rock.

In keeping with my New Years resolutions I used up the leftovers from Jon's scarf. Unfortunately, as with most well-intentioned things, it didn't work out quite as planned. I ran out of yarn just shy of the end and had to go buy a second ball to finish it off. So now I've got more grey yarn in the stash than when I started. I'll probably make another hat out of it or something. We'll see.

And speaking of New Years resolutions, I'm working on a lovely blanket for Jason. He liked the zigzag throw blanket for the sofa so much that I'm making him a larger one. Using Lion Brand Homespun (awful, splitty stuff, but it does make a soft squishy blanket -- plus, hey, it's cheap!) for it. I'm crocheting stripes, then will use whatever leftovers that aren't enough to make a full stripe as a border. It's working up pretty quick, and is mindless. Perfect for tv crafting.

Of course, the minute I laid it out on the floor to get a picture, all the cats instantly gravitated to it. Like furry little moths drawn to a warm and fuzzy flame. So, sorry, Jason. It looks like I'm not actually making the blanket for you.

And then just seconds after obligingly lining up for a nice picture, Yarneater (background) tried to make off with the remains of the skein, Kleptocat (center) began a valiant effort at eating the safety pins securing the pieces together for easy sewing, and Nuisance (foreground) flipped out for no discernable reason and rolled over while holding fast to the corner with his claws, thus turning himself into a kitty burrito. The blanket is recovering from this ordeal in its plastic WIP tub.

I've also got a project in the works for me, though it's not going at all as planned. I've been doing quite a lot of crafting for other people. First Christmas knitting, which was followed by the Hermione Hat and the epic stripy catnip blanket. I wanted something for ME. So, I browsed through Rav for a hat pattern, busted out that one lone skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky I've had sitting in the stash forever, and started knitting. What could go wrong? said I. Bulky yarn works up quick and the pattern is easy!

The pattern is indeed easy. However, the designer didn't list a gauge. Meh, I thought to myself, I knit a bit tighter than average so I'll just go up a needle size and it'll be fine! After the first pattern repeat, I thought it was looking a bit small, so I put it on a circ and tried it on. Damned thing wouldn't even fit over my head. Ripped it, increased the number of cast-on stitches and added an extra purl stitch on either side of the cabled columns. That should be fine, right? Yeah. I got up to the decreases and decided that I should probably try it on again just to be on the safe side. Well, it fits. Mostly. But it's pretty snug. Almost uncomfortably so. After some hemming and hawing, I just ripped it out a second time. What's the point of knitting a hat if it's something I won't end up wearing because I don't like the end result?

Quickie project has now taken me three days and a load of frustration. I'm going to reknit it AGAIN because I WANT THIS HAT DAMNIT. I'm probably going to add another cable column instead of more purl stitches, but need to sit down and work the math on it to make sure that I'm not going to be knitting this frigging thing a fourth time. I am irritated that I have to do this. The point of using a pattern to knit something is so I don't have to do the math myself, and all of this could have been avoided if the designer had just taken two frigging seconds to sit down with a ruler and her finished hat, and say "I got X number of stitches to the inch" on her pattern. Because the only way she could have gotten an adult-sized hat out of the numbers she posted is if she's an abnormally loose knitter, which would have also been nice to know.

In the meantime, I'm setting this aside because I can't look at the yarn without wanting to hurl it across the room. Probably later this week I'll go back to it.

I'm also doing one of those yearly challenges that pop up on Rav. Last year I kept seeing the 10 in 2010 shawlette challenge, and wanted to get in on that but didn't find out about it until late spring, by which point it was too late because I'm not that crazy all the time. Well, this year I joined up with the 11 Sweaters in 2011, because I need more sweaters. Of course, I haven't started knitting any sweaters yet, but hey, it's only the third week of the year, I've still got time. I have lots of plans for sweaters, so that's something, yeah?

I'm also planning on doing 52 books in 52 weeks this year. I've always wanted to do it, but back in college I was going through a book to a book and a half per day so 52 books in a year wasn't even remotely a challenge to me, so I never bothered. And then after graduating, I pretty much stopped reading at all (for shame!) so I didn't do it then. Well, this is the year, and I'm actually on track with that so far, so I think I'm going to post them on here just to keep myself motivated. But in separate posts. Yep.

another new year!

The first of January is probably my favorite day out of the whole year. It's better than my birthday, better than Christmas, even better than Halloween! Waking up on January first feels like turning to a fresh page, and the air practically vibrates with all the possibilities contained in the year ahead. It's a new beginning, a chance to lay to rest all of the negative things of the previous year, and to select the positive things to carry forward with me. The last half of 2010 was very hard for me, and I feel relieved to be able to leave that behind.

Silly, I know, because logically today is just a day, like any other day. Yesterday, or tomorrow... they won't be any different. But today still feels special, almost magical, to me.

Anyhow, enough of my mawkish ramblings. Time for the fun stuff: end-of-year knitting numbers and resolutions!

So, this year saw a total of 34 finished projects for (an estimated) 7,880 yards of yarn. That puts me far ahead of both 2008 and 2009 in number of finished projects, and ahead of 2009 for yardage, but I still haven't beat my yearly best of 9,979 from 2008. I blame the afghans of that year, but have a couple in the works for this year so, who knows.

And jeez, another year or so of this and I may have to resort to making charts so it's not just a big jumbled block of text peppered with numbers. Bleh.

And the resolutions!

1. I need to be better about housekeeping. Now that I've got a job that doesn't leave me physically and emotionally drained in my downtime, there's really no excuse for letting clutter build up on the dining room table or for not managing to drag the vacuum around more than once a week. And laundry! I mean, the machine does the work for me, there's no reason to let it pile up at all.

(this is more or less the same as my resolution from last year. I did manage to get my crafting room very organized, so I'm leaving that bit out.)

2. Last year I'd also wanted to be more productive knitting-wise, and I'd say I accomplished that quite handily. This year, I'd like to at least maintain that same level of productivity. I'd also like to get more projects for Jason finished. He's so completely and totally supportive of my hobby, and for whatever reason his stuff always seems to drop down to the bottom of my priority list. There are several projects in the works for him that I'd like to get finished up in the first part of the year, and several more that I'd like to get done by the end of the year.

3. Last year I'd also wanted to work through half of my stash yarn. That resolution was naive and utterly unrealistic. I'd also resolved to only purchase one new skein of yarn for each two I knitted up from the stash. That also didn't happen. However, while my stash didn't exactly shrink by any noticeable amount, it also didn't grow noticeably either, so I'm chalking that up as a draw.

This year, I'm going to be a bit more realistic. I'm still going to try very had to use up more stash yarn, but I'm also not going to place any restrictions on my yarn purchasing that will probably just end up broken several months into the year. I only use birthday and Christmas money to buy it, and I've got it confined to a modest stack of plastic containers. As long as it doesn't get any bigger this year, I'll call that a win.

4. My eating habits are quite appalling. Genetics have blessed me with a metabolism that allows me to eat like total crap and still weigh in at well under 100 lbs. So while I am thin, I am probably also not as healthy as I could be. This year I figure it's high time to finally become an adult about it and start eating better. More veggies, cut way back on the soda, try to eat less pre-packaged stuff. I also want to make an effort to quit eating out quite so much by cooking more at home. This will have the added benefit of saving $$$ in the long run.

5. I would like to start exercising more. My last job had me very active, on my feet all day, hauling around large pots of soup, and putting large orders away. I used to enjoy looking at the order invoices for the net weights so I could say "Yeah, go me! I just shifted around a total of 1200 lbs!" Well, my new job has me sitting on my butt in front of a computer screen for most of the day. I've been learning to hoop dance, which is good cardio, but I need to do something to build up a little more muscle.

6. Last year I said I wanted to both read more and work on my writing more. Working at a library has kickstarted my appetite for new books, but I'm still not writing a lot. It's just hard to get motivated with Sarah not around anymore to read my work and keep me motivated or work as a sounding board for ideas and plotlines. But I really love writing and need to put more effort into it.

Overally, I think these are pretty realistic goals that I might actually stand a chance at achieving this year. So here's to hoping! I've got a good feeling about 2011.

happy new year

Yep, it's that time again! Sitting back for a moment and reflecting back upon the last year. It's been a big one for me -- bought my first house, adopted a couple of beautiful Siamese kittens, got married... It's been a year of milestones for me.

I thought it'd been a big year for me knitwise as well, but I was surprised to learn that I was actually far less productive than I was last year.

2009 saw:
--22 total finished projects
--5961 yards of yarn used up

As compared to 2008...

--24 finished projects
--9,979 yards of yarn used up


I'd only finished two more projects in 2008, and for a minute I didn't feel so bad, until I realized that 3 of my 2008 projects were crocheted afghans. Yikes. I blame it on the fact that what with moving into my new house I lost a lot of knitting time. And the fact that I've just been lazy...

So, resolutions...

1. Keep more organized in all aspects of my life. Need to keep more on top of housework, and keep my knitting and yarn more organized.

2. I need to be far more productive knittingwise. I have several large WIPs I need to get done, and I have some projects I've had planned out forever that I'd like to finish up as well.

3. I want to work through at least half my stash this year. No more buying yarn I don't have a project in mind for, and I'm only allowing myself to buy one skein of yarn for every two I work though from my stash. Realistically, as long as I can get my stash to fit comfortably on its shelf I'll be happy.

4. I want to work on my writing more this year. I want to have my book finished by summer, and ideally have a good chunk of the first in the trilogy rewritten.

5. I want to read more. For some reason I've stopped reading as much as I used to and I really want to get back to that.

Here's to hoping 2010 is even better than last year!

end of year stats

So, out of curiosity, I sat down and calculated more or less just how much knitting (and crocheting) I've done this year. Since I don't have all of the FOs with me, I had to estimate a few of the stitch counts on various projects. I also didn't take into account projects or sections of projects I ended up frogging.

So, totals!

FOs - 24

Yardage - 9,978.6

Stitch count - 38,947

I'd also be interested to know just how many hours I've spent playing with yarn this year, but that's something I couldn't even begin to estimate. It's definitely a big number, though.

I'm going to try to keep better track of things this year, just to see how it compares with last year. Of course, I always start out the new year with all sorts of things I've said I'm going to do, and then lose interest a month or so in. Though I think I've been realistic in setting my New Year's Resolutions this year...

1. Try to keep my home a bit more organized. This means keeping on top of cleaning and laundry and such.

2. Keep in closer contact with family and friends. I'm usually pretty bad about talking to people. I think about my family and out-of-town friends almost constantly, but rarely take initiative in keeping up with them. I need to be better about this.

3. Finish more knitting projects than I start! Seriously. This probably won't happen, but I'm going to make a serious stab at it.

4. Be more consistent updating here!

Thanks for reading, all, and I wish you all lots of happiness and luck in the coming year!