31 December, 2011

December 2011: Wrap-Up

Here it is, kittens. The last yardage tally for 2011. These are some of the only posts I managed to keep up this year.



Yardage Totals 2011



January: 1071 yds
February: 762 yds
March: 1189 yds
April: 1083 yds
May: 849 yds
June: 487 yds
July: 222 yds
August: 687 yds
September: 405 yds
October: 436yds
November: 216yds
December: 813 yds



Year to date: 8,220 yds or 4.67 miles



All-in-all, not a bad way to end things. See you all next year! ;D

29 December, 2011

2011 Stash Down: Final Post

Well, kittens. There's definitely no more yarn to be out these next two days, and there's no yarn coming in. May as well wrap the year up, eh?


2011 Stashdown Q1:

Yardage In: 15,254
Yardage Out: 1,737
Net Stash Change: +13,517
Ratio (yds out/in): .114




2011 Stashdown Q2:

Yardage In: 880
Yardage Out: 4,286
Net Stash Change: -3,406
Ratio (yds out/in): 4.87




2011 Stashdown Q3:

Yardage In: 1,975
Yardage Out: 2,125
Net Stash Change: -150
Ratio (yds out/in): 1.08




2011 Stashdown Q4:

Yardage In: 1,728
Yardage Out: 2,388
Net Stash Change: -660
Ratio (yds out/in): 1.38




2011 totals:

Yardage In: 19,837
Yardage Out: 10,536
Net Stash Change: +9,3011
Ratio (yds out/in): .531




So yes, my stash did increase in size. (The vast majority of it yarn for a blanket I haven't finished yet, but have knit 1/3 of the way through...I can't wait to see that number as stash out next year.) But despite the large amount of yardage in Q1, I did really well every other quarter...even though really low productivity tried to thwart my efforts. And considering all of that, the ratio is not bad at all.

As we're always telling newer members in the Stashdown group, this is a process. It doesn't work overnight and it takes time to change habits. I've been pretty pleased to see the changes in my purchasing habits since starting Stashdown in 2010. Let's compare some numbers. (The first number is my 2010 yardage in while the second is my 2011 yardage in.)

Q1: 6,681 vs. 15,254 (There's that blanket yardage. :P )
Q2: 7,014 vs. 880
Q3: 7,591 vs. 1,975
Q4: 19,553 vs. 1,728


I'm really happy with where I am purchasing wise, but 2011 was a bad year for productivity. I'm hoping 2012 will change that and I'll be seriously in the green. I should finally reach my original goal of fitting all of my stash into that under-bed tote! Some people may find the fact that it's taken over 2 years to reach this goal a bit depressing, but I'm OK with it. All of the changes I've made to my behavior will allow me to maintain a perfect-for-me sized stash in the future.

How about you, kittens? Was 2011 good to you and your goals?

05 December, 2011

I promised FOs, right?

Well kittens, I'm going to try and post some up even if I have little to say about them. (That's the problem with not blogging right away; you forget everything.) I've spent a lot of this year knitting toys and small items...which are not my favorite thing to knit. And yet, it seems to be just about all I've managed to get done this year besides a pair of socks. 2011 has been a rather awful year for crafting. :P









This trio was finished in early July and finally went off to live with Laurie's family in early October. I am a huge flake; it's just how I am. I always bite off more than I can chew and then get bogged down in wanting to do things perfectly which causes me to get nothing done at times. I'm glad they're finally in their new home. :)

I've posted the Angry Birds pattern before, and last I heard, the woman who wrote the patterns was contacted by the game company to cease and desist selling them. It's a shame.

The stegosaurus is a pattern from here (Ravel it). I wish I could remember more about it. I decided to use inexpensive felt for the scales instead of knitting them. I took inspiration from this project and plan to copy it for myself some day.

The owl pattern is a bit special to me since my friend Rachel designed it for her own daughter. Rachel is a friend I made back at our last duty station, and I wish we could have had a bit more time to play together. She does not have a blog, but she does have an Etsy shop if you're looking for cute embellished hats, and you can find the owl pattern on Ravelry. It's very well-written and easy to understand; she did a great job with it. Did I mention it's free to boot? You can use any weight yarn you want to achieve the size owl you desire. If you have anyone to knit a baby gift for, or children on your list for the winter holidays, I highly recommend this one.










This little guy is another present, this time for a friend of The Boy. He was invited to his first ever birthday party in September, and I wanted to send him with something unique to give to his friend. (She loved it, btw.) So in a very short time (4 days), I whipped this up to send with him. I was literally finishing it about the time the party was supposed to start, so I never did get a decent picture of it. (This one came from my camera phone.)

Susan is very inspirational to me, and I got the idea for a mini Jerry after seeing her adorable one. (Seriously, check out her entire Ravelry project page; she does some amazing work.) I used leftovers from my first rainbow stripey sock and a little Knit Picks palette and that was it. Little monkeys are kind of futzy, but oh so cute.




I think that's enough for now. I'll try to post again shortly with some more FOs. I'm hoping 2012 will be a better year in general, and I'll get back to posting more regularly. I hope 2011 has been treating all of you kittens well!

01 December, 2011

November 2011 Wrap-up

Yardage Totals 2011



January: 1071 yds
February: 762 yds
March: 1189 yds
April: 1083 yds
May: 849 yds
June: 487 yds
July: 222 yds
August: 687 yds
September: 405 yds
October: 436yds
November: 216yds



Year to date: 7,407 yds or 4.21 miles





Kittens, those of you on social networking sites with me already know that November was an awful month for our household. On Veteran's Day, we were in a fairly serious car wreck, and while I did not have to be hospitalized for my injuries, I've been spending most of my time recovering. I hit my tailbone pretty good and sitting down for any length of time was just not an option for awhile. We're all OK and the other driver is too, but it really should be no surprise that I wasn't able to be as productive as I wanted. This also means I haven't been able to edit some photos of recent FOs, and I hope to have those coming in the next month. (I'm just glad that I didn't attempt to do the November blog-a-day challenge this year!)

I hope all of you have been doing well and are gearing up for a merry holiday season. ♥