20 November, 2013

Knot A Podcast: Episode 49


Knot A Podcast: Episode 49 from SewKnitpicky on Vimeo.


♥ Please come join us in the Ravelry group!
♥ You can also find the podcast on YouTube if you'd prefer to watch there. Please remember to give my videos a thumbs up!


Show Notes: "Public Shaming"

♥ There are a few days left to enter the DDD raffle if you are so inclined!  You could win 3,6, or 12 months' worth of free yarn on her sock or worsted base.
Subversive Socks is a fun new pattern book release.  I was mistaken about the pattern numbers in this book.  There are 14 of them for $16.95.  These are some of my favorite patterns from it.

FOs:
Scooby-Doo Sockhead-like hat

WiPs:
Vintage Sockhead-like hat
Blanket O' Dooooom is back in rotation!  Mentioned the Bear Claw Blanket and Modern Log Cabin.

Queued Up:
Fruit Stripe Gum Socks --  mentioned Lollipalooza!
♥ Frances the Sock Wearing Fox

Spinning A Yarn:
♥ Hanks in the Hood batt: the end is near!

Stitcher's Corner:
♥ Halloween Spooky Sampler by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery

Stash Enhancement:
Chinese circular needles
Pretty Purly stitch markers

15 November, 2013

2013 Crafting goals: revisited

I'm not going to lie, kittens.  I went off-track from my crafting goals pretty early on in the year and then neglected to recheck them to remind myself what all it was I wanted to do.  Earlier in the week I started to wonder how I had done on my goals...had I even made some this year?  It turns out I had, and  I was not alone in this line of thought.  I felt the time is right to revisit my goals and see how well I have done with them.

All of this is prep-work for my 2014 craft goals...of course.  You all know how I love that kind of thing.  I have a few more weeks to refine them and smooth out the rough edges.  Hard to believe the end of 2013 is nigh, isn't it?

So.  Let's review, shall we?


Crafting Goals for 2013:

♥ Work on Giftmas crafts throughout the year, preferably one every other month.
   - 2 pairs of adult socks
   - 1 pair of socks for each of my children
   - a custom designed "wolfie" doll for The Girl
   - a Batman doll for The Boy
   - small ornaments for family and teacher gifts
   * I have most of the yarn on-hand already for these projects.

> NONE OF THIS ONE HAPPENED.  NOT EVEN A LITTLE.  I'M JUST NOT A GIFTMAS KNITTER.  0%  accomplished


♥ Knit 4 pairs of socks for myself out of existing stash.  At least 2 should be self-striping.

>  I MANAGED 2 PAIR: 1 WAS SELF-STRIPING.  50% accomplished


♥ Knit my winter coat. (This will be a 30 point project due to the amount of work and complexity. Point system to be detailed later in this post.)

> I DREW DIAGRAMS AND THOUGHT ABOUT IT...DOES THAT COUNT? NO? 0% accomplished


♥ Knit The Husband's socks before he leaves on his business trip. He has US size 13 feet: hold me, kittens.

>BUSINESS TRIP WAS CANCELLED.  SOCKS WERE STARTED TOP-DOWN.  NEED TO RIP AND RESTART TOE-UP.  0% accomplished


♥ Design a Shiba Inu toy and write up pattern.

> NOPE. 0% accomplished


♥ Finish Goodale sweater plus at least 2 others from stash.

> GOODALE. CHECK. POMME DE PIN. CHECK.  3RD SWEATER...LIKELY NOT FINISHED BY END OF DECEMBER.  67% accomplished


♥ Finish The Boy's wide stripes blanket.

> NOT FINISHED, BUT COULD BE.  ~90% accomplished


♥ Finish the queen sized bed quilt.

> NOPE.  DID DO A LITTLE MORE QUILTING HERE AND THERE.   55% accomplished


♥ Start new king sized bed quilt.

> NOPE. 0% accomplished


♥ Cross stitch 2012's Dessert of the Month sampler and start on 2013's Woodland Sampler.

> 2012 DESSERT SAMPLER.  CHECK.  2013 WOODLAND SAMPLER.  NOT STARTED...YET.  THIS ONE IS VAGUE AND COULD BE EASILY DONE BEFORE THE END OF NEXT MONTH. 50% accomplished


♥ Only purchase yarn that has been earned with the "points system" to help keep stash in numbers low this year.  The system is a little rough, but I think it could work.

> AHAHAHAHAHA.  POINTS SYSTEM WAS A DEFINITE FAIL.  I STASHED SUPER HARD EARLY ON.  I DID GET BETTER THE SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR.  0% accomplished



There are a lot of zero percents on that list and no one hundreds, but it does look like, overall, I managed to knock out some large goals I had wanted to accomplish in the year.  If you add what I wanted to get done with what I had actually gotten done...I've been pretty productive.  It's looking good so far.  Maybe I can turn one or two of those into 100%ers. ^_^

If you made goals, have you revisited them, kittens?  How have you done?  Did your focus change over the course of the year?

13 November, 2013

Knot A Podcast: Episode 48




♥ Please come join us in the Ravelry group!
♥ You can also find the podcast on YouTube if you'd prefer to watch there. Please remember to give my videos a thumbs up!


Show Notes: "Finding A Balance"

Wool People 6 just came out!
♥ Check out Jenna's "Frances the Sock Wearing Fox"!

FOs:
Dirty Socks

WiPs:
Sockhead style hat
Make A Wish

Spinning A Yarn:
♥ Hanks in the Hood "Neon Tetra"

Stitcher's Corner:
♥ Halloween Spooky Sampler

Sew-cial Events:
♥ Noodlehead's Open Wide Bag tutorial

06 November, 2013

Knot A Podcast: Episode 47




♥ Please come join us in the Ravelry group!
♥ You can also find the podcast on YouTube if you'd prefer to watch there. Please remember to give my videos a thumbs up and help with my search engine ranking.


Show Notes: "Focus, Kitten."

♥ Michelle is looking to raise funds to set up her dye studio in a commercial space.  Have a look if you'd like to enter a raffle for a chance at a skein of worsted or fingering weight yarn a month for 3,6, or even 12 months!

WiPs:
Spooky Socks - improvised design.  US size 0 needles (2.0mm) and Knit Picks Felici sock yarn.
Make A Wish- Joji Locatelli.  US size 4 needles.  Skein Merino Cashmere Fingering in "Hush."
- Using the Knit app to track my rows on this one.

Spinning A Yarn:
Hanks in the Hood center pull batt in "Neon Tetra"

Stash Enhancement:
Heavier beads for my Trindle
Nest Fiber BFL

01 November, 2013

October 2013: Wrap-up

Yardage Totals 2013:


January: 869yds
February: 1,038yds
March:  1,100yds
April:  1,251yds
May: 1,112yds
June: 452yds
July: 453yds
August: 169yds
September: 781yds
October: 815yds


Year To Date: 8,040yds or 4.57 miles



I am slowly but surely knitting away yardage this year!  October's was very hard earned: it was all fingering weight projects or toys.  Two things that go slow and it seems like they use so little yarn for the effort put in.  As the weather cools and I continue to work on my time management, I hope to up my monthly yardage just a little.  I can totally end the year with at least 10,000yds knit, right?

How about you, kittens? Have you all been productive with knitting...or are you maybe focusing on other things like reading or other crafts?