:Spinning:

I guess I should do a round up like everyone else right? LOLOL! As I went through my stuff, I did more things than I remembered; that was pretty exciting for me since I feel like a crafting bum. But I guess as they say … they proof is in the pudding so here it is … 😛

Clay Star

Mistletoe

Stitch Markers

Charity Blanket Square

Love Bombs

Love Bombs II

Hat Battle

Hat

First Sock

Fabric Painting

First Sweateer

Second Dye Job

Ombre Coasters

Second Dye Job

Charity Blanket Squares

First Dye Job

Tunisian Crochet

Peppermint Body Scrub

Crochet Cowl

Faux round swatch

First adult sweater swatch

This year, I:

Dyed yarn
Made body products
Crocheted a cowl that was gifted
Made a hat
Started my first sock
Made my first sweater
Experimented making clay ornaments
Messed around with fabric painting
Crocheted coasters
Blinged out some felt
Messed around with some tunisian crochet
Did my first test knit/crochet — made love bombs for this talented lady
Made stitch markers
Swatched my first adult sweater
I introduced my newest knitting mascot — Pablo while working on a basic cowl. I need to add some single crochet to the edges to finish this baby. I’ll do that while I’m home this week!

and I even cranked up my sewing machine to make a rice heat pack as a swap gift (which incidentally is the last installment in my craft book challenge this year).

Not too shabby but I know with some better time management I could have done more. Now that I’ve cranked up the sewing machine, I want to do more stitching. God help me. I don’t need another rabbit hole to fall down.

For 2014, I want to:

Work through the entire Simple Collection from TincanKnits
Complete at least 20 projects / 14 new techniques via knitting and crochet. These techniques include thrumming, colourwork (fair isle and intarsia), conquering knitting in the round with dpns and magic loop, cables (don’t find them hard just never completed a project with cables), lace, garment construction.
Include in the 20 projects at least 2 sweaters, 2 shawlettes, 2 pairs of socks and a blanket or two.
Try … I said try … 😛 .. to make at least 25 handmade decorations for my Christmas tree for use Christmas 2014 (g.w)
Reacquaint myself with Violet aka Vivi (my sewing machine named by my cousin Anita. Yeah I know … all my toys and tools have names. What?!!!! Don’t yours? LOLOL!). Stitch some potholders, a set of table mats and a swing coat (yes, I said a coat). My sewist extraordinaire BFF gave me a pattern 3 years ago that she expects to be completed this year. No exceptions. Oye vey the pressure!!!! 😀
Spin at least 10 braids of roving in 2014.
Complete at least two cross-stitch pieces.
Leave #teamstartitis and join #teamFO
Practice some monogamous crafting instead of starting all the thingz!

Stop saving free patterns on Ravelry. I’ll never be able to make all the thingz; I need to focus on the wonderful patterns I have already in my library.
Schedule crafting days and stick to said schedule. Poor time management stopped me from crafting as much as I could have in 2013.

It’s an ambitious list, especially given the fact that my commute takes up four hours of my day and work renders me useless once I leave the office most days. But I have to intentionally do the things that benefit me and make me feel good and crafting does that.

Think I’m crazy? That’s okay! Just hold this list over my head when I start whining about. how tired and frustrated I am! Seriously … I’d love you forever if you don’t let me slack off. 😀 It’s high time for me to move from newbie status to intermediate — for crochet, knitting and general crafting. And the only way I can do that is to craft, craft, craft!!!!

What are your crafty resolution for the upcoming year?

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Over the Thanksgiving holiday I started a hat. It wasn’t working; I didn’t like the seam that was being created when I changed between the knit and purl rows. So I frogged it. I used to look at knitters who had no issue starting over the same projects multiple times or a new project when the old one wasn’t working with awe, but I understand now. If it’s not working, there’s no point in continuing. Starting over is an opportunity to get it right; it’s an opportunity to do something that is worth my time and effort. And this principle works for so much more than knitting. It works for life.

So this:

has become this:

Me and Pablo (my penguin stitch-marker) cranked about two inches of this cowl out early this morning in the laundry mat. The one in my building is out of service … again 🙄 … so I had to go to one three blocks away. Because it’s too much to go home in between washing and drying, going there this morning gave me some uninterrupted knitting time. 😀 I really am enjoying working on this and I’m so glad I decided to give in to starting over. I can’t wait to finish this project! It felt good knitting after a too long break.

As for my “Cyber Monday” shenanigans — my misbehavior started one week early (Cyber Monday’s officially tomorrow). Knitpicks started their Cyber Monday sale early. Despite my “I will NEVER shop with KP again” proclamation after that poorly handled credit card breach situation in January of this year, I tested the waters once again. I was one of the customers caught in the debacle who wasn’t formally notified and I kinda felt like this, but I wanted some “play” roving to test some spinning techniques (since I’m basically teaching myself how to spin from books and Youtube) so I got these:

Wool of the Andes Roving

and these — Full Circle Roving:

I hope I don’t have to pay for shopping with them after a year with another breach issue. Their products and prices are pretty decent and it’s the affordability of their workhorse yarns that allowed me to move from working solely with acrylic yarn to natural fibers. While I don’t have the strong negative feelings I had initially after the issue, I’m still cautious buying from them. But in the meantime … I’m pretty chuffed (according to my British cousins) about the “play” roving I got. 😀