Crazy

Am I crazy that I think these would be fun to knit? Yeah, I thought so.

BTW, update on the pop resolution: Monday was day 1 for purchasing only one bottle o' caffeine a week. It was tough, but I made it. I expect day 2 will prove much more difficult.

Happy Groundhog Day

And what a better day to revisit ye old New Year's Resolutions. Let's start with the

Knitty

1. Knit less. See the sewing and weaving. Sure, nothing is finished, but it was time spent on crafts other than knitting.
2. Knit in color. Cha-ching my blog-reading friends! Bonus story: walking across campus with my boss. She turns and asks what brand my hat is - she likes it, looks warm. I held out my hands and said I made it - with these. A priceless event.
3. Finish Na Craga. No where near completion, but I at least excavated the basic parts.
4. Finish the tea lights. No comment.
5. Finish the plain gray sweater. No comment.
6. Knit more Christmas gifts. Check - started my first pair of Jaywalkers, which will end up a gift for someone.

Personal resolution
Step 1 - success to date. I have purchased no soda in the grocery store, not even the 99 cent cups at the checkout. Well, almost. My boss has started bringing 2 liters to work - for everyone to share. I do partake one or two (or three?) cups a week. I think it's only fair that I purchase a bottle in exchange. Don't you agree?

New Year, New Resolution

Previously, I outlined my knitting resolutions. Today, I’m going all-out with the boredom factor to detail my one and only personal resolution (aside from getting a new job).

Resolution: Stop drinking so much soda*.
Odds of succeeding: nil.

Merriam Webster defines resolution as:

1. The act or process of resolving.
2. The subsidence of a pathological state.
3. Something that is resolved.

No wonder most resolutions fail. Goodness, what is a resolution but crossing your arms, stomping your foot and saying, ‘There. I fixed it.’ There. I stopped drinking soda. Except no, I haven’t.

Resolution is such a vague term that this year I’m going to use the much more apt terminology of goal setting.

Now setting a goal can also spell trouble. However, I am flush with incite into goals. In scientific teaching, we say that a goal is something with a measurable outcome. Revisiting my Resolution, I need to add some component that I can quantify. For example:

Goal: I will drink soda only when at a restaurant.
Measurable component: I can count the number of times I buy soda in the grocery store or a vending machine on campus.

That’s very nice, you might say. Let’s call it a day. Unfortunately, I don’t know how or when I’ll get to that goal. At the dojo, we say that a goal is a resolution with a written plan and deadline. Once again, let’s revisit that Resolution, now a Goal.

Goal: I will drink soda only when at a restaurant.
Step 1: I will not buy soda at the grocery store. This means no cans or bottles AND it means no 99 cent cups at the checkout counter. Deadline: January 1, 2010.
Step 2: I will buy no more than one soda from a vending machine in any given week. This means I will need to bring something from home – likely water or iced tea. Deadline: March 1, 2010.
Step 3: I will buy no soda from vending machines. Deadline: May 1, 2010.

The astute reader will notice that one deadline has passed. I am holding steady after 1 shopping trip and successfully resisted purchasing either a case of soda or a cup of soda at the checkout. I feel okay about this knowing I can still buy a bottle of soda at work, if I need to. I’ve got some time to survey my beverage options (are Margaritas okay at work? No? Are you sure?), make sure I’ve got proper vessels for transport and get past those withdrawal headaches.

There you have it. My over-analyzed, three-step program for kicking the soda habit.

*You should know that I am ashamed to admit that when I first typed this, I used pop instead of soda.

Knitting Resolutions

It's been two years since I made any knitting resolutions - or at least since I publicly professed them. I'll come right out and say that I like making resolutions. I like the idea of starting the year off on the right foot with small, accomplish-able goals. Also, it involves making a list and I, like so many others, love writing lists.

2010 Knitting Resolutions

1. Knit less. I know! Sacrilegious! But I dearly love sewing and find that I only sew when a deadline looms. It's time to get in touch with the recreational sewer and finish a few quilts and make some clothes and toys for the girls.
2. Knit in color. Intarsia, Fair Isle, I'm gonna learn to love you this year, even if it means knitting slower than a snail in mud.
3. Finish Na Craga.
4. Finish the tea lights.
5. Finish the plain gray sweater.
6.  Knit more Christmas gifts. Socks and scarves all around!

 How about you? Any knitting resolutions or are such things verboten?

Happy Christmas to those who celebrate. Next week, the blog is on vacation but I promise to photograph Norah as knitting progresses.

2007 Knitting Resolutions: March Update

Well, we’re two months into 2007. Let’s look at how well I’ve been keeping the promises I made to myself.

1. Knit from my stash.
Busted with the purchase of enough cotton yarn to knit Baby Jeneric a sweater. This uses my get-out-of-jail-free card. Can I make it to May and Maryland?

2. Projects in the Queue:
a. Na Craga. Baby steps, baby steps! Every day, I’m one pattern repeat (or half a repeat) closer to being done. As of today, I’m about halfway through the sweater front. My goal is do have this completed by July so I can enter it into our urban county fair.
b. Baby sweater with NZ wool. Rethinking the use of this wool for a sweater. Some knitted toys or pillows might be better.
c. Kittiwake. No progress.
d. Sunrise circle jacket. No progress.

4. Spin more. Lots more. Oh yes, I’ve been spinning! Just this past week, I tired of spinning the ‘cheap, dull’ pencil roving I’d purchased for practice. I pulled off the bobbin, set it on a shelf, and unearthed the beautiful merino/silk roving I’d purchased nearly 2 years ago at Rhinebeck. A wise spinner once said, “spin with the best you can afford.”

5. Think about knitting fair isle. Yep, about once a week, I look at Eunny’s Anemoi’s mittens (which, in my head, I call anemone).

Not too bad, eh?

Resolution Update

But first, a very happy Groundhog day to everyone. Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow this morning, which means we’ll have an early spring. Of course, this assumes we’ve had a winter and except for a few cold days, we’ve had a very mild season.

On this festive day (and for my first post in February), I thought I’d see how well I’d done with my Knitting Resolutions.
1. No yarn purchases. You can check my credit card statements and ask my family. I have purchased no yarn this month.
2. Projects in the queue. I’ve only had time to work on Na Craga and startitis has only manifested in the form of one scarf and some socks, both knit from well-marinated stash yarn.
3. Finish documenting FOs from 2006. I believe this is done, although they are not yet available for your viewing pleasure. I need to set up a Flickr gallery.
4. Spin more. Yep, I’ve failed on this as the wheel has sat idle for the entire month. On quiet days, I can hear the wheel weeping.
5. Think about fair isle. I’m happy to report that I have done this, mostly because I find these mittens irresistible. Eunny notes that this pattern is ideal for knitters comfortable knitting two colors in the round or adventurous novices comfortable reading charts. I definitely fall into the latter category. Should I take the jump?
6. Walk 100 miles. If you do the math, that means I needed to have walked 33 miles in January. I managed to walk 24.1 miles (these miles are in addition to the miles I already walk around campus). I’m short about 9 miles and I don’t see myself making up the difference in February (it’s a short month after all). I do have plenty of excuses, though! I’m a new mom (to a nearly 3-month old), trying to keep house, finish a PhD and do a little work on the side (you know, to earn money to feed the aforementioned 3-month old). Even though I didn’t reach the goal, and likely won’t by April 1, I’m still getting into better shape (as opposed to my pregnancy, I-ate-a-beach-ball shape).

Potential Resolution Conflicts
1. I do not have yarn to knit fair isle. Does this indicate how small my stash really is? Or does this reveal my fear of color knitting?
2. There is a family wedding in June. I’ve got a little monkey who will need a cotton sweater (Did I mention the wedding is in Minnesota?). I have no cotton in the stash (that’s a lie. There is one ball of Sugar & Cream, but that’s inappropriate for frilly sweaters). Can I count this sweater as a gift, both to the baby and the bride & groom to be (after all, cold babies howl and can ruin the loveliest of moments)? Do I con someone into purchasing the yarn for me? Do I use up my exception already?

Broken Resolutions?

A while back, I posted my knitting resolutions for 2007. In the comments, Teresa brought up a potential threat to my resolve: the annual Knit-a-Bit sale. Held on Super Bowl Sunday (the store owners are marketing geniuses), the sale used to be 40% off everything in the store. Yes, everything. In the past year, however, they have implemented the ‘yard line’ policy. Some items are on the 20 yard line, and thus are 20% off; there is a 30 yard line and a 40 yard line – you get the idea. Not as great a sale as before, but still pretty darn good for a yarn store.

This will be my third year attending this sale and I don’t believe I will be breaking any resolutions. To wit:
1. I said nothing about books, needles or notions. Since I have a major cable addiction these days, I’ll be checking out Melissa Leapman’s Cables Untangled. I’m also in need of some stitch markers and I really ought to peruse my needle collection and see if I shouldn’t augment it in some way.
2. Gift yarn is an exception and wouldn’t you know it? I have a gift I need to knit! Granted, it’s a simple hat and scarf combo, but I am looking forward to picking out yarn for this project. This ought to fill my need to purchase yarn. Anyone want to take bets on whether I fall off the wagon?

2007 Knitting Resolutions

I’ve recently accepted that I love to make lists (like other knitters). To do lists, don’t do lists, lists of things to buy, places to go, things to do. It seems only natural then, for me to share my 2007 Knitting to do/don’t do list.

1. Knit from my stash. This has been going ‘round and while my stash is meager by many standards, I’m not comfortable with its size. Since I’ve a new baby to tend, I don’t have much spare time or money to shop for yarn, so it makes sense.
Rules:
R1. No yarn purchases for 9 months, January 1 – September 30.
R2. Exceptions:

a. Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival
b. Yarn for gifts may be purchased if I have nothing suitable.
c. If, in the course of a project, I run out of yarn I must purchase yarn to finish the project.
d. I am allowed to receive gift yarn (not that this happens often, but occasionally a kind friend visits New Zealand and sends me yarn).
e. I am allowed to binge just once in the next nine months.

R3. Should the stash be exhausted before September 30, I am allowed to resume yarn purchasing on a project-by-project basis.

2. Projects in the Queue (don’t you just love that word?):

• Na Craga. This is an Alice Starmore Aran that I am knitting for my 6’ 4” husband. It may get done for Christmas 2007.
• Baby sweater. No pattern determined, but I have a great deal of New Zealand wool in need of a project.
• Kittiwake. Another Starmore pattern, this time a hat. I’ve got one hat already, but I have yarn enough for a second (and maybe a third) and a few relatives who’d look good in this hat.
• Sunrise circle jacket. I don’t have yarn for this project, so it might need to wait until I’ve exhausted the stash, September 30 or MD Sheep and Wool.

3. Finish documenting FOs from 2006. Ahem. This means taking pictures and trying to remember project specifications. I’m hoping this blog thing will help me stay on top of this for 2007.

4. Spin more. Lots more. Now that my ankles have returned to a normal size (gotta love the pregnant woman’s water retention), pushing the treadle should no longer cause pain.

5. Think about knitting fair isle.

6. Walk 100 miles by April 1. As of today, I’m at 3.5 miles, with a 1.5 mile walk scheduled for this evening.