Four

I finished my fourth hat of the year this week. It was fast and fun!



The Hurricane hat

I used some random marl yarn that I found while digging through the stash. It worked well for the pattern. The hat is slightly too large for me. I need it to be a bit more tight around the ribbing and less deep, but it works for days when I have giant hair.

Collage made with photovisi!

2

I finished my Cabled Rangoli Hat tonight. It's very nice and I'm glad I made the adjustments I made. It's my second hat for the 11 hats in 2011 challenge.



Mods & Notes:

- Added 6 rows to ribbing.

- I have no clue how to do a m2. I’ve looked it up in my books, via google, and here on Ravelry with not much luck. This was the best I found: m2=m1 & opposite of KFB (B then F).

- Oops. Forgot the bobbles the first go around. I might omit the second set
too…

- Omitted second set of bobbles as well. I’m not really a bobble gal.

- I really don’t like the decreases for the crown in the cable. They show up
and look a bit sloppy. If I were to make this again, I’d do purl decreases along the edges of the cables.




My two skeins of WotA Kettle Dyed were COMPLETELY different looking as they were knit up. In the balls, they looked the same & they have the same dye lot. Had I not purchased these so long ago, I would have asked for an exchange or something. Once it was all knitted up, the line wasn't AS noticeable as I originally thought, but I can still tell.

A week late....

But Happy New Year anyway.

I'm not a big one for making resolutions or anything likes that, but I would like to take this break from school, Colorado, and my "normal" life to try to get myself into building some new habits and setting some goals for my year.

First goal, exercise more. But let's not call it exercise, let's call it being active. After moving to Colorado and almost immediately screwing my knee up and then spending months and months on the couch, I lost any momentum I had to get out. Colorado's environment has been tough for me to adjust too anyway. I need moisture and rain, and most importantly, oxygen. I know it sounds like a joke, but the change in altitude is something I've not adjusted to well. I'm constantly lethargic, which also ties into the fact that I'm not moving much... but when the two pile on top of it's a bad cycle of nothingness. I live in a great town for getting outside, and even if it's not my personal choice of places to live, I should take better advantage of things. Mom got me a wonderful collapsing hoop for Christmas and we've been hooping a lot. It's a great workout and really fun. I also have a lovely new bike that needs a lot of rides!

Second goal, maintain normal sleeping habits. Again, with the tiredness from the altitude and not getting enough exercise, more nothingness piles on with my terrible sleep. Sometimes, I just can't sleep. It's terrible, but I've have trouble sleeping for as I can remember. I'm usually able to keep up a decent sleep schedule the first few weeks of school, but then something happens, and I loose it. Luckily, being in a different time zone for the last 3 weeks has really worked to my advantage. Everything is 2 hours earlier here, so I can go to bed at midnight in NC which would be 10 in Colorado. I'd be happy with a bedtime around 11:30-12, so I'm going to make sure I keep that up. Keeping up a bedtime routine will be helpful too.

Third goal, put more effort into my knitting. Yes, I knit a lot, but I get distracted a lot and it takes me months to finish something that should take a matter of days or weeks. This goal also umbrellas more time and effort put into etsy. When I spend the time on Twitter and Facebook advertising it, I can see results. I need to make a schedule of times to post sales and new items. A certain block of time every other day to put time into making more sales.

Fourth goal, write out and test patterns to publish. I have a few sort of stashed up that need to be written up and tested out to make sure they work.

Fifth goal, don't buy yarn unless it's going to be immediately knit. I did a pretty good job of this last year, but since I'll be moving at some point this year, I really need to keep the stash small.

Sixth goal, knit from the stash and get it down to one storage bin. To help with this, I'm doing do a KAl type project with my knitting group. 12 projects for 2011. I'm also going to do 11 Hats in 2011.I've finished one already, having cast on for it before I joined the group. I'm hoping to complete more than 11, but I think 11 is a good jumping off point. I have a lot of random single balls of yarn that will make a nice collection. The KALs each month, and seeing what people are making will be fun.

Seventh goal, read 100 books in 2011. I did it in 2007 and tried again last year, but only made it to 62. Not bad, but I love reading and with the Kindle, I can do a lot more of it. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach when it comes to how much reading I can do, but it's something I really enjoy, so I don't mind pushing myself.

Eighth goal, graduate. I just want to be done at CU. I don't even want to write about it because it will make me want to shoot fire from my eyeballs.

Ninth goal, bake bread! My mom got me a wonderful book that came highly recommended by Emmy. (Buy it used for $10!!) I can't wait to get home and start making some treats. Hopefully, I can forgo having to buy any bread from the store.

Tenth goal, sew. I got a sewing machine a few Christmases ago and have yet to really use it. I have patterns, fabric, and all the supplies to make some skirts, I just haven't done it yet.

Since it's 2011, I'll aim for one more goal... Hmmm... Maybe try something completely new... that might be learning a new hobby or a new language, maybe writing on a really consistent basis. Not sure yet.