(mis)adventures of spindlerose

Ten on Tuesday: Intentions for 2011

Carole's 10 on Tuesday topic this week is 10 Intentions for 2011. For the past few years, I have avoided New Year's Resolutions because I try to live intentionally year round. Most of these intentions are not new for 2011; instead, they are continuations of intentions formed during the past year or so.

1. Buy a house. After 5 years in Virginia, D and I have concluded that we are here to stay, the real estate market has stabilized, and we are ready to be home owners again. I look forward to having my own space again, but I dread the process of getting there.
2. Pick up after myself. As my Christmas gift to D, I cleared my stuff off of all the flat surfaces in the living room and dining room. I was surprised by how little time it took. My newest habit is making sure those surfaces are clear at the end of every day as an ongoing gift to my husband who always picks up after himself.
3. Eat more fruits and vegetables. The bi-weekly produce boxes help with this, but I still do not think to grab a piece of fruit for afternoon snacks or toss together a salad at dinner time as often as I should.
4. Move more. Now that my back is better (that 3 month disappearance from the blog was mostly caused by a bulging disk and the time devoted to healing), I would like to get back to a serious yoga practice and running. I also need to continue working to strengthen my core so all those disks stay put.
5. Process photos after I take them. I just cleared 2 months of photos off of my camera which include several shots of finished knitting projects and all my pictures from SOAR. Most of our Paris shots are still untagged. I must keep this backlog from getting worse (and do something about the backlog). Why is taking pictures so much more fun than organizing them?
6. Join Spindlicity Stashdown 2011. This will also be my Productive Spinners Stashalong project for 2011. Between now and January 6, I will put together 12 projects to spin this year and finish the project I'm currently spinning on the Schacht-Reeves. Starting on January 6, I will work through a variety preps and blends and use my beautiful living room wheel most days.
7. Finish 12 pairs of socks. This is my third year attempting this. In 2010, I completed 10 pairs and 5 odd socks. This is enough knitting for 12 pairs but did not put 12 new pairs in use.
8. Finish or frog 12 WIPs. I started several new projects in 2010 and only finished 2 projects I started before 2010—and those do not really count as pre-2010 since I started them late in 2009 so they never languished as UFOs. I just counted, and I have 36 projects listed as WIP or hibernating on Ravelry right now. Between now and January 1, I will choose 12 and they will be finished or frogged by the end of 2011.
9. Continue to declutter. This will make moving a whole lot easier.
10. Blog more. This is a place to share what I'm up to and what I'm thinking about in a form longer than the few words of a Facebook update. I need to continue flexing my writing and photographing muscles, and this is the best place to share those efforts.

Happy New Year!

Sunday spinning

Sunday spinning, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

I spun half of the batt yesterday and half this afternoon. This is today's spinning. After I took the picture, I wound the cop off onto a TP tube (universal storage bobbin for the very cheap) for it's resting period. I will probably wait to ply it until Friday so I can use it as a demo for session two of my spindle spinning class.

Tonight while watching the Red Sox, I will finish one (of three) pair of socks in progress. Look for pictures tomorrow.

And she does it again

Tonight, the mystery sock looks like it did yesterday, complete with 3 sides of a sock on one coiled needle. I'd take another picture, but it's dark outside. Imagine another 20 rows of lace added to yesterday's progress. I think it might be time to move this project to serial knitting or to stop working on it when I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open.

Football and knitting don't always mix

Aargh, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Right around the time Aaron Rodgers threw his first quarter interception this afternoon, I grabbed the wrong tip and ended up with the mess above. Remember that I said that getting through the two socks on two circular needles would be a challenge for me? As you can see, I wasn't kidding.

Back on the road

Back on the road, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Yes, that is another sock in progress. Lizzy makes for excellent travel knitting once the little lace cuff is finished. I'll be trekking across Texas this week (Houston to Austin to Dallas) with hours in the passenger seat of a car.

Sweater for a foot?

Sweater for a foot?, originally uploaded by SpindleRose.

Worsted weight socks—even heavily cabled ones at 6.5 stitches per inch—are quick to knit. I started this sock on Thursday, knit some other stuff, and am already halfway through the foot of sock one. I expect to finish this sock tonight while D and I play another game of British Rails.

The pattern is Aran Sandal Socks (Ravelry Link) from Socks, Socks, Socks.

Challenging myself

If you know me, you know that I am a sock knitting traditionalist—one sock at a time on short DPNs. I will very rarely knit a sock on 2 circular needles, but I do not enjoy the process very much. I just cast on a mystery sock pattern; the designer publishes 4 clues during a month, and I try to keep up. In the past, I have knit mystery socks in tandem on DPNs with limited success (I think I've finished 2 pairs of mystery socks in the past two years of attempts). Since most of my size 1 DPNs are already in socks, and the circs were free, I decided to challenge myself and knit this mystery 2 at a time on 2 circs. Check back next week to see if I have strangled myself with a size 1 Addi Turbo.

Reorganizing

Please pardon the dust in the wool room. I acquired some shelves* and have been stuffing them with yarn and fiber.

This is most of my sock yarn. Seeing it all in one place is a little alarming. There is quite a bit of lovely stuff here. I need to knit faster, give away more socks (and perhaps yarn, too), and stop buying souvenir sock yarn when I travel.

*Shelf acquisition is bittersweet. I bought them from Knit Happens—at the going out of business sale. It is sad to lose the LYS that welcomed me after we moved from Boston

On becoming a finisher

Erin over at Unclutterer posted her third quarter resolutions this morning.

• Identify all of my unfinished projects.
• Finish ALL of my unfinished projects.
• Take on no new projects until all old projects are finished.

Anyone who knows me at all will not be surprised that those resolutions resonate with me. I have always struggled with finishing. My childhood bedroom (much like my home today) was filled with half-read books, half-sewn clothes, and craft projects in various states of completion. It took me an extra 11 years to graduate from college. Every now and then an uncluttering project unearths another notebook filled with ideas or lists of things to finish before I start something else. I spent much of June starting new knitting projects instead of finishing any of the nearly completed ones—that I want to wear. Even the half-marathon training project got side-tracked by a bad cold and business travel after the first month.

I'm not sure how well I will do at identifying all of my unfinished projects because I so rarely finish anything. I will maintain a running list of unfinished projects here at least through October. This will help me track my progress and force me to make decisions about abandoning projects that just aren't working. I will cross off the projects I finish or abandon and add new ones as I come across them. I don't think it's possible to list everything without tossing the entire house in the process.

I will finish things. Or I will abandon them and do something appropriate with the stuff associated with that project.

I know myself. Starting nothing new until every UFO is finished will not happen. There are days when I crave the feeling of new yarn on my needles or new fiber slipping through my fingers. At work, I rarely have control of when a new project will land on my desk or in my inbox. I will strive to keep the startitis under control and switch to a different unfinished project when I feel that urge to start something new.

My resolutions for the next 3 to 6 months:

• Maintain a mostly public running list of projects. I will keep a separate, non-public, list of work projects, but everything else will be posted to the list.
• Finish things.
• Be mindful about starting new projects. As Is there something already in progress that will do? before diving in.

Please keep me accountable to these plans.

Knitting Olympics!

In a few minutes, I will cast on my first pair of Olympic socks. My Olympic challenge this year is to knit as many (pairs of) socks as I can. My goal is 5 socks—two new pairs and a mate to an odd sock. I will knit both patterns from the January 2010 Rockin' Sock Club kit. The odd sock is the mate to a pair I cast on last April on the day I bought Socks from the Toe Up. I have a fourth pair in reserve, just in case I manage to knit faster than 3 days per sock.

I chose to challenge myself with lots of socks this year because I will be traveling a bunch during the games. I will visit Florida, Delaware, and California before the closing ceremonies. On the bright side, only one of those places is snowy.

It's time to pull out my yarn and needles, make a pot of tea, and get ready to cast on. Good luck to all my fellow knitting athletes!