goals

Well, it's October. Only 3 months left before the year is over. Time to review my goals.

(she says, as if she did this with any regularity or consistency).

I set myself a few knitting goals this year:


1) make my first shawl evar
2) try making a shetland or estonian lace shawl with my 1200 yds of red laceweight
3) Socks! at least 3 pairs, for myself
4) learn how to cable
5) felt for the first time evar
6) Steek!
7) finish all my UFO HAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAA


well at least #7 is accompanied by realistic laughter.

1) Goal Exceeded!

I did this back in April--I made a mini shawl from Araucania Multi, fingering weight, green and brown wool, mostly following EZ's pi shawl pattern but inventing a leafy lace edging as I finished it. Badly inventing, I might add. Then in May I did a Summer Flies shawl using some luscious purple Malabrigo sock yarn that made me drool. So on the regular shawl front, I have exceeded expectations

2) Prevented by Outside Forces

So I had fully intended to make Queen Silvia or the Crown Prince shawl from my book o estonian lace, but since that book got left at home for the half of the year I intended to knit it in, it was doomed from the start. But I am not one to be thwarted (bwahaha! okay at least when it comes to knitting!), so I cast on for Print o' the Wave with some tiny tiny purple cotton instead. This stuff is so thin I think it might be cobweb weight--it's more like sewing thread than yarn. I picked it up at Habu Textiles in April and I think I maybe should have asked them to ply it for me or something, but it's working up to a lovely stole/scarf--it might be too skinny to be a proper stole in this thread. Oh well.

3) Goal In Progress

This is a goal that I'm going to need to put some serious work in if I want to accomplish it this year. Things looked pretty good in August when I completed a pair of socks in +/- a week, but the September socks have become the October socks and the October socks have disappeared. Part of the problem is the September socks are the often thwarted pair I've described in the previous post--lots of ripping back. Fortunately the yarn is holding sturdy, and I'm at the ankle of the first sock from the pair. I still have a long way to go, but if I can finish them up in October and cast on for the third pair by November, I should be in good shape to finish by the end of the year.

4) Goal Accomplished!

I figured out that the trick to cabling is that you don't do it every bobdamned row (except for some cables). This is what I get for teaching myself by "basically understanding how it's done" as opposed to reading or even watching an internet video or, you know, following any directions whatsoever. What can I say? instead of learning how to cable, I foraged how to do it instead.

5) Prevented by Outside Forces

Again, this is a goal/project that got delayed due to my 6 months abroad. I finished knitting the item I want to felt--a small bag--but it's at home, awaiting my eventual purchase of a zipping laundry bag and my return to my abode and kittens. It will be an interesting event when it finally occurs. I also have a couple of small toys in progress that I plan to felt, so it's only the last step that awaits me.

6) Goal In Progress

But that is little progress indeed. I decided to add this goal this year when it became clear that felting wasn't going to happen, and when I finally started a sweater and realized they're not impossible. Now, the only progress I've made so far is to pick out a pattern--Knitty Deep Fall 2011's Takoma, don't ask me why, I just love it--but I haven't even acquired the yarn yet. Still, there's no better place for skinny, sticky wool, perfect for stranded knitting and steeking, than here. I have a hard time finding even worsted weight wool. And I'm in the middle of a pullover, so the odds of me finishing that and the steeky project by the end of the year are pretty slim. But I am going to try! (and more than that, I'm going to buy the yarn for a third sweater while I'm here. This wool+cotton blend is awesome and I think they have some tweedy colors too. I love the tweeds!)

7) HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

hahahahahahahahhhhahahahahhahahaha.

Like this was ever going to happen. Any progress has been in the opposite direction--I have tons of WIPs and planned projects (where I designate the yarn to something, but haven't cast on yet), but I'm lucky that I've finished 10% of what I've started :P


So, do you have goals for your knitting? I like to organize mine by year, but really these are more steps in a life time of goals than something that must be learned/done NOWNOWNOW. How do you do it? go about learning, and planning? or do you run willynilly into knitting? Not like there's anything wrong with that--sounds kind of fun.

off

It is an off day for me. The second of my two conferences is over, and my presentation is done. My flight leaves at 5 in the afternoon here, so I have some 4+ odd hours to fill before worrying about taxis and etc. Since I have no laptop charger (of all the damned things to forget at home) and I only have 2 hours of battery life left, I am snuggled into bed at the hotel, reading knitting blog archives and checking out the changing faces of the mountains from the window. Soon I'll go down and get some breakfast, take a shower, and knit on my sweater (hoping to finish the body before I get on the airplane today--there's only an inch or two left, and I have to figure out some sort of edging/bindoff that will prevent it from rolling and not ride up my hips), drop a box off to be mailed from the front desk, leave my luggage as I check out, arrange my transportation, and go to a local museum for an hour or two. Then I'll fly for one billion hours and get some sleep and knit some lace or some socks.

I do have some (read: 400) papers to read as new references from the conference. But that's all right, I will worry about them later.

What all am I knitting? For this trip I brought my in-progress sweater, the damnblue socks, and my current purple lace. I figured I only had 1 ball of sweater yarn left so I'd probably run out of it, and then I thought I would get more done on the socks during the actual conference itself (lots of time to knit during 10 hours of talks, but it turns out I was busy taking notes, running programs, and writing my very brief presentation). The lace was for variety, and it's a small project. I hope to work on it on the 10 hour plane ride back, and I've written down the pattern to that purpose.

The problem with the damnblue socks is that I've been working on them since the last conference, and I've had to rip them back about 4 times now. Not because of the pattern (Chevrolace, from Knitty)--it's a very cute pattern. Not because of the yarn, either:



It's a lovely blue yarn from Trekking, in this gorgeous sky blue color, and it's sproingy and a little stiff but it softens up lovely after a wash, and it doesn't split and it works very nicely on my size 1s or 0s.

No, mainly I've ripped back due to incompetence. The first time I did the sock as directed and it was too big, so I took out a pattern repeat and tried again. That was better, but then in the midst of the last conference I had to improvise a short-row heel and three inches later I discovered it was too tight. Rip, rip, rip. I left it alone for two weeks in frustration and came back to it on the airplane, did a flap and wrap-and-turn heel, picked up stitches for the gusset, knit an inch during the current conference, and figured out that the ankle was too big. So now I'm about to do more decreasing for a couple of inches before starting the pattern.

The pattern is a 12 row repeat; perhaps that's the issue. It's a bit long, so it makes things either too big or too small. I suspect that after decreasing 12 stitches I will now find the ankle is too small, whereupon I will throw this beautiful yarn out the airplane, laughing maniacally as it disappears into the equally beautiful sky right before the air pressure difference sucks me out too.