2014 Goals

2013 Recap

This year I finished fewer projects than last year. I finished 126 in 2012 and 97 this year, which surprised me. With grad school, I had much less time for, well, anything.

Final count:

• 16 total unfinished projects
• 5 unfinished projects from 2013
• 97 total finished projects
• 93 finished projects from 2013

I only finished four older projects: two cross stitches, a blanket, and a costume for my nephew's turtle doll. The two cross stitches and the blanket were the oldest projects I had, all from 2007 or earlier, so that's great, but I didn't really touch any of the other 11 UFOs from years past that are hanging around.


What were my goals?

1. Get projects down to single digits and keep them there.
2. Reduce stash down to under 6/30/2012 levels, i.e. lower than it's been since I started charting.
3. Finish any and all gifts I want to make on time.
4. Participate in the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup all three terms.
5. Finish everything I start in 2013. 

How did I do?

1. No way. The overall project count was in the 20s for most of the year and even the 2013-only project count was in double digits for awhile. I did finish some large and old cross stitches but not many other pre-2013 projects.
2. Nope. I did use more yarn than I purchased this year, but not enough to reach the goal.
3. As long as I meant on time for use by the baby and not necessarily the shower, got it!
4. I realized I don't like just participating, I like playing competitively. I can't play too competitively with all of my other responsibilities, so I didn't do this and am happy with that decision.
5. Yes, as long as finishing by December 40th counts (so no, actually). I started spinning and got hurt and/or had no time to finish that and had a couple other ambitious projects that just didn't get done.

I can't say I'm too fussed about not making most of my goals. There's just too much going on otherwise for me to feel bad about not making arbitrary deadlines for my hobbies. I knit a lot of gifts for people and was able to use up a lot of yarn that was just hanging around without a purpose, so all in all, I feel pretty good about 2013.

101 in 1001

Goals are good. Lists of goals help so you can try to keep up with them. This list is a list of 101 things that you attempt to get done in 1001 days, so if I start today, I would end on November 5, 2010. I think I'll actually be starting in a couple of days, whenever I get the full list there. I'm'a gonna keep this post on top until I actually start it, and continue adding new ones until I have a full list. I'm really going to be thinking about these, so here goes:

Finally done with the list, so I am starting on February 14 (Valentine's Day, awww)


Things to do before I leave Rochester:
1. Graduate
2. Get a job
3. Go to the Seneca Zoo
4. Go to Dinosaur Bar-B-Que when there's live music
5. Go to the Thursday night Chicks with Sticks group at least once
56. Eat at Henry's
57. Take Lee etc. to Niagara Falls
58. Visit a local winery
61. Go to the Lilac Festival
70. Roll my kayak (paddle roll okay, goal is rolling freehanded)
76. Go snowshoeing/cross country skiing at the local nature preserve
80. Go to a hockey game (GO TIGERS!)


Things to do when I get to where I'm going:
6. Find a Farmer's Market
7. Find a yarn store
8. Find a knitting group
9. Find a high school with a FIRST team or try to get one involved
10. Find a community theater group
11. Find a good horseback riding stable
12. Get an enjoyable weekend/evening job (preferably at yarn store or stable or get work to pay overtime for FIRST involvement) in order to help pay off loans and to give me less time to spend money!
13. Find a good park for hiking in
14. Adopt an animal - cat or angora rabbit, most likely
85. Figure out recycling in area - how to actually recycle things, where to send compost, etc.
86. Actually recycle as much as possible, correctly - completely clean off glass/plastic containers, keep a compost pile, etc.
87. Find a good pilates studio
88. Take at least one exercise type class per year
92. Meet a new friend - someone from the area, probably from work or knitting group


Things in general:
15. Knit my mom a Dale of Norway sweater
16. Spin all of my fleece
17. Get crafting to pay for itself - lessons/selling patterns/working at a yarn store, etc. - As of when I finish my current test knitting, I will have spent less on crafting than I've made this year, yay!
18. Get a group of friends to go to the Disney Food and Wine Festival
19. Finish 75% of currently open projects (I would say all, but I know there's a couple cross stitches that just won't get there, since I shouldn't have started them anyway, so 75% it is)
20. Downsize amount of bathroom items I own (lotions, makeup, things I should but just can't throw away...)
21. Reduce stash to one Rubbermaid bin per craft plus one accessory bin - 1 for knitting, 1 for sewing, 1 for spinning, 1 for reference books/scissors/blockers/pins/etc.
22. Take a road trip through multiple states
23. See a Cirque du Soleil show
24. Eat more natural foods by making one meal per month 100% organic/natural
25. Start and finish 75% of crafts I have supplies for already
26. Knit and use 10 grocery bags
27. Downsize consumer waste in five major ways
28. Finish all planned Christmas presents before December (leaving time for all those unplanned ones...)
29. Find five go-to quick knit patterns for hostess gifts/unexpected baby showers/unexpected gifting events
30. Grow an herb garden and use the herbs in cooking
31. Finish, frame, and hang at least one Art of Disney cross stitch
32. Try one new recipe per month (1/33)
33. Buy a bread pan and use it
34. Bake something every other week (2/143)
35. Write thank-yous for all Birthday/Christmas presents
36. Incur no extra fines on credit cards, bank account, etc.
37. Grow cucumbers
38. Pickle at least one jar of cucumbers
38. Pick ten pounds of fresh raspberries
39. Pick ten pounds of fresh strawberries
40. Pick lots of fresh apples
41. Learn how to make jelly and/or jam with fresh berries
42. Get back down to within healthy BMI ranges
43. Vote in 2008 presidential election
44. Understand local political structure
45. Vote in local 2010 elections (yes, I know this one may be just after I finish, I'm kind of thinking that writing the list will take so long I can keep this one!)
46. Start knitting Master program
47. Join AKD
48. Join TKGA
49. Join CYCA
50. Join CGOA
51. Join SWE, meet with local chapter
52. Start CYCA teaching knitting certification
53. Attend Rhinebeck, Sheep and Wool, Stitches East/West, or any other major knitting event
54. Earn black belt (currently at Purple Belt)
55. Stop biting fingernails
59. Watch all movies on the 100 greatest AFI list (34/100) and 25 greatest Musicals (8/25)
60. Read one book on my List(s) per month (2/33)
61. Create all lists that numbers (59, 60, 19, 20, 25, 28) entail
62. Teach someone to knit
63. Get all of my things out of my mom's house (or if I end up living there, go through and organize/donwsize)
64. Donate hair to Locks of Love
65. Get a good filing cabinet/organize and save important information
66. Bake a pie "for real" - crust from scratch too!
67. Create a real list of blogs/links I check every day
68. Take in progress and finished item pictures of all crafts
69. Blog in-progress pictures at least once a week
71. Create a "signature" for knitted items
72. Get a wax seal stamp/wax for handwritten letters
73. Create a letterboxing stamp and find five letterboxes to use it with
74. Get a new computer (build if PC)
75. Create a working cookbook for kitchen use (copy regularly used recipes, put them in plastic sleeves so I can use them in the kitchen)
77. Collect all retired Art of Disney Cross Stitch kits
78. Floss more regularly - goal is daily by the end of this list
79. Find a healthy cheap snack that I can make for when I have snack cravings
81. Update wardrobe to only handmade socks
82. Update wardrobe to better lingere and take correct care of it! (Hang dry/etc.)
83. Do laundry for real - separate colors, wash like you're supposed to instead of all in one load once a week (college student laundry...)
84. Update Ravelry with stash and things I own
89. Take stock of all yarn/accessories I own and list them
90. Take a trip with Kaci once a year
91. Clean out my car once a month (1/33)
93. Start a rainy day fund - Ultimate goal is $5000, goal for the end of this time period is $1000
94. Go to an art gallery opening
95. Stay up with someone special to watch the sunrise
96. Keep a detailed list of spending for one month, once new job settles in
97. Make a detailed budget and stick to it
98. Drink 8 glasses of water daily for at least one month
99. Knit or otherwise donate to a charity once a year
100. Find my reading lists!
101. Make a new list for the next 1001 days

...Progress?

Lee had a major revelation this weekend. He thought that this magic number that has veered between 25 and 45 since I've known him is actually the number of projects I have yarn for/are planning to make. I laughed when I found out that that’s what he thought. He was in total shock when I told him that no, that’s not the number of projects I could make. That number would probably be over 100, as I have about 30 cross stitches that are in packaging still, yarn for about 20 pairs of socks, two sweaters, nearly 20 random small projects and around 20 lbs of fleeces. I think I am set for awhile. I don't stash, but I do buy for specific projects. So my stash is a bag of ten skeins of Peru Luxury DK, two skeins of sock yarn, and a few skeins of acrylic sportweight that a friend had picked up for me from a garage sale. That and leftovers from previous projects. My stash may be small compared to most knitbloggers, but my queue is massive. My yarn content may reach nearly as much as many others, but it's all set aside for a purpose. The number, my friends, is actually the number of projects I've started at one point or another. Whether it was that I was so excited to have it that I cast on, then the magic died due to the stitch pattern or (in the case of the Frill) I screwed up so I have an extra one cast on and didn't realize it, it is the number of projects that are in any form other than the one I bought them in.

The count. So, the plan was to keep it under 30 works in progress. I have eight that I can’t work on as they’re at home (usually paintings that I just haven’t finished) and about ten that I just shouldn’t have started (three blankets, five cross stitch, a stole and an amigurumi). So that’s about eighteen that are definitely in hibernation, but I still count them as they’ve been started. If I consider those eighteen to be in hibernation, then a good number of in progress projects should be something between 20 and 25, a cross stitch, a fleece, one or two crochet items, and two to four knit items, so I can switch off between an intricate stole and a simple watching a movie pattern, and have a sock or two in my purse. It really should only be up to 23 using that logic, as I have a crochet blanket (or three) that are in hibernation that I should start working on, and a stole that is also in hibernation that should be the paying attention piece. I was going to make it a goal to get down to 23 and stay below 25, but then I realized that I'm knitting a bunch for Christmas. I'll probably be making everyone's first sock, then everyone's second sock for the design that I'm making for all my aunts in different colors. So the goal really is to just stay below 40 until the Christmas knitting is done. Stay below 40 and don't put anything on stitch holders to use the needles.

Now, what number am I at that I'm going to try to reduce? That is the question. As I have had a major case of start-itis recently, mostly when it comes to socks, I will be trying mostly to reduce the number of single socks I have. How many socks is that? Eight. Yes, I have eight socks either waiting for a mate or just started on the needles. One of these pairs of socks won't be continued on until October (I got the wrong contrasting color and only noticed after completing the cuff) but three of these pairs are in larger weight yarns, so those won't be too bad to finish. I think I can get down to only one or two pairs in progress by the end of the month.

Now, keeping in mind that eight works in progress are socks and eighteen are in hibernation (for a total of twenty-six, already blasting by the twenty-three...) the number of works in progress is ...

thirty-seven.

So that's fourteen more projects than there should be. I'm not going to set any number goals other than the keeping it manageable for Christmas - only Christmas gifts if I'm over 30, but I can cast on something for me if I'm under 30. Once the holiday knitting has been completed, then I'll worry about getting that number down closer to where it should be!