Some Goals on a Friday

Today is the third consecutive day off work for me, and I'm taking advantage of it. I have a lot of things to blog about today, so I'm going to jump right in!

I started listening to/watching podcasts again. I got rid of all the old episodes I had collecting virtual dust in iTunes, and downloaded some new ones. My newest favourite is the Subway Knits podcast. Maria has such a wonderful voice for podcasting, and she really holds my attention well. This has been my background soundtrack while knitting Christine's baby shower gift (more on that later). I've also got some episodes of CraftStash and Round the Twist downloading, which I will listen to soon.
In addition to podcasts, I've been listening to songs online on Songza. My friend Jess introduced me to this, and I am really enjoying it. You can select times of day/days of the week/activities to have a soundtrack for, and they will give you a few options. For example, last night I chose "Thursday Evening", "Working (With Lyrics)", "Upbeat Indie" and finally "Female Indie Pop Singers". The first songs were from Emily Haines (of Metric), followed by Feist, Regina Spektor, Kimbra and some other wonderful artists that I really like. I'm definitely going to be using this often. I will still use iTunes, but this is a nice way to discover new artists.

I'm working on Christine's baby shower gift pretty aggressively. Her shower is at the end of this month, and I barely have an inch done. This photo shows the colours, but I undid it all, because the general consensus was that it didn't look great. I modified things a bit, and restarted. So far, so good. This is probably going to be the first and last photo of this on the blog until she receives it. I don't want to ruin the surprise! I have a couple other gifts for her, too. I think she'll really like all of it.

Now, onto the goals. I have a lot of things I want to accomplish in 2013. I did the 101 project a few times, and failed miserably. I think by having fewer goals, in a shorter time frame will allow me to stick to them a bit better. Here is what I have so far:
-Knit the stash. I have tons of yarn, and I need to start using it all. I think I'm going to do the skein in/out count again. This worked really well for me in the past. I will knit exclusively from the stash except in the case of special orders, if the yarn is more than 70% off, it is hand dyed sock yarn with a discount, or it's "souvenir" yarn. I need to have some exceptions.
-Blog more about what I am knitting. This is a knitting blog, and it seems like there isn't a heck of a lot of knitting content at any given time. I want to post about what is on my needles, and recently finished projects. I feel this will help me knit the stash more effectively. I can see what I've made, what I used for it, and it will probably give me more ideas of stuff to knit with the random assortment of yarn I have. I'm hoping to post Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and stick with that schedule, but it all depends on how much and when I work.
-Take more pictures. I have an iPhone with a decent camera, I have no excuse for not taking photos. I'm getting a new iPhone at the end of January, with an even better camera, so hopefully that will help encourage me to document more of my life. I won't necessarily share everything on Facebook or Instagram, but I want to have the pictures for myself.
-Get fit. I've gained over 30 pounds in the past year, mostly because of the anxiety medication I started taking November 2011. It increases my appetite, decreases my motivation, and makes me sleep a lot. All things that add up to a terrible weight gain. I want to start running again, which will probably be what I start with. I also want to get a stationary bike so I can pedal and knit at the same time. I wish I could build a bike that generates electricity, so I'd have to pedal every time I want to use my computer. That would be awesome, I think. (If this exists, PLEASE let me know!)
-Take better care of myself. I want to feel better about myself, and that starts with better habits. I need to eat healthier, put some make up on, even if i'm not going anywhere, and use the good shampoo more often. Little things like that will hopefully make me love myself again.
-Pay down my debts. I owe money to the credit card company, and to my parents, to the tune of several hundred each. This year, I want to really make some headway on both of them. My heart says to pay my parents back first, but my head says to pay the credit card with the 19.45% interest first. I will try to find a nice balance.
These are my goals. I won't say resolutions, but they're pretty close to that.

What sorts of goals do you have for the new year?

The Newest Shawl Off The Needles

Last night, in my Awesome Thursday post I mentioned a shawl that recently came off the needles. It's a basic garter stitch shawl, but I really like it. It's a nice light grey, super soft synthetic yarn (I think all acrylic, but I'm not sure) that is just the right size to wrap around your neck and have the tails hang in front. I've been doing a lot of shawls with this wider triangle shape, because it is easier to wear than the right angle triangle that I used to make all the time. I have a couple very similar shawls made, and I will probably make some more the same way.
What do you think? Do you like the triangle shawl shape? What colour would you like to see?

And Now For Something Completely Different!

On Etsy, and some of the blogs I follow, I've been seeing different cold weather head bands. I decided to try my hand at making some.
I grabbed some basic worsted yarn (which is actually kind of hard to come by in my stash!) and cast on a couple stitches. I made the ties at either end, and increased in the middle. They're long enough to wrap around your head and fit snugly without feeling like it's going to squeeze your brain. I'm going to tie in the ends and bring some into Trinkets, Treasures and the Truly Unique this week or next. I'll see how they are received there, and possibly make some more.
I also want to try some with different stitch patterns. I think they would look great in seed stitch. Or a nice wide cable.
So many possibilities!

Four Finished Scarves

Since I started my 101 list, I've started and finished four scarves and two dishcloths.

These are the four scarves. The green and black is a cone of green acrylic blend and a chunky black acrylic. The creamy, hard to see one is a skein of Wool Ease Thick and Quick in "Wheat" all done in seed stitch. The next one is the same yarn in "Charcoal" also in seed stitch. The last one is the same chunky black acrylic as the first, with a ball of awesome vintage Italian wool/acrylic blend that I've had in my stash for a while. It's quite long, and very warm.
As you can see, I still have ends to weave in. I will hopefully get those done today to bring them down to Phog. I haven't checked my sales there since my actual birthday. I'm 80% of the way to my low balling goal, and about a third of the way to my "wouldn't it be awesome if I sold this much!?" goal.

I am really happy with my progress on the "Knit 5 miles of yarn" goal. I am at just over 1400 feet, which is about a quarter of a mile. Not bad at all, considering this is only one week of knitting.

I have lots of project ideas. The one major thing stopping me is that my yarn stash is a complete mess. I know certain yarn exists, but I have no idea where to find it! I have sorted out a couple drawers in my storage area for yarn for charity knitting. Most of the stuff I do is for Lee Lee hats, so it's mostly baby yarns and small balls of various colours, too small to do anything else with.

More hats made

Hats are starting to become my main project. I have had a few of them ordered, and the first one has been given to the recipient.
The upper left in the image is a beautiful dark amethyst Homespun hat, for Kara from work. I haven't seen her to give it to her yet.
The brown in the upper right is from some mill-end yarn I bought last week. I am pretty sure it is Bernat Harmony, but I can't be certain. I just finished a second on in the same colour a few minutes ago. So very soft.
The black hat hiding in the lower left is a plain black worsted acrylic paired with a strand of Bernat Boucle if I remember correctly.
The blue in the lower right is supposed to be for Billy, but I haven't seen him in ages. Also, not sure if it's a little too feminine for him.
The grey hat in the centre is pretty awesome. It is the one that James bought, and probably my favourite of the bunch here. Three strands of slightly-thinner-than-worsted yarn in a wonderful charcoal grey. The fabric is a little stiff, but I am sure it will soften up with time. I am going to make more in that colour when I get home and have access to my stash.
I really hope I continue to sell hats for a bit longer. I am going to make some out of thinner yarn so they're not as warm, and can be warn during the slightly warmer weather.

Rick's Grey Scarf and Made In Windsor

I started on the second skein a few days ago. The first one ended up giving me about 32 inches of scarf. If the other skeins are the same length, I'll likely only need 4 of them.
I still love knitting it, but it's starting to get to a less portable length. Do any of you have any tricks on how to keep large-ish projects portable enough to knit them on a city bus, or in a car? I'm scared the end is going to drag on the floor. I will likely post a photo of the scarf in the next few days.

In other news, I have sold an other hat at Made In Windsor! I am hoping to bring a couple more items in at some point this week to replace the two that have sold so far. If I sell at least 2 items a month, I will be incredibly happy. This shoudln't be hard, as long as everyone keeps promoting the store.