Knitting Goals for 2014

Earlier in January I was watching the Stockinette Zombies podcast and they were talking about knitting goals. Do you make them? Do they present a welcome challenge, or drive you crazy during the year? Or, like me, do you write them down and promptly forget you made goals in the first place? The SZ created a knitting goals challenge for this year, and I thought it was time to set some for myself (which also caused me to fish out the list 2013 and post them last weekend).

Even though I tried to keep the list small, I easily hit ten items and cried STOP! That's probably enough. I will post updates when I remember and maybe my Babette blanket will come out of deep hibernation...

2014 GOALS:

1. knit 2 hats for charity knitting
2. finish my first adult size sweater (Pont Neuf for myself)
3. knit a pair of socks two at a time (first pair of socks with sock yarn)
4. organize and cull out stash for donation/swap
5. make progress on my Babette blanket complete at least 2 squares a month)
6. reduce my stash by 10% (starting out with 245 skeins)
7. participate in the Ravellenic games
8. reduce hibernating projects from the current 8 to no more than 5, either through frogging or finishing
9. finish spinning my Tour de Fleece 2013 project during this year's TDF
10. carry knitting with me and work on it during longer commutes and waiting-around times

Also participating in a knitting goals challenge via the Stockinette Zombies podcast. 

Knitting related goals for 2013 - A Review

Here are the Knitting goals I wrote out January 10, 2013:

1. Knit a sweater
2. Sew my own project bags
3. Eliminate all long term hibernation projects (either by bring them back into active rotation or frogging)
4. Reorganize knitting storage area - stash, patterns, projects - this one is tricky, as I still have a few other things mixed in to this area, such as a drawer unit housing felt sheets, cross stitching fabric, and printouts of a now defunct cross stitching magazine. I think I have the magazine on CD, but I'm not sure about all the issues. If I took the time to color print them then, I should hold on to the copies for future use, yes? Or should I sort through them and recycle all the pages that don't have patterns, and reorganize it so that the parts of serial patterns are all together? *Off topic - get back on track!*
5. Take a hard look at my knitting/crochet books and see if I can eliminate any of them, then set those candidates aside for the next yarn swap.

How did I fare over the course of 2013?

1. I started two sweaters for myself and both are about halfway finished. I've been consistently plugging away at Pont Neuf, a top down, seamless, 3/4 length sleeve sweater with a lace front panel. With any luck I'll have it finished by May 1st, when it might be too warm to wear it! I did knit an entire baby sweater.
2. I sewed one project bag for myself! Not sure I want to keep making these, as I find sewing very frustrating. Maybe I will try and make one a year.
3. Hibernating projects, now that's a challenge. I started the year out with more than 10, and now have 7, having eliminated quite a few, but replaced them with other projects...hmm...
4. Reorganize - I've started a few times and never finished. Finding evidence of moths definitely stops me cold, and then I'm not sure how to continue. Still dealing with some moth activity now, but I think *hope* that it's residual evidence and not real live moths.
5. Didn't do this one at all. I did sort out some stash and trade/give it away, but it's time again to look hard at the stash and come up with books, tools, and yarn that are ready to leave.

Knitting accomplishments:

• Taught my little sister how to knit
• Knitted a mother bear for charity
• Gifted multiple well loved knits to friends and family 

Reading goals 2014

I've been seeing a lot book challenges out there. A librarian friend wrote this post, Reading Challenges for 2014, for the Robbins library blog, and outlined 11 reading challenges.

I like checking things off of lists, having a goal in mind, or reframing my current participation with an outside challenge to get me involved in a different way. Sign me up!

I have chosen these challenges:

1. Tuesday's Wednesday  2014-reading-challenge (read 24 books from 24 different categories) 
2. Roof Beam Reader's TBR pile challenge  (read 12 books that have been on your to-read list for over a year)  My list
3. Goodreads 2014 reading challenge (personally set goal of 60 books read)

The first two challenges capture nicely what I've been contemplating on the reading front. I'd like to have a little more structure in how I pick what I read and branching out a bit from my normal choices. I also want to make a noticable dent in my to read list (and not just continually scrape off the top layer). Ideally I will do this by reading the books, but eliminating books from my list that I will never read is fine too.

I used to be really concerned about the rules of this thing, but who cares? If I read the book (ebook, paper, audio, children's, non-fiction, whatever) from cover to cover, then it counts. If I don't finish something, fine. I'd like to still keep a list of books I remove from the to-read list, so in a few years when I forget that I tried to read Lolita, I can look in my list and see why I didn't continue with the book. (Can you tell I love lists?)

Current Goodreads tally? 561 books

You know I will be adding title to the list. I'll take some work, but I'd like to get the list down to 500 by the end of the year.

I have participated in the Goodreads reading challenge since 2011.

2011 52 of 52 read
2012 34 of 40 read
2013 55 of 55 read
2014   2 of 60 read and counting!

Nutribullet dreams

I bought a Nutribullet yesterday and I can't wait to try it out!!!

Lat year right around New years I saw a documentary called Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead. Joe Cross decided to take his health matters into his own hands and try juicing, and ended up starting a whole Reboot movement. Well, he was so inspiring that I went out and bought a juicer and started adding fresh juices in to my own diet. I did try a juice fast, I think I lasted one weekend. I did make juice every day for a while, but the challenge of getting all the veg in the dead of winter, the noise and cleanup up of the machine didn't boost my desire to pull it out and make juice.

I've learned to adapt the recipes to what I like - I will NEVER like celery. In a juice, stew, as a snack, it tastes terrible, and it ruins anything you add it to, so why add it at all? It is in juices mainly for extra volume.

One thing that bothers me about juicing is that we are stripping out the fiber. I understand that we are making a super concentrated glass of nutrients, but it's hard to get enough fiber in a day. I recently lowered my daily target from 30 grams to 25 grams a day, so I can stop feeling like a failure.

Now imagine if I was pureeing some of those same vegetables - well I'd be keeping the fiber content and more of the nutrients in those foods.

I was also experimenting with additions to the juice, such as spirulina (blue algae), flax seeds, and chia seeds. Even using my stick blender I couldn't get the fine spirulina powder completely incorporated.

I had been on the fence about buying a Magic bullet for a while and decided that I would buy one with part of my year end bonus. Then I heard about the Nutribullet - more power, more benefits, and double the price. I've done about a month of research - reading reviews, checking prices, watching user videos on YouTube, and when I saw a saw at Target (it rarely goes on sale) I leapt up and got one for myself.

I'm hoping that I can make some more nutritious and satisfying drinks with the Nutribullet.
Concerns about using the Nutribullet:

• having to add liquid - I am concerned that in the infomercial, user You Tube videos, and recipe list coconut water or almond milk into the mix. If you're blending the same vegetables you were juicing, wouldn't you have enough liquid? A cucumber is mostly water. I don't want to add extra calories or sugars to my drinks. Searching for Almond milk yesterday (I'm going to try it before I rail against it) I noticed that may brands have added sweeteners and filler ingredients.
• additional prep - I need to cut things up more to fit them into the cup for processing, no more leaving carrots whole. I don't think this will take a lot of extra time, but I'll keep track and see.
• Will I actually use it? I plan to keep on the counter in place of my juicer, which will go into my outbox (see Apartment Therapy's awesome January Cure). That should keep it at the ready and in my thoughts when I go to the kitchen for a snack.
• Will it hold up? Only time will tell. I've read a lot of reviews that say it leaks, stops working, etc., but I read all those warnings about my juicer too, and it's going strong after a year. I bought it at Target and also bought their 2-year replacement plan for $7. What a steal! I need to read the fine print this week and make sure I keep whatever paperwork is required together with the policy.
• Will the noise make me not want to use it? I didn't find many reviews that mentioned the noise level. Hopefully that's a good sign, and this will be answered pretty quickly once I use the machine.

Quick projects

I've been fighting off a bad case of startitis for weeks now, and seeing finished projects on a few blogs coupled with a small project finish by a friend pushed me right over the edge. My friend sent me a pic of her mug cozy - so cute, useful, and quick! I decided right then to find a quick project and make it so I could have the satisfaction of finishing something. Easy, right? Just go on to Ravelry and pick out something.

Hold on now, not so fast. After about 5 minutes of browsing I thought to myself, "Self, don't get ahead of yourself. Let's be practical. Pick something based on your stash or your queue. Pick a small project that you've been wanting to make anyway. You must have something." So, I restarted my search and found the Nest Tote, added to my queue back in March 2010. I even ordered yarn from Knit Picks back in 2010 to make it. The pattern says it only takes "a few hours". Yes, I'm a slow knitter. Yes, it's not straight forward garter stitch. It will be fine!

So this weekend I've been working on a "small" project, this market bag, for 4 hours so far. Yes, I made a mistake once and had to tink back two rows but all I have to show for my time is 4 inches of knit mesh. I have to knit 24 inches of mesh. then sew together, then complete the handles. I've finally realized this project is not small at all.  I should have made the Infinity barrette from my queue, or maybe another dishcloth to go with one I made years ago. Or maybe I should be working on that darn knit-a-long shawl!

So much for the quick satisfaction of a weekend project. Maybe I'll weave in the ends on the first and only dishcloth I made 4 years ago this month (is it possible that I've been knitting for that long?) I've never used the dishcloth because of the ends. Maybe now I can use it - I've been thinking of switching from shower puff back to washcloth. This would be just the thing.

A Glitch in the System

I finished reading Frankenstein over the weekend and went to my Goodreads account to move it into the 'read' category and creep a little closer to my goal of 52 books in 52 weeks. I clicked on the goal counter and Goodreads says I am 2 books behind (4%). If I finish up the book I'm in the middle of and get French Milk read this week, I should be back on track. I clicked on the counter to see the titles I've read this year that make up the count. Something was strange as I scrolled down...


Is there a glitch in the page? I see two The Cat Who... books are posted twice. Please tell me it isn't so...
Somehow I had added two different editions of each book as read. Damn! So now I'm 4 books behind (8%) my goal and also need to read one a week to keep up.

While we were chatting about reading, goals, the fact that each of has a list of books that that is more than we could read in a lifetime, Susan said something very wise. “I’m a reader. I don’t have to prove it to myself that I am.” Hmmm. Who am I trying to prove it to? I feel like if I read at a minimum, 52 books in one year, than I will reach the upper echelon of acclaimed readers. I’m even reading a book about reading books, Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading by Nina Sankovitch. Yes, she writes about reading a book a day for a year. But this book is more about experiencing the profound loss of her sister to cancer.

If you are reading a book that you don't like, stop! Go and read something else you'll enjoy. Likewise for all the trashy TV and mind numbing movies. Go outside and look up at the sky.