What's the Word?

Well, 2018 is here and it seems like everyone has the resolution mindset right now.  I know I don't really set resolutions, but I always try and look ahead to think about what I want to achieve.  And while some years I don't decide until mid-February, other years I break it mid- February, it's always nice to feel like I'm setting a goal.

I'm a member of the MySister'sKnitter group on Ravelry, and while I am not a frequent poster, I love the community of that group.  It's funny though, because the theme for the upcoming KAL actually fits perfectly with my knitting goals for 2018.

"What's the Word?" - choose a word that defines your goals for 2018. 

Even before Christmas, I had decided I wanted to cut back on the selfish knitting and knit more for others this year.  So many people have been good friends, mentors and role models in my life, and I need to repay them in some way, so why not knit?  At the same time, my life is beginning to get chaotic as I enter the territory of full time teaching.  So the moments I do have to create should be savored.

And thus, my word for 2018 is: Appreciate. 

Appreciate those who have helped me get where I am and appreciate the time I have to make things. 

The first on my list is someone who has known me my whole life, and honestly deserves so much more: My mom.

When I was home over the holiday we visited the shop there, Yarns: Sold and Told, and she picked out a skein of Mountain Colors Twizzle that she wants me to make into a pair of gloves.  I already found the pattern - Offhand Gloves - I am just waiting for the KAL to start so I may begin.  Hopefully the fingers will not mess me up, as they so often do.

Another person I need to knit for is someone I became friends with less than a year ago, but have found myself very attached too.  Jayde, an artist who moved here to participate in the residency I once did, has been an amazing influence in my art and friend in my life.  While I will not finish in time for when she moves, she has requested a pair of socks in a nice shade of purple.  I'm thinking this may work? But if not, I can always hit up my LYS. :)

Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Socka Mexiko Color

And on the subject of appreciation, I wanted to take a moment and appreciate this lovely gift I received from my Knitting Guild Secret Santa.  While we all always out do ourselves, this is over the top.  Hedgehog Fibres bought IN IRELAND with a bag designed to emulate the landscapes there, a unique book that is filled with murals in Houston, plus tapes, teas and sugar! What else can a girl want?  I truly appreciate when people take the time to think of me during the holidays.

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Do you have a plan for the new year? Are you defining it in a single word or with a goal? Any resolutions or do you usually break them? I'd love to hear more!

I hope you all have a wonderful week and let's make 2018 the best yet!

~Lisa

2014 Goals and Stuff

Happy Saturday everyone! I just got back from a knit group and now I feel very inspired and thus I must post.  I finished up a pair of socks for my brother (and didn't get a photo before handing them off) today. Basic stockinette in my left over from my hoodie, so no big deal there.

I wanted to share with you all my goals list for 2014, seeing as I always make lists. This year I am not planning on being as gung ho about actually completing said list but I still like to make one. Also, I am participating in MySistersKnitter Knitting Resolutions KAL and therefore a list had to be made anyway.

2014 crafting goals: 

-knit 1 pair of Cookie A. Socks successfully
This is the first thing I plan to work on starting tomorrow (or tonight). You may remember when I was working on Rick - way back in October 2011. Well those got ripped, due to major lace issues (you can read about in that post). The yarn, Happy Feet, has tried to become a couple other things since, but I have decided to give Rick another go.  Maybe if I take it slower and don't do 2-at-a-time I will find success.

-CONQUER THE STASH.
Wildflower just closed (Sad day) and I now have enough yarn for a couple sweaters as well as everything else. This year I think I may actually be able to conquer that stash. 

-Knit atleast 3-4 full sized garments (with stash yarn if possible) 

-Finish, or come close to finishing, my mom’s wrap
Maybe to get her to stop asking when she'll get it...

-Finish my Finally Fall Shawl -- started 2 falls ago…it’s been finally fall twice already haha 

-Finish spinning the merino/silk blend (mentioned here and a few other posts)that’s been on my spindle for a couple years now.
Well, I am getting a lot closer, but spinning has been on the back burner a lot lately.

-Spin atleast one other yarn 

-Finish the friendship spinning project I have started with my friend Ivy. 

-Conquer something with intense colorwork
I am drawn to this (pattern on cover) right now. 

-Design and publish at least 3 items 

-Submit proposals to at least 2 publications

And finally: 

-DON’T LET KNITTING TAKE PRIORITY OVER PAINTING/REALITY/LIFE.
Much easier said than done of course :) 

Well, it all seems doable right? I think I say that every year also. What are your goals for the new year? I hope that whatever they are, you are excited to get going on them. With no classes now I feel so lazy. I really should get myself back into studio and work on some more paintings...

~Lisa

2013 -In Review-

Well, 2013 ends in 2.5 hours over here and I can't believe everything that has happened. This past year I've had so many experiences - mostly good - and learned so many things. I've produced the best art work of my life, received TWO BFA's,  and finished almost 25 knitting projects! Whew what a year!

For the past couple of years I have made a "Fiber resolutions/goals list" and every time I go all crazy with it at the beginning the fizzle out by Summer. But I still want to take the time to look at it right now.

1. Knit a pullover/in the round type sweater: 2012 was the year of cardigans and vests, I want 2013 to be the year of pullovers! And I really want to start with this one: 
Ok so 2013 was not the year of pullovers but I did get one done! Dragonflies

2. Going off of the last one, I would love to knit a bulky yarns sweater, because there are so many pretty ones :)

That didn't happen... sadly I got distracted by other things I guess.
3.Last year I wanted to conquer lace and I feel like I did. Well this year I want to FINISH something lace, with very few mistakes. I have some amazing bison blend yarn that would make a lovely lace scarf! 

The bison yarn is still in my stash, but Salacia is by far my favorite finished project ever. And I even learned to seam in the process :) 

4.Felt something, anything. 

I did try felting a headband but it didn't work. And I accidentally felted a pair of socks in the washing machine. Do those count

5.Learn more cast-on's and bind-off's. Because I just didn't do it last year and I know it would be beneficial to know.

I don't remember any new ones by heart, but I did use new ones in several projects for my monthly knitting club. 
6.Design another pair of worsted weight socks. They always seem to go over so well. It's my dream to publish a whole book of worsted socks!

Oops, I guess I forgot...
7. Design a pair of sock-weight socks. Just for the fun of it!

Although not published, I semi-designed a pair for my knitting buddy Ivy!

8. Design and publish something other than socks and submit something to at least 2 publications. I didn't get into Knitty, but I got great response from the editor and I want to try again with them and others. 

I submitted Drehen to Knitty (no go) and Pixelexia to Knitscene (no go). I ended up self publishing Drehen. I also completely improvised my lacey babydoll top with only slight issues along the way (including running out of yarn and having to tie it with a cord)

9. Spin something other than worsted/bulky. I would love to make a fingering weight yarn. 

I didn't spin much of anything all year. I worked a bit on some merino/silk but it didn't get done (however it is pretty thin...)
10. Learn to blend fibers through plying when spinning (like merino and nylon). This goes back to the above point. 

See my response to #9
11. Learn different types of drafts and how to know when to use which. I am still stuck in a rut of doing the same thing every time, whether it works for that roving or not.

Yea, that didn't happen. Maybe this year I'll actually start spinning again. 

12.Learn how to properly dye with natural materials (flowers, roots etc)

I did dye a lot this year, but always with food color and kool aid. Although I didn't do natural dying, I am super proud of my new found abilities to dye with the sun. (Check out my shawl for proof!)

Once again, I did about half the things on the list. But I also did so much more this year. I finished so many amazing projects - 6 different full sized garments !! - and learned so many amazing things. What will this year bring? 

I plan on writing up another list, but I don't plan on making it my primary goals like before. I just want to collect my thoughts and get ideas.

What's on your list this year?

~Lisa

WIP Wednesday: Summer Goals

Hey all, it's Wednesday! That means it's time for a WIP Wednesday. Sadly, I don't have any WIP knit projects to show off today (yea I finished my tank, check back Friday!) BUT I decided to share my summer goals. I have quite a few of them haha.

1) Try all 25 summer flavors of shakes at Sonic. It helps that they are half price after 8! So far I have tried 6!

2) Jog/Walk a total of 50 or more miles.... I've been using Map My Run to log it and so far it's going well. There is a one mile track by my house that's really helpful.
3)Bike a total of 100 or more miles, once again Map My Run is really helpful with this goal.

**So far I have logged : a little over 12 miles on my bike; a little over 10 miles jogging**. 

4) Try one new recipe a week. Last week I tried: Pineapple Chicken Stir-fry. This week we are doing a curry-pork with corn/bean salad.  (I'll be posting the recipes on my other blog, Lisa's Tiny Kitchen)

5) Finish at least 4 of my mini gouache paintings. So far I have 1 half way done... I've been kinda lazy...and busy! And then do a bunch of pastel/colored pencil sketches also.
6) Watch all 52 Disney Theatrical Animated movies, IN ORDER. We watched Snow White last night. I am dead serious I want to do this so bad.

7) Finish writing up and editing my tank pattern, find some test knitters and work on re-fining so that I can submit it to Knitty or somewhere similar. 

Wow, that's a lot of goals. But I think I can do it. If work doesn't keep me busy. I haven't had as much free time as I'd like, but it's been worth it.

~Lisa

Tami's Amis has WIP's if you are interested. :P

FO Friday: Bucket List Review

It's pretty much the middle of the year and after finishing my Salacia I decided to take a look at my 2013 goals, since I know the Salacia was on it. Turns out that I actually have more done from that list then I thought.

First of all, I was able to finish the very first thing on my list, knit an in-the-round pullover, Dragonflies. I am not going to go into detail here, but if you want more information, you can read my post about it.

What I really wanted to talk about was my recent completed project.

SALACIA.

(huge thanks to my amazing sister for the photos!)

I successfully finished her up last Saturday and proudly walked into my LYS wearing her, only to be met with great enthusiasm. Kennita and all my knitting friends were so proud of me and all agree this pattern was definitely made for me. :)

When I first saw this pattern in the Spring issue of Knitscene I knew it was going to be the first of many that I knitted out of it. I quickly rushed off to Wildflower where I had some amazing help picking the perfect yarn -- Nashua Natural Focus Ecologie Cotton.  A lovely 100% Cotton worsted weight yarn, I fell in love the second I started knitting. It's so easy to hand and so easy to wash that I wish it wasn't going to be discontinued.

Starting out I was a bit worried. This pattern is intense lace and also in parts, which meant SEAMING. I have never seamed anything before so the idea scared me. The lace did too, but I quickly had the pattern memorized and ended up with very few mistakes on all 3 body pieces. (And the ones I do have you can't notice.) The sleeves however are loaded. There is something about the cellular lace stitch that always messes me up (See - Make up your mind tank).

Well I quickly worked through all the parts and was ready to seam. Once again, I am eternally grateful to have such an amazing LYS and people there to help me. Kennita walked me through the basic seaming process at knit night last week and before I knew it I was seaming like crazy. And you know what? It wasn't even that hard! That's right, seaming will no longer scare me when it comes to knitting. That's something I never thought I'd say!

Overall, this will be my favorite summer cardigan, I seriously think it is going to get it's money's worth and then some in wear. Besides my friend's wedding next week, I just see myself wearing it over any and everything. I am just too proud of it not to :)

And with that, another item is crossed off my bucket list:

Last year I wanted to conquer lace and I feel like I did. Well this year I want to FINISH something lace, with very few mistakes. I have some amazing bison blend yarn that would make a lovely lace scarf! - Although the lace scarf didn't happen, this is even better! (And as a bonus I can add seaming to that list!)

Finally, I wanted to do a quick recap of my knitting progression on tops. When I started 4 years ago I never thought I'd be knitting sweaters, and now it's all I want to knit!

Date refers to finishing date :)

I hope everyone had a great week! I sure have. I spent all day yesterday at the cutest little coffee and book shop knitting away. It was amazing!

~Lisa

And its FO Friday over at Tami's Amis!

I wish...

New Year, New Goals

Happy Friday! I didn't have classes today, and my job hasn't started, so I spent my day relaxing and starting in studio.

Since I am bound and determined to have the best school year EVER I have decided to make a list of goals and such that I plan to achieve this year.  And what better place to put them then here, so you all can see exactly what I am up against in the coming months. :)

Activities I am involved in:

KSU Painting Society - President
Relay for Life of KSU - Luminaria chair
Academic Mentoring (job) - 4th year, working at pre-school
Bowling League - Sunday night's at 8. Team: Stop, Drop and Bowl. We got 2nd over the summer (with handicap)
The Knitting Monthly - 2nd Sunday of the month at Wildflower!

Academic goals for the year:

Get an A in my painting class - something I have yet to do.
Improve my skills as a painter, especially with acrylics.
Expand my drawing ideas so that I can have a cohesive body of work for the Spring.
Be confident in my figure drawing skills by the end of the semester.
NOT put off my History of Rock and Roll class - just cuz it's online doesn't mean I can forget about it.

Fun goals for the year:

Go for walks and hike the various trails around Manhattan, maybe even document it for you all here.
Knit in Public - coffee shops, cute spots on campus, etc
Knit hats! - I am on a winter hat spree
Hang out with my friends - We have so many plans for the year!
Hang out with the guy I like - Not saying names yet, don't wanna jinx it.
Skate - Last time we went it was so much fun!
First Friday in KC - Maybe with Painting Society?
Movie Nights - my new 32 inch HDTV is calling!
JOG! - The guy I like has me wanting to pick up jogging again....

That being said, I would like to share my next project with you also. Since the socks are coming to a close (but still have about 2 inches at least) I decided to use the bit of extra money I had to get the yarn for the Milanese Wrap, which I am knitting for my mommy.

She said she'd pay me back for the yarn, but I am going to surprise her! And I found the perfect yarn ON SALE last night! I didn't even know it was on sale, it just happened to meet my gauge requirements. I wanted something with more blue, but I decided on this because of the stripy nature. I really hope she likes it!

I started a painting today, but I am not going to share it yet because I don't really know where it's going. For now, the whole painting on knitting think is out the window....long story short my teacher doesn't get it. Whatever, what I'm doing now is pretty awesome too!

I'm having all my friends over for tacos tomorrow, and I can't wait! But that means I gotta get my butt in gear and clean this place up. Hmph. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

~Lisa