Day 7: Looking Forward

One year from now, when the 5th Knitting & Crochet Blog Week rolls around, where do you hope your crafting will have taken you to? What new skills, projects and experiences do you hope you might have conquered or tried?

This could be anything from mastering a technique (broomstick lace, entrelac, etc), trying a new yarn or skill, or a long term wish to crochet only from your stash, or knit every stitch in one of the Harmony Guides. Maybe you have no desire or plans for your craft at all, no new element of knitting or crochet that you dream of mastering, in which case write about why that might be. In a year's time participants will be asked to look back to see if they achieved any goals, no matter how general, and see which house conquered the art of looking forward.

Looking forward has always been a big part of the new year on my blog.  For the past few years I've been setting goals, for 2013 my goals are ...

Quantities

• Spin 5lbs of fluff
• Use up 10 miles of yarn
• Create 40 items (knit, crocheted or woven)
• Knit 15 pairs of socks
• Knit an adult sweater for myself

Techniques

• Complete a project in Tunisian Crochet
• Learn and complete a project that uses Broomstick Lace
• Learn and complete a project in Brioche Stitch
• Learn and complete a project in double knitting
• Complete a tatting project
• Give stranded colorwork another try
• Complete the sampler in The Weavers Idea Book by Jane Patrick
• Complete a weaving project using overshot techniques
• Compete a weaving project for something OTHER than a scarf or cowl
• Spin a semi-woolen yarn (long draw from a combed top)
• Spin an “art yarn”
• Spin a laceweight yarn
• Give needle felting another try
• Give DPNs another try

Yarn and Stash

• Use my handspun yarns in knitting, crochet and weaving projects
• Use more yarn than I stash — More specifically get my stash ratio to less than 1.0 for 2013 and try to get my lifetime ratio to less than 2.0 by the end of the year (as the end of 2012 it was 2.43)
• Destash yarns I don’t absolutely love and probably won’t ever use

I've already accomplished a few of these goals, well I've knit a brioche scarf, woven a pickup stick sampler scarf, and I've finished 3 (nearly 4) pairs of socks.

A few others I've already tried and discarded, like giving needle felting a try.  I tried again and ended up giving away my needle felting supplies. Also, double knitting, unless I find a project I love I didn't really like the technique.

So for the purpose of KCBW, my goal for the year is to make sure that I enjoy my crafting and that I didn't push aside my enjoyment of fiber to meet some artificial goals.  Also, to make the Mascot Projects that I  wrote about on Day 2.

And as another successful Knitting & Crochet Blog Week draws to a close I have to give a big shoutout to Eskimimi for putting together a fantastic blogging event, here's to year 5!

Day 6: A Tool to Covet

Write about your favourite knitting or crochet (or spinning, etc) tool. It can either be a tool directly involved in your craft (knitting needles or crochet hook) or something that makes your craft more pleasurable – be it a special lamp, or stitch markers.

Is it an item that you would recommend to others, and if so for which applications/tasks do you think it is most suited. Conversely, do you have a tool/accessory that you regret buying? Why does it not work for you?

Sorry for the delay in posting this, Friday was just nuts and yesterday I was up at 5:30am to get to Toronto for opening at the Knitter's Frolic. Back to yesterday's scheduled program.

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Right now the fiber object I covet most is a new spinning wheel.  It's not that my current wheel isn't great it just isn't great for me.  The treadles are too close together for my hip and so spinning for long periods of time makes my knees twinge.  I'm on a hunt for a new wheel and a home for my current one and right now I covet having one that works well for me.

Last summer I had a chance to spend some time spinning on a few different Schacht wheels and all three (the Ladybug, the Sidekick and the Matchless) all felt like a dream.  I found that the Sidekick worked best, however the higher cost and lack of versatility (no double drive) means that it is great as a second or travel wheel.  I think I want to get a Ladybug but instead of making the same mistake as last time, I'm going to try out a few different wheels before investing.

I think I'm going to head to Gemini Fibres one weekend in the next month or two as they have the best selection of wheels around.  The are about an hour and a half drive south of me so it will make for a nice Saturday adventure.

However, I'm using the guild loom for a table weaving class in June so if I'm not careful a table loom might be the next tool to covet or possibly a drum carder as I love spinning from carded batts.  What can I say, I have a problem.

Day 5: Something A Bit The Same

t’s the annual challenge to blog in a way different to how you normally blog. You may choose to create a podcast, or vlog, create a wordless post or write in verse. You've already stretched your wings with an infographic, now it's time to freestyle. You can post on any topic you like, but be sure to post in a style different from your usual blog presentation. There's not too much guidance for this one simply because the more varied the posts are on this day, the wider the sources of information for other bloggers will be. Bonus points if you manage to work your house animal in somehow.

Day 4: Color Review

What are your favourite colours for knitted or crocheted projects. Have a think about what colours you seem to favour when yarn shopping and crafting.

Only after writing this part of your post should you then actually look to see what colours you have used in your projects. Make a quick tally of what colours you have used in your projects over the past year and compare it to the colours you have written about. Compare this, in turn, to the colours that are most dominant in your yarn stash – do they correlate?

Now think back to your house animal - do the colours you have chosen relate to your animal in anyway - if you are in the house of peacock, for example, are your projects often multicoloured and bright?

As part of the Knit and Crochet Blog Week last year I did a post about my own color confusion.

This is what my stash looked like then ...

Today it looks more like this ...

...

...

...

Well, I decided to go to the gym instead of getting photos in the daylight (also it's raining/snowing here again today so it was a Debbie Downer of a day), so I don't know what my stash colorwheel looks like today, but here is the overall survey of colors from my exported Ravelry data.

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So it looks like I've managed to make projects in a relative proportion to what I seem to buy.  Also, I'm surprised how proportional my stash is, color wise, I was expecting to see more purple and green.  These are two colors I naturally gravitate towards when I'm putting yarn in my shopping cart (even if I don't buy it). I would like to expand my palette but that may be more a question of tint and tone rather than hue as I gravitate towards mostly dark, fall/winter shades rather than fun, clear tones.

I wish I could find a way to tie it to my monkey-ness but honestly work has been insane (which is great) and I ended up spending way more of my evening than I would like to admit trying to get the excel file open and doing the data crunching.

So the story of color is that I totally buy on instinct and it seems I'm just as haphazard in using those colors in projects.  Also, as someone who knits accessories (rather than sweaters) I think I have a bit more freedom to be random with my colors because I really doesn't matter if the color "works" for you if you are wearing it as socks, and I do love me some wild colored socks.

Day 3: Infographic - Stash Table of Doom

There are many ways of conveying information on a blog; text and images being the two most widely used. Many infographics combine both these elements to provide a visual way of presenting text information.

Make your own infogaphic (no fancy imaging software needed, you can draw it on paper and photograph it if you want) to convey any element of your craft(s). It can be just for fun or a thoroughly researched presentation of an idea/finding.

I blogged about the creation of these infographics way back last May, when I created the fiber tracking stash table of doom (or yarn tracking as it is so innocently named in my system).

But basically these are representations of the current state of my stash and is my way of feeling in control of my yarn stash.  These are tools to help me tell myself a story, also for some reason I really like creating tables and working with data.