So.. I work really well with goals. I don’t know what it is, but I like having that pressure of knowing I have a deadline. And I like it when the deadline is closer, rather than far away. Saying, “this has to be done for Christmas” isn’t pressure enough because Christmas can seem so very far away. Instead I am focusing on daily goals. Andrew’s scarf has to be worked on daily, at least 12 rows a day (the pattern chart). It went from sitting at an inch long for a couple months to now being close to 8 inches. Still have a way to go, but with a daily routine of doing it, it’ll actually get done.

I have a few other projects for Christmas I need to work on, so I am setting up my goals for those as well. I haven’t quite determined what the daily/weekly requirement will be, but my hope is to finish the larger project by Thanksgiving and the smaller project shortly after.

I also realized that I have currently 4 projects on needles (including Andrew’s scarf) and I need to finish them. One is the farrow rib scarf on my current projects page. Super easy and fast, so I need to make time to just finish it. Plus then I can wear it this fall! The other is another easy scarf I started because I didn’t have my other projects handy. It’s a simple stockinette stitch and it’s alternating green and pink. It’s maybe half done. I need to get that finished. And then I still have Ruth’s bag to finish up. All I need to do is sew the handle on and make the closure. I should do that this weekend, actually.

The bag I’ve been working on all year will have to wait til after Christmas, but as soon as my other projects are done I’ll set goals to finish.

I’ve told myself no starting new projects (besides the Christmas projects) until the old ones are done. I am super excited to try out some patterns I have but, to get to them I have to finish the old ones! But just wait til you see what I have in mind!

So.. a year disappears so quickly, doesn’t it? August is ending and Christmas just seems to be sneaking up on me. My family has started doing an exchange between the adults, instead of giving gifts to everyone. We do 2 exchanges; one is a store-bought gift with a limit, the other is a home-made gift (with a limit that we sometimes ignore). We draw names right after Christmas so we all have a year to plan and work on our projects.

Now, the person I got, I immediately thought of several ideas of what to make. Which, is really good, because some people are much harder than others! Anyway, here it is, August 28th and while I have ideas, I have not started a thing on it. Yesterday I narrowed down to exactly what I am making, what my timeline is for it, and what my back up plan is should I not finish in time. I seriously vow that next year I will start sooner.

One thing I’m really going to hate about this is not being able to post pictures and updates about what I’m making because that person can’t see it! So I will have to post after Christmas.

Of course, that’s given I have a camera to take pictures of the progress. I sure hope I do. As I said earlier this week, last weekend my camera died. I looked online and it looks like a fairly common problem; there are two screws inside the camera that often come loose, fall and then short out the camera. So, I am hoping once I have $90 to fix it, that will be that and I’ll be back to shooting again.

In the mean time, I am trying desperately to finish the birthday Christmas scarf for Andrew. I love this pattern. It is just rather time consuming working it because it’s 12 rows that are all slightly different, so I have to pay close attention to which I am on. There is cabling, which I seriously love. It’s not difficult but looks beautiful. My new goal is to knit (at least) a set of 12 rows each day. That way I can hope to be done in time to mail for Christmas.

Since my camera is out of commission (sad face), I took a quick picture with my phone.

The picture quality sucks but at least you can see I made progress. I’m going to attempt an extra set of 12 rows today, for bonus points. Haha!

Baby booties

Petal bib

Baby hat

Laid out, these look like a creepy alien

Much better with a model. Can’t wait to take pics of Naomi!

Instead of a gift bag, I knit a purse. I’m working on finishing the handle and attaching it.

I’ve also updated my current projects; Andrew’s Christmas Scarf and my Vegan Farrow Rib Scarf.

So.. the baby booties I’m knitting for Naomi will be finished by the end of this weekend. No if’s and’s or but’s. No butts either. That would just be gross.

But really, I started them last night, got the main piece done for one foot. I chose a very simple pattern because I think part of my problem is choosing to do things a little more difficult and then it takes too long.

After the booties, I want to knit a bib and a hat.

But for now, an easy goal: booties by the end of the weekend. If I knit the main piece of the second foot tonight, then do the toe pieces tomorrow and the strap peices Friday, I should be done way ahead of my deadline.

So.. Andrew’s birthday is tomorrow and his scarf is 1-2 inches long. Christmas scarf it is!

So.. just about two weeks to Andrew’s birthday, and I’ve only finished four rows on his birthday scarf. And that two weeks doesn’t include shipping time. Yeah, I’m probably not going to make it.

In addition to that, I think I’m ripping out those four rows today. See, the pattern was supposed to use a Channel Island Cast-On, which I’ve never done. I attempted it last night, ended up unraveling an entire skein of yarn (thanks, Mom, for winding that up for me!). I gave up and used the regular long-tail, which I like, but I really wanted to learn this other way. I went on YouTube and found a video how-to for the Channel Island and I really like the look and it makes more sense after watching the video. So, I’m going to try.

I’ve got tonight, tomorrow and Sunday (did you notice I didn’t include Saturday? Yep, this girl’s got an all-day date!) to see how far I get. If I’m not even close, I’ll have to resign and make this a Christmas gift. But, we’ll see. The pattern also has cabling, which I’ve never done, so… wish me luck.

You can follow the progress of my projects here. I will try to update that soon.

So.. I always like to be good at things. Come on, who doesn’t? If I start something, I want to not only be good, I want to be super good, and I want to be super good NOW. I hate practicing. I hate the learning part. I want to go from novice to expert overnight. I know it’s unrealistic, but I think it’s the competitive side of me. I’m the most competitive with myself.

I started knitting about two and a half weeks ago. And I want so badly to make cool things like bags, animals, gloves, leg warmers. So far, it’s been scarves. Which are gorgeous and fun, but come on. They are just rectangles. I want to be good. I want to be amazing. I want to be incredible right now.

I have been looking for new blogs to follow, like I do randomly, and this time I was doing searches for knitting blogs. I want to find people to admire and aspire to be. The problem is, they are also making me insanely jealous. Maybe jealous is the wrong word. I don’t think bad of them or wish they weren’t good. I just wish I WAS good. I wish I could whip out all these amazing projects. I wish my blog was full of all these projects I’d made. And I guess at some point they will be.

But maybe the biggest thing is I wish I’d started knitting earlier. I missed the Knitting Olympics (how cute is that idea??). I could have done even better homemade gifts for family/friends.

I think that’s one of my biggest struggles. I’m impatient with myself. How do you work on that? Cause pretty much I tell myself “I want to stop being impatient.. NOW!” and.. well, you can see the issues with that statement.

So.. I know I’m obsessed, but I love it. I finished up Esther’s scarf with the flower, it turned out adorable. I’m now working on a scarf for myself.

So.. two weeks I took up a new hobby with my good friend, Jaime. We had talked about doing crochet, but my first attempts were “ok” but not great. I guess I wasn’t too enthused, and after a try, neither was she. We go to coffee and the farmer’s market every Saturday, and a few shops down is a cute little yarn store I had been meaning to visit. So, that Saturday we walked in and looked around. I love it, it’s so adorable and full of soft yarn, beautiful projects and helpful people. We looked at the classes they offer and they had a Learn to Knit class starting in about an hour. We bought our needles and yarn, paid for the class and came back an hour later to begin.

Almost immediately I liked knitting more than crochet. For one thing, whenever I type “crochet,” I always say “crotch” first and have to correct. Ok, so that’s not really the reason. But, when you crochet (haha! did it again!), you hold your hands in a way that I find more awkward. I also found it easier to miss a stitch and end up with ugly holes. Don’t get me wrong, I did plenty of that in my knitting, too. But I found it easier to keep track of and stop doing (with practice) while knitting. Our first project was a simple garter stitch, which is just knitting the whole row. Our “homework” was to do a little square before the next class. Jaime & I are both overachievers and she ended up with a dish rag and I ended up with this cute little scarf, perfect for Jared.

This past Saturday, at class #2, we learned to purl, which is pretty much an opposite stitch of knitting. We did “knit 2, purl 2″ which produces a nice little ribbed stitch. After giving Jared his scarf, Esther of course wanted one. Luckily the yarn I picked for this project will suit her well, so Sunday I spent my day knitting away and made her scarf. (Photos to come.)

I am working on crocheting a little flower to attach to the end of her scarf, but I’m sure having issues with it! Need to practice, practice, practice, I guess! Unless anyone knows a fairly simple flower you can make with KNITTING instead. I could probably do that easier.