I thought that since I was going to update the progress on the two projects that formed the main part of my goals this month that I should do my monthly wrap up at the same time… lets face it I am not likely to get much more done in the next two days… not enough to complete as yet uncompleted goals anyway 😛

So…. Progress, first up “Lost”

As you can see  there hasn’t been HUGE progress but I did reach my goal and finish page 5, mostly due to some good company and some gentle motivational nudges.

As for the cardigan… well I have an error to rip out so that derailed me a little… also found I was making too many errors with guests around so the bands aren’t complete. What I do have is about half of the neck band. The cables are really very simple and this goes quick once I get to sit and do it for a while so hopefully this project won’t saty stalled for too long.

As for the 101 list it is still a wip maybe that is a goal I can finish before January finally ticks over. For some reason I am finding it rather hard to fill out the rest of the list. I will post it here though even if I can’t fill it out. Maybe I can collect some suggestions.

So 1 for 3 at the moment not a great strike rate. Maybe February will be better. Even if I am going to be trapped on camp for a week of it. I am really trying to cut back on the crazy this year and set better priorities. Which means after 8pm all work is put aside finished or not. Lets hope I can stick to it. If I do though that means there shoudl be some time for blogging and crafting, which means making and reviewing goals 😀

February Goals:

• Rip back and complete current cable band
• 30 Rows on Dr Who Scarf
• 600 stitches on Lost
• Put together a selection of possible hat patterns, scarves and mitts for G. to select from so I can get started on knitting them in time for her trip in June.

Contrary to how quiet it has been around here for the past week I haven’t fallen off the face of the planet again. The house is free of guests and rather than being productive before going back to work I must admit to frittering away most of my time.

There has been some progress on the cable bands for the cardigan and even some progress on Lost thanks to a great stitchy day with the usual suspects but no photos of those yet. You see I lost the charger for my camera and although I have been meaning to blog for over a week now there was no way for me to take pictures… and what is a blog post without pictures.

After numerous ransacking adventures through the house checking every box, nook and cranny and believe me with all the ‘stuff’ in this house there are a lot of nooks and crannies… it finally turned up this afternoon, just as I was about to hop online and order a new one. So the battery is charging and hopefully tomorrow I will update my cardigan and stitching progress.

So if I said no blog updates without pictures what am I doing right now?

I do have a few things to share… some will have seen my latest knitting finish already but I will add it here anyway.. with a little explanation for those wondering why I have been queuing so many baby things on Ravelry lately. A while back I was adked to knit some cute baby hats as props for a new photography business to use in ‘new born’ photo shoots. I declined however as it was early last year and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to commit to a specific delvery as I got most of my knitting done on the train and commuting to work with the car meant no more train time knitting.

Skip forward to the other week when the owners of said photography business were our house guests and well… it felt less rude sitting around knitting whilst chatting if what I was knitting was for them.. so there you have it… a short time later (and multiple restarts because I was chatting and not always paying attention) my first baby hat. I even managed to snap a picture of it just as my camera battery died.

Details of the project can be found on my ravelry page here. I have agreed to do a few more but not with a fixed delivery date which is good seeing as I am now back in the hectic day to day which is life as a teacher.

I have also pulled out a long suffering wip and am trying to get a few rows done each day as long stints are difficult with the yarn… not to mention the sheer boredom inducing garter stitch… Yep I am back to my Dr Who scarf (Season 18). I would really like to be able to give this to the recipient this year and cross another long standing project off the list. Scary thing is that it is still only just over a quarter of the way done. No picture but I do have an update of my progress from the scarfomatic 🙂

Now to actually go do some crafty things instead of just talking about them.

So obviously it has been a while since I fell off the blogosphere bicycle.. but they say you never forget right? So lets see if a bit of random posting helps remind me what I am supposed to be doing with this little piece of the web.

Anyone that has me on their Ravelry  Flickr feed is most likely up to date with what I have been doing towards the end of last week and early this week. The inundation of photos and updates to both as I worked through cataloguing all my wool stash and started on the roving stash was quite continuous for a few days. While I would like to say it is over and I have everything I own up on Ravelry.. it would be a lie. It has been a very long process but I am close… maybe even close enough to see it finished before work swallows me up for another school year.

The mosaic below is a snapshot of everything that got added (minus 1 or 2 balls that made the rows uneven so they were left out ;P ). The Idea is to get everything up there so I can search for projects by yarn and start using up stash rather than finding projects and going out an buying new yarn because I forget what I have or don’t think it would be of any use. It is interesting to see all of the yarn I have collected over the past few years. There really is some beautiful stuff there that hopefully now I can see it more readily and be reminded of it will eventually be crafted into some beautiful wearable pieces.

Speaking of crafting I have actually had a little time to get a few things done for a change. It has been nice these past few weeks, Mr Adma came to visit for Christmas and after the crazy food fest and the visiting wineries, picnics in the park and a little bit of Shakespeare we were able to just chill out and spent some time talking or doing crosswords while I knitted / stitched. I really enjoyed having him visit and hopefully he enjoyed his time here.

We have some grand schemes for the next holiday (Such as trekking the inca trail in Peru) but they all hing on all participants getting fit and healthy enough for such a grand adventure. It is something I may keep a track of here. There are 18 months roughly until we plan to go. My aim would be to lose 20kgs and build up my fitness levels a LONG way. I think it will be a challenge but well worth it if I can pull it off. I have always wanted to walk the Inca trail and maybe setting a date to it will help me achieve … we shall see.

But I was talking about crafting and I have progress to show! Yep progress, for both my knitting and my stitching.

First up is Lost. It has been a super long time since he saw the light of day but I did manage to get a bit done. I remember k=now what it is like to stitch confetti. An arduous task but worth it in the end. I am hoping to get this guy finished this year and finally claim my first HAED finish… lol.

My other progress has been on a cardigan I started back in July when I visited the US to see Adma an Co. It is the Midnight sleeveless cardigan from Yarn Magazine (Issue 19 I think) details are on my Ravelry projects anyway if people are interested. It is being done in Bendy Rustic Midnight Blue. The yarn is a really lovely colour (Blue / Grey) with a tweed like fleck through it that is purple and green etc. Something a little different but still within my usual colour palette. I have finished the main body and now just have three cable bands to do (neck and each side front opening) then it is on the the really hard part… sewing it up.

The next arrival of guests for the holidays get here tomorrow, that combined with the large amount of work I need to get done before semester starts up again means I am not sure how productive I will be for a while now.. let alone if there will be many updates. I don’t want to get derailed before I start again though so we shall see.

I am hoping to achieve a little more yet this month so maybe some mini goals are in order.

Mini Goals for Jan 11-31

• Finish cable bands for cardigan
• complete page 6 of lost (tiny little page)
• finalise my 101 list that I started a couple of months ago and get it onto my blog

*Wipes away the layers of dust and has a look around*

Well yep I still have a blog… probably not much of an audience but really that wasn’t the purpose of this blog anyway. For anyone still paying attention by now you have probably worked out that contrary to my best intentions I did not increase my posts in 2011 I completely fell off the face of the planet.

So what has happened in the past year.

Obviously I survived my 5 weeks in France / UK the trip was phenomenal and there were so many pictures taken ( most not edited and still waiting to be printed / uploaded or both). On my return I started life in my new career as a teacher, it is this that has kept me on y toes and generally without any time to blog / craft / well anything really other than work. Mind you this hasn’t stopped me from acquiring more stash, a spinning wheel, quilting fabrics and so much more.

The days have been long and keeping up has been a struggle but all in all I am still of the opinion that it was the right decision.. I just need to find the right niche to fit myself in to now and I can see me avoiding another upheaval on the job front for a while.

2011 was certainly far from uneventful with trips to Brisbane mostly associated with family members passing away and an unexpected stay over thanks to the ash cloud. It has all in all been a bit of a physical and emotional roller coaster. There was up points though and I have spent a lot of today cataloging yarn purchases on Ravelry that I made way back in July when I was in the US visiting Adma and going on yarn expeditions with Danie.

So.. here I am 2011 done by in a flash and feeling like there has been very little time for me… which brings me back to my blog. A way for me to keep a track of how things are progressing, set some goals for my crafty adventures and see if I can get some more focus on the life part of the whole work life balance. More than where I work it is me that is the problem when it comes to overwork and stress. I need to loosen my grip sometimes and just let things fall that little bit. Hopefully this blog will help me do that again.

Things are not fully tidied up around here but with the help of Mr Adma it is looking a bit more respectable and approaching more of what I was trying to acheive. Keep your eyes out though as there are bound to be a few more changes.. a few more updated pictures in the side bar and the reappearance of a new 101 in 1001 list.

I didn’t make much int he way of formal New Years resolutions this year but I have promised myself to work less and live more.. that and work on getting back to a size 12 :P. Crafty goals have been kept manageable but still challenging and if nothing else my aim will be to get back to listing monthly goals and monitoring my progress over 2012.

So here’s to 2012 may it be full of friendship and adventure.