ARTwin knits

Happy New Year 2011

A lot to think about as I start the new year, and I hope to use this blog as a way to record my thoughts and adventures, knitterly and otherwise. Not sure if I have any more blog readers out there - say hi if you're still there.

The knitting has been slow lately, so that will be less of a focus here. But I do think it will be good for me to start blogging again and finding the joys in life, whether is be knitting, food, kids, whatever is on my mind. 

So here goes - I'm starting the new year with a list of things I'd like to accomplish this year - this might take me all week to list. I'm going to start with the knitting...

Organize the knitting

My knitting life, like a lot of my life, is kind of disorganized. I used to be super neat and organized and then something happened and the organization went out the window.  So, my first goal in terms of knitting this year is to get better organized - and here's the list of things I'd like to do. 

1. Go through my UFO's and figure out where I am in most of them. 
2. Prioritize the UFO's and set some goals on finishing them
3. Go through the stash and weed out the yarn that I'll never use and then find good storage spots for the rest. 
4. Organize my needles and notions to make things more easily found. 

Finish the UFO's

I have a lot of unfinished projects that were gifts for others and for me. I need to finish these and then start planning projects in a more organized fashion. Part of this will be done primarily by getting more organized and by finding some more time for knitting. It helps keep me sane and I need to remember that when I start thinking that I don't have time for it. 

So, here's a more organized, more knitterly new year.  

More resolutions and lists tomorrow...

 

hmm... i want to start blogging again, but what should i blog about. the knitting is slim these days. giving it some thought and will be back soon with some new ideas and blog posting.

blog hiatus

wow - has it really been that long.

Life has been super crazy. and blogging has slipped off the radar.
But here's what's been happening since this summer....

• I spent a week in Baltimore with Kristin - working and hanging out in her new digs.
• Work got even busier
• I'm not sure what happened to the month of September - or August for that matter
• We went to Cape Cod on vacation - it was heavenly
• I went to NJ Sheep Festival again and bought some gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from The Sanguine Gryphon
• I participated in the hat attack and was killed by a lovely pink and brown/black hat
• Life got even crazier
• I won a beautiful copy of Jane Brocket (yarnstorm)'s book the Gentle Art of Domesticity. It is such a lovely book.  I can't wait to have the time to sit and read the whole thing! Maybe in January...

So, if I have any blog friends left, I'm here to say HI! (waves). More from me soon, I hope.

slow knitting progress

I'm having a serious case of knitters ADD. I think it's because I'm crazy busy and can't concentrate on much of anything lately, including the knitting. But, because of this, I've swatched for a few new projects. I'm not sure what to do first.

I did a swatch of some cotton ease for the ubiquitous February Lady Sweater [ravelry link], but i'm not sure if this will be the best style for me. 

I've been wanting to make a curtain for my back door, so I swatched for the knitpicks dappled lace cardigan [ravelry link].

I'm not sure if I like this color though. I think it might be too neutral. I might buy another color to make a colored band at the top.

And I've been working on my mom's scarf, but nothing seems to be holding my attention.  Maybe its just the summer blues...

Beautiful Quilt to win -

I happened across a beautiful quilt that could be yours if you enter this fun contest:
http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/

Good luck!

UFOlympics

The Olympics start in little over a month.  My employer is a global sponsor of the Olympics, so it has been Olympics-mania in my world for quite some time.  I love the Olympics - particularly the summer games.  I have so many great memories surrounding the Olympics, like in 1984, standing in a hotel room in San Francisco with my grandmother yelling "go, go, go" at the TV while we watched the swimming matches that were going on just up the road.  And wanting to become a gymnast after Mary Lou Retton won the Gold medal in gymnastics (didn't every little girl?)  The summer sports are much more fun to me, so I'm really looking forward to catching some of the games on TV and joining in on the Olympic spirit. 

I'm going to take the opportunity to join Natalie's UFOlympics, since I have so many UFO's sitting around.  I think I'll start with Oblique so that I can finish it in time for the fall weather. 

Will you join in the Olympic fun?

This has been going around the blog-o-sphere, and I thought I'd take a stab at it. It was actually pretty fun.

1. Ashley, 2. Baked Macaroni and Cheese, 3. Norfolk Academy, 4. Pink Tulip Field, 5. Justin's eyes, 6. Have a vodka tonic - Have a nice weekend my friends, 7. Winter Afternoon along the Quais, Paris, 8. Miniature Cakes, 9. happy happy..., 10. Sea of yarn, 11. inquisitive, 12. RedsVase

Here are the rules, if you want to give it a try...

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

1. What is your first name?   
2. What is your favorite food?   
3. What high school did you go to? 
4. What is your favorite color?   
5. Who is your celebrity crush?   
6. Favorite drink? 
7. Dream vacation?   
8. Favorite dessert?   
9. What you want to be when you grow up? 
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Hello, my name is Sandy and I'm your personal assistant

In an effort to get more organized and make better use of my time, I've been trying out some technological helpers, including iwantsandy.com.  Set up a free account and email her reminders. She'll send you reminders daily or at specific times, right to your email inbox.  For email addicts like me, this is great, because I always have access to everything I need to do, with a gentle litle reminder when I need it - which is often.  And to set up reminders, I just send Sandy a quick message.  I've also linked her to Jott, where I can call in reminders and they appear automatically.  I'm really loving it!!

She'll even make lists for you and you can ask her to send them to you when you need them - like books you want to read, or movies you want to see, or even things I might want to knit.  Maybe Casey can link Ravelry to her one day....

geez - it's crazy how life gets away from you. I blog in my head all the time but don't make it over here as much any more. So much to update. My goal for next week - blog at least twice.  It's a baby step.

In the meantime, check out my twitter feed on the right hand side.

E is for....

I'm terribly behind on the ABC Along. It's been a stressful few weeks and I've been bad about  blogging. I think about blogging all the time, but I just don't make it here often to actually blog.  If I still have any readers out there, then I'm sorry to bore you to tears or keep you guessing about what's going on around these here parts. 

So - to catch up on the ABC-Along. D is surely for the Dissertation, but I can't think of a good photo, so the idea will just have to do.

E is for Elephant:

This handknit elephant was a baby gift for H.  He's not too fond of it, but I love it.  It was made by a woman in Africa as part of an income generation program.  I love the simplicity of the pattern. It's a bit scratchy, though, which might be why H doesn't like it.

Anyway, he does love elephants and we saw a bunch over the weekend. More about that adventure tomorrow....