Self-Imposed Year of Projects: Update #31

Well.........now that I'm heading into my thirty-first week of my Self-Imposed Year of Projects, the time is nigh for a reassessment of my actual list. I had actually thought about doing this five weeks ago (at the midway point of my Self-Imposed Year of Projects) but we were in the middle of The Epic Move and I thought I should, perhaps, wait until after we had settled in around here a little bit. So...now it's five weeks later and it's time to reassess my Self-Imposed Year of Projects.

When I started my Self-Imposed Year of Projects in January, I had some general ideas of what I wanted to accomplish (copied directly from that post). 

1. Finishing up some WIPs
2. Participating in the 12 Hats in 2012 group...which isn't exactly a KAL (knit-a-long) but it kind of behaves as one in that the idea is that you make a hat every month and they do have actual KALs every month (and CALs, too...but I don't crochet...yet)
3. Finish four pairs of socks (they can be WIPs - and I have two of them as WIPs, actually three but one of them is a baby pair)
4. Learn a new technique which can be done while doing something else (two-color knitting, socks from the toe-up, intarsia, entrelac, different sock heels, etc.)
5. Do one "big" project (sweater, vest, etc.)
6. Baby stuff (no, I'm not pregnant!)...I'll include small children in this category, too

From the general list, I made a more specific list. It was altered and changed a couple of times during the last thirty-one weeks but, as of last night, this is what my list looked like: 

FINISHED OBJECTS
1. Claudia: started January 3, 2012; finished January 10, 2012
2. Mama's Simple Skyp Socks: started May 22, 2011; finished January 9, 2012
3. Little Man's Cobblestone Baby Blanket: started July 2010; finished February 2, 2012
4. Dalek Dishcloth: started February 6, 2012; finished February 8, 2012
5. Baby Traveling Vines Socks: started September 18, 2010; finished February 17, 2012
6. Snail Hat: started February 18, 2012; finished February 19, 2012
7. Lothlorien Hat: started January 25, 2012; finished March 5, 2012
8. Habitat Hat: started April 10, 2012; finished May 8, 2012
9. Mini Sweet Girl's Pumpkin Hat: started May 31, 2012; finished June 4, 2012
10. Pine Forest Baby Blanket: started February 21, 2012; finished August 4, 2012

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
1. Little Man's Giraffe: started May 11, 2011
2. Icarus Shawl: started March 15, 2010
3. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit Socks: started January 23, 2012
4. Hermione's Everyday Socks: started March 6, 2012
5. Sweet Girl's Hippo: started May 10, 2012
6. Mama's Vanilla Socks (round 2): started June 29, 2012
7. Simple Baby Cap #1: started August 4, 2012

PLANNED HATS
1. Hermione Hearts Ron
2. Ogre Babies!
3. NIN Hat
4. Brandon Ribbed Beanie
5. Godric's Hollow Hat
6. Raglan Hat
7. Bergen Street Tuque
8. Nolan
9. Candy Cane

OTHER PLANNED PROJECTS
1. Freeport Vest
2. My Little Slug
3. Shaun (as in Shaun the Sheep)
4. Curly Snake
5. Penelope the Empathetic Monster
6. Socks of some sort (something with yarn from Sun Valley Fibers, possibly two-at-a-time, toe-up)

7. Adipose (Ravellenic Games 2012 project for Team Tardis if I ever get going on it)

Obviously my Finished Objects won't change (though you may notice the newest addition). My list of WIPs won't change either (other than finishing something), though I am still wondering if I'm going to have to frog my Honey Badger Socks...but that's not what I'm getting at right now.

No, the lists I need to really take a look at and reassess are my other two lists: Planned Hats and Other Planned Projects. When I started this project, Husband was still working for Shity School District and we were living in southern Wisconsin...where it gets extremely cold in the winter, complete with snow, ice, and well below freezing temperatures. The winters in Wisconsin are enough of a reason why I have an entire section of my Self-Imposed Year of Projects dedicated to hats. It gets damn cold in Wisconsin. Hats are pretty much a requirement in winter. 

But, we now live in the San Francisco Bay area where it's basically a perpetual May for 75% of the year (from roughly March-October). The other 25% is a perpetual October (November-February). During the perpetual May, it starts out in the upper 50s°F (~13.8°C) and gets to, at most, 80°F or 85°F (~26.7°C or ~29.4°C). Usually it's in the 70s. During the perpetual October, it starts out around 40°F (~4.4°C) and ends up around 65°F (~18.3°C). However, this is all dependent on where you live in the Bay Area. We happen to be in the East Bay on the island of Alameda. We don't get the heat like you do on the eastern side of Oakland because we're literally in the Bay. 

With that said, I have no need for heavy, woolen, extremely warm winter hats. 

So, let's look at my list, shall we?

PLANNED HATS
1. Hermione Hearts Ron
2. Ogre Babies!
3. NIN Hat
4. Brandon Ribbed Beanie
5. Godric's Hollow Hat
6. Raglan Hat
7. Bergen Street Tuque
8. Nolan
9. Candy Cane

Of the nine remaining hats, three of them are for children (Ogre Babies!, Nolan, and Candy Cane). As I have Little Man and Husband's brother and sister-in-law have two children (Sweet Girl and Sassy Girl - Sassy Girl is the new baby and Sweet Girl's sister), I don't have the least bit of guilt knitting hats for any of them. Truthfully, my brother-in-law and his family live in an area where they still get snow and could use some winter hats, especially for the girls. Now, does that mean I'm going to make all three remaining children's hats before my Second Self-Imposed Year of Projects starts in January? Um....we'll talk about that in a minute.

The other six hats are adult sized hats (Hermione Hearts Ron, NIN Hat, Brandon Ribbed Beanie, Godric's Hollow Hat, Raglan Hat, and Bergen Street Tuque). I already know that I will 100% make Hermione Hearts Ron and Godric's Hollow Hats because they're Harry Potter themed and I have a love of Harry Potter that far surpasses my love of knitting and fibery things (which seems very odd as I only tend to discuss my love of yarn and fibery things on this blog...but, rest assured, I have almost as much Harry Potter ephemera as I do yarn and other fibery things). I'm thinking that I'll probably make the NIN Hat for a friend of mine (she was our Matron of Honor when Husband and I got married). The other three, while I like each of them, they're not top priorities right now.

So, what am I going to do with these ten hats on my list? Well........I haven't exactly decided yet but I think I'm going to say that I'll make six of them before my Second Self-Imposed Year of Projects begins in January. However, I'm not going to decide which six. I think you can hazard a guess at which ones I'll make but I'm going to leave it open a bit here.

Let's look at my other list, the Other Planned Projects list:

OTHER PLANNED PROJECTS
1. Freeport Vest
2. My Little Slug
3. Shaun (as in Shaun the Sheep)
4. Curly Snake
5. Penelope the Empathetic Monster
6. Socks of some sort (something with yarn from Sun Valley Fibers, possibly two-at-a-time, toe-up)

7. Adipose (Ravellenic Games 2012 project for Team Tardis if I ever get going on it)

Of the seven things on this list, five of them are toys...and one of them should have been started already (Adipose), as it was supposed to be my Ravelympics Ravellenic Games project (oops). I've decided to totally rewrite this list because while I plan to make everything on the list, I have to be a bit more realistic about what I'm going to be able to accomplish between now and January with regards to knitting. So...the "new" Other Planned Projects List:

1. Adipose

2. Shaun

3. Curly Snake

I think I'm going to retitle the list "Planned Toys" because they're all toys. 

That does not mean that I'm not going to ever make My Little Slug, Penelope the Empathetic Monster, another pair of socks, or the Freeport Vest. I think the Freeport Vest may move to the list for next year. We'll see. I have the yarn for it and I think the pattern would be perfect for the Bay Area, particularly in perpetual October winter. I'll have to think on that one.

And then there's my WIPs list...

WORKS-IN-PROGRESS
1. Little Man's Giraffe: started May 11, 2011
2. Icarus Shawl: started March 15, 2010
3. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit Socks: started January 23, 2012
4. Hermione's Everyday Socks: started March 6, 2012
5. Sweet Girl's Hippo: started May 10, 2012
6. Mama's Vanilla Socks (round 2): started June 29, 2012
7. Simple Baby Cap #1: started August 4, 2012

Aside from potentially frogging my Honey Badger socks (and starting over in a larger size), I'm going to keep all these WIPs going......but I don't know that I'm going to be bound and determined to finish them within this year. The blanket was finished yesterday afternoon (and the ends were woven in last night) so other than that, everything else is kind of up in the air at this point. I hope I can get another pair of socks finished and finish up Little Man's giraffe but we'll see. I didn't really want to start anything new until I got some of these other WIPs taken care of or moved further along...but I wanted to start something new (classic Startitis)...hence starting the Simple Baby Cap #1 last night. I have pretty much decided that I'm not going to finish my shawl before January. I like the pattern, I like the yarn, and I like them together...but it's one of those things that I work on here and there and it'll get finished when it gets finished. I'm not really stressing about it.

For those of you that were wondering, the funeral for Husband's nephew is going to be on Friday in Wisconsin (of course). Initially, all three of us were going to go but after looking at how much flights were going to run us, plus car rental, plus boarding the dog for a few days, plus finding a place to stay...it was looking like $3200 (or more). And while we can afford that, it's still a lot of money for us to go home for four days for a funeral. With that said, Husband is going to go home for the funeral and Puppy is going to be boarded for the weekend and we're probably going to get him fixed during that weekend (which they will do and board him all at the same time). We are also a little hesitant about taking Little Man anywhere near my sister-in-law right now. We're not sure how she'd react to him (if he were there) and we'd rather not give her the opportunity to act adversely. She could either wind up loving on him a whole lot or lashing out at him because he's alive while her son is not. We don't want him to go through that because he's too young to understand. So....Little Man and I are staying here.

In normal "life" news, Little Man is growing like a weed and picking up new words every week. His newest words include "uh-oh," "cakar" (cracker), "cakie" (cookie), and something that we think is either him saying, "who me?" "mine" or "help me." We're not really sure which...or it could just be a filler word.  It sounds like he's say "ah-me" but he says it for a lot of different things. Who knows.

The apartment is looking like some semblance of "normal" (whatever that means). We filled up a storage unit earlier this week. Seriously, it's filled from front to back, top to bottom. We also have the bikes and Husband's motorcycle in there. I've been given the task of going through everything to decide what to keep and what can go away. The biggest problem I have with doing that is that I will not move Husband's Ducati myself so any time I want to go to the storage unit, he's going to have to come with and take the Ducati out and put it away when I'm done. The other thing is that some of the things in the storage unit are things that we're not necessarily going to need "now" but shouldn't get rid of (like our "nice" dishes and my rosemalling that would normally hang on the wall and my books)...and then there's the other stuff that came along for the ride, so to speak. I have a feeling that some things are going to be sold, like my grandma's sewing cabinet, Little Man's swing and jumper, and some other things. I don't know. 

Anyway, that's about all I know right now. I hope you've all had a lovely week :) Check back on Friday for FO Friday goodness!

Little Man and his daddy watching Shaun the Sheep on Netflix