Revisiting old posts, part the second...

This will be the last installment for NYRs and similar things for the 2011 season.

Remember this post? The one about how I don't make NYRs because they inevitably turn to crap by February...yeah, that one. Let's revisit it and see how I did with my List of Things I'd Like to Accomplish in 2011...

1. Stashbusting. I have a lot of yarn. I still have a lot of yarn. I bought even more yarn at events like the 2011 Madison Knitters' Guild Knit-In, Wisconsin Sheep & Wool 2011, and Stitches Midwest 2011...as well as some other places along the way. I also added to my stash by buying roving, which will eventually become yarn. *sigh* I was supposed to be getting rid of yarn. And while I did use yarn in my stash for some of my projects, I didn't use nearly enough of my stashed yarn for projects. So, this didn't go as well as I had hoped...oops.

2. Cleaning the House. For most people, this isn't a huge issue but as I stated in the original post, I have a lot of things that I inherited. Seriously, at one point I had two and a half households worth of stuff...plus the stuff that I purchased and the stuff that Husband purchased...and then you throw in Little Man's stuff. We just had a lot of stuff to deal with. While we've made some progress, there's still a lot left to do...and where we take giant leaps forward in some areas, we take just as giant leaps backwards in other areas. For example, our master bedroom was in pretty good shape. Then we decided that we were going to make the office into the guest room. Now the bedroom looks like a somewhat organized tornado hit it (again). The kitchen is in pretty good shape...but a new countertop will do that. It forced us to take everything off the counters and really decide if it needed to go back on there or not. Most things were put away into cupboards and some things were thrown out (or, rather, will be) and other things are going to be reorganized and put in different places. It looks pretty good in there. It still needs some work but it's pretty good. Other parts of the house haven't even been touched...the basement is atrocious, the upstairs is pretty good (but not finished), Little Man's room needs a lot of work (which will include selling bedroom furniture, buying new furniture for him, and going through all my "teacher stuff," among other things), the office/guest room is nowhere near finished...I could go on and on. So, although gains have been made, some setbacks have occurred as well.

3. Get Organized. This trips up a lot of people. We have these ideas in our head of what we *should* be doing, when we should be doing them, and how we should be doing them. And then life gets in the way, as it has a habit of doing. I've been getting better. I'm trying to reduce paperwork so the plan is to scan paperwork that we need to keep, but not for anything but reference. Things we need to keep for taxes will, unfortunately, have to remain in paper form but all the other extra paperwork can be scanned, shredded, and thrown away (or burned, whatever works). That right there will take out a lot of problems. Husband and I have constant battles about the mail and the paperwork and Puppy getting at it and all of that. I also plan to go through my books and get rid of any that I haven't read, won't read, and don't have an attachment to. I have a lot of books and I don't need to keep all of them. This is a work in progress because books are scattered all over the house. I also need to be a bit more........harsh, I guess, on what I do and don't keep as far as knickknacks and other sentimental things. As Husband says: you can't keep everything. He's right but it's really hard to get rid of things that have sentimental value. He doesn't understand sentimental value because he's just not that way and no matter how hard I try to explain it to him, he just doesn't get it. So, getting organized is always going to be something I have to work on...

4. Spend Quality Time with Little Man (daily). This really isn't difficult and I think I've done pretty well with this. Now that he's toddling around and getting into everything, this is much easier because we can actually play with things. He's also learning how to point and get the things I ask him to bring to me. He's learning which rooms are which (he knows that when I say, "go find daddy, he's in the kitchen" that daddy is in the room where I feed him in the high chair) and will usually go to an indicated room. He's still a little rusty on "bathroom" (unless he's naked) and "living room" but we're working on it. We also get out of the house quite a bit, even if it's just to run to Wal*Mart or the mall. He loves people and he's such a damn little flirt...

5. Spend Time Knitting (daily). Yeah, not so much. The idea was that I would feel better if I could get in even one row...but that's just not the case. I don't want to knit unless I can actually sit and knit for a little while. While I strive to knit every day, it doesn't always happen. Other things have taken away my knitting time, too. I've learned how to spin on my wheel. I've signed up for a full Ancestry account (which is a total time suck!). I've been reading knitting books...which I guess I could still count as knitting but it's not the actual process. And I'm constantly trying to get the daily houselife stuff done like dishes and laundry...and that just cuts into my knitting time. But, I do try...

6. Organize my Yarn Stash. I've done pretty well with this...but I lost my steam. I've got quite a bit of it posted on Ravelry but I have quite a bit left to post. I'm also not really "organizing" it...just making sure I know where to find it. I have all the bins labeled with a number so on my stash page, if you click on a yarn, it will probably say that it's stored in "bin #2" or "drawer #1" or something like that. Not everything has been re-checked since I started putting my stash on Ravelry...but, if it has a photo attached to it, chances are that I've attached it to a bin or drawer, too. I'm going to be working on this forever.

7. Organize my Needles. Yep. Didn't work on this one too well. I have, at least, collected my DPNs into DPN tubes that I ordered from Knit Picks, except for any that are US #10.5 or larger or have their own case (like my Signature DPNs). I have not, however, put them all on Ravelry. I'm thinking about selling some of my straights because I have several pairs of certain sizes that I seem to always need (US #6, US #8, and US #9, mostly)...but I can't do that until I know what I have. Same thing with my fixed circular needles. *sigh* It just never ends...

So, that's 2011 revisited...........I didn't do very well. Oops.