Monthly Goals: September 2016

Happy September 1st :)

Today, we're here for the monthly goals and the monthly goals wrap-up from last month. Let's visit the monthly goals for August:

Fibery Goals

1. Work on the following (and maybe finish something): Wink,  the Caffe Macchiato Socks, and the Gex Sweater.

2. Ravellenics (August 5th-21st): probably making a cowl from some handspun and hopefully finishing the Gex sweater

3. Partake in a fibery endeavor at least 4x/week.

4. Yarn Diet (clubs don't count).
5. Design work.
6. Clean out the yarn closet.
7. Anything else that comes along.

Admittedly, I've not touched Wink at all this month. Ravellenics happened, which means I made a cowl from my handspun and I finished the Gex sweater. Okay, it still needs buttons (which I have) but it's done, washed, ends, blah blah blah. I also started a new project: Oh, She IS a Bad Nut. I've almost finished the first of my Caffe Macchiato socks, as well. 

Ravellenics meant I was knitting almost every day for the first 2/3 of the month....and now that it's over, I've not been knitting as much, though I've tried. To be fair, Little Man started Kindergarten toward the end of Ravellenics, which has meant a schedule change for everyone and we're still adjusting. 

I've had a couple of club shipments come in (most recently, ErinLane Bags Indie Club Carnival and my first StevenBe Inappropriate box) but I fell off the diet train so so SO hard this month. Another LYS closed, just this past weekend, actually...I may or may not have fallen in a couple times this month. Oops. And then I've been searching out all the Hunger Games yarns I can get my little hands on. I might have a problem. 

Who are we kidding? We all know I have a problem. Lots of them, actually.

In addition to all that, I also tossed the stash, which led to some discoveries (pieces to my pseudo-Turkish drop spindle, some bobbins for my spinning wheel, among other things) and I've added things to my destash. It was rather lovely and I fell in love with a bunch of my stash again. So, you know, that's lovely.

And another thing happened, one that I wasn't exactly expecting: I pulled out the knitting sketchbook and started doodling a new design. I have an idea in my head (well, a couple actually) but I am going to have to test it out before I go full-scale. We'll see how things go. But, the thought of designing again was somewhat surprising. I was frustrated with a design and put everything away for awhile. I wasn't expecting it to come back for awhile.


Non-Fibery Goals
1. Put the armoire together in Stormageddon's room & organize.
2. Go through paperwork on the buffet & cookbook shelf.
3. Go through the pantry & cupboards.
4. Gym and/or some other form of exercise.
5. Work on the weight loss shit (woo).
6. Keep up on the (new) bullet journal.

Let's be honest: Stormageddon's armoire is still in the boxes and his room kind of looks like a bomb went off. I'm hoping that we can get it done over Labor Day weekend (which is this weekend, actually, so it probably won't happen)...we'll see. 

The paperwork on the buffet has been dealt with, for the most part but the cookbook shelf is still a hot mess. Oh well. I also went through part of the pantry but not the cupboards. Apparently I'm good at doing things half-assed. 

I have been going to the gym at least a couple times during the week but we've also been walking to and from school...which means I'm making the trip twice and each trip is, depending on which route I take, anywhere from 1.6-1.9 miles so I'm walking 3.2 to 3.8 miles five times a week, on average. And I'm going to the gym. You would think the weight would just be peeling off....but it's not because all I want to do is eat, which I suppose is a natural response to extra exercise. Unfortunately, it means my weight has been fairly steady. Actually, no, I take that back...my weight has actually creeped up a couple pounds. I'm not overly worried about it, though. It'll come off soon enough. 

And there's my bullet journal. With the start of August, I started a new notebook. This one is longer so it will probably take me longer to get through, which is perfectly fine. I'm doing pretty well at keeping up, which is rather lovely.



So, those were the August Goals...but now it's September and we need new goals.

Fibery Goals

1. Work on the following (and maybe finish something): Wink,  the Caffe Macchiato Socks, or the Oh, She IS a Bad Nut shawl. Get buttons on Gex and get it shipped out :)

2. Proper destash work (photos, updating the database on Ravelry, etc.)

3. Partake in a fibery endeavor at least 4x/week.

4. Yarn Diet (clubs don't count).
5. Design work.
6. Clean out the yarn closet some more.
7. Anything else that comes along.

No, not many changes.



Non-Fibery Goals
1. Put the armoire together in Stormageddon's room & organize.
2. Go through everything on the cookbook shelf.
3. Go through all our food & dishes (pantry, cupboards, buffet, etc.).
4. Gym and/or some other form of exercise.
5. Work on the weight loss shit (woo).
6. Keep up on the (new) bullet journal.
7. Work on stocking the Etsy shop.

Mid-Month Update!

Happy middle-of-August :) This week is rather crazy. Husband has been in Wisconsin since last Thursday (he gets back late tonight), for Beerfest, which he didn't even get to go to because he got strep throat. Little Man starts Kindergarten this week (Wednesday) so I've been getting school stuff all ready to go, trying to get the kids back on the "school schedule," which means going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, and then there's paperwork that needs to be done, I need to find money for things (like fingerprinting for the district and school shirts and donations and OMG MONEY!), and I feel like I've just been running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Buuuuuut, it's the middle of August and we should revisit my monthly goals :)

Fibery Goals

1. Work on the following (and maybe finish something): Wink,  the Caffe Macchiato Socks, and the Gex Sweater.

2. Ravellenics (August 5th-21st): probably making a cowl from some handspun and hopefully finishing the Gex sweater

3. Partake in a fibery endeavor at least 4x/week.

4. Yarn Diet (clubs don't count).
5. Design work.
6. Clean out the yarn closet.
7. Anything else that comes along.

Soooooo, Ravellenics started on August 5th and I knit a rainbow gradient cowl in 24 hours. 

Proof that it did, indeed, happen, and I've woven in ends and washed it. I've even worn it out and about. It goes quite well with my Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness shirt. 

In addition to that, I've been working on both the Gex sweater and my Caffe Macchiato socks. I'm working on the sleeves of Gex, which means I'm almost done. I'm still cranking away on the first of the socks, as well. 

With Ravellenics going on, I've been knitting almost every day this month, which is a welcome change, actually. 

Um.....we should just skip over the yarn diet thing. I broke the diet very, very hard this month. Between the closure of an LYS and my newfound need for all things Hunger Games, my yarn diet.....well, it's been bad. We won't talk about it. But, on the upside, I pulled out every single yarn and fiber bin from the closet, went through things, and pulled out a bunch of stuff to destash (which I'm still working on getting photographed and entered properly). I also found a few random things I was half-assed looking for, like the missing pieces of my pseudo-Turkish drop spindle and I found some bobbins in a bag with some wool that needed picking and carding...I threw that out but kept the bobbins. Woo. 

I also started a new project. The original is called *Bad Nut* but I changed the name to *Oh, She IS a Bad Nut* because all I could think about was Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp version) saying that about Veruca Salt during the squirrel scene. I had a few mishaps involving dropped stitches and frogging but I think I'm good to go now. I'll probably throw in a lifeline at some point because I detest picking up dropped stitches in garter. I can't do it. I don't know why. I know what I'm supposed to do...but I just can't make my stitches do it. ::sigh::

Other than that.....yeah......moving along :)


Non-Fibery Goals
1. Put the armoire together in Stormageddon's room & organize.
2. Go through paperwork on the buffet & cookbook shelf.
3. Go through the pantry & cupboards.
4. Gym and/or some other form of exercise.
5. Work on the weight loss shit (woo).
6. Keep up on the (new) bullet journal.

We almost may as well skip this section, honestly. The armoire is still in boxes, paperwork is piling up, the pantry is a mess....but exercise has kind of been happening (when we weren't sick) and the journal has been happening....but that's about it. Someday, someday...




I'm kind of half-failing this month but I really don't care. It's been so nuts around here with all of us getting the dreaded summer cold at the beginning of the month and Husband being out of town, and school starting and....just nuts around here.

Here's to hoping the rest of the month goes better :)

Monthly Goals: August 2016

Happy August! I feel like summer just started and it's already August and Little Man starts Kindergarten in a couple weeks! GAH! What happened?!

Enough about that. We're here because it's August 1st and that means it's time for the Monthly Goals update post thingie.

As always, let's revisit the previous months' goals:

Fibery Goals

1. Work on the following (and maybe finish something): Wink,  the Caffe Macchiato Socks, and the Gex Sweater.

2. Tour de Fleece (July 2nd-24th): I have a couple braids pulled out and that's lovely :)

3. Partake in a fibery endeavor at least 4x/week.

4. Yarn Diet (clubs don't count).
5. Design work.
6. Clean out the yarn closet.
7. Anything else that comes along.

My sweater and socks remain untouched but I have worked on the little Gex Sweater. I've finished up the yoke, separated the sleeves, and am working on the body at this point. If I keep going, I might have it finished before the end of Ravellenics (that's my goal, anyway). 

I survived Tour de Fleece. I even posted all the finished yarns on Friday. I had a couple braids pulled out....I was so cute. What the hell was I thinking?! I needed more than the couple I had pulled out. Seriously, if you haven't seen the post, you should go look. I spun over 2.5 lbs of yarn, which turned out to be something like 1.3 miles. Crazy! I also started another spinning project, which will probably go unfinished for a bit because I did plenty of spinning in July. 

My yarn diet went to the toilet, as well. I've been relatively good outside of clubs. This past month, I only acquired five more skeins of yarn. The post about that is here. I haven't posted about it yet, but I also fell into a yarn store this past Friday afternoon. In the four years that we've lived in California, I've seen at least three yarn shops close (that I can think of). A fourth will be closing toward the end of the month, hence going down there. I may or may not have come home with things...I'll post about that later. 

Other than a lot of spinning and a little knitting, not much else happened this month. Woo!


Non-Fibery Goals
1. Reorganize in Little Man's room.
2. Finish cleaning the buffet.
3. Go through the pantry & cupboards.
4. Gym and/or some other form of exercise.
5. Work on the weight loss shit (woo).
6. Keep up on the (new) bullet journal.
7. Work on recipe journal(s).

Little Man's room has not had any action but Stormageddon's has had some things done. It started with our need to find a better way to store all of Husband's beer making supplies (some of which are quite large like a big cooler and brewing pots and a carboy and such). We've been meaning to do it and then we discovered that one of his most recent homebrews basically leaked out of the keg and into our carpet in the back room. Five GALLONS of beer. Dark beer, on top of it. So, we discovered it pretty quickly, within a few days of it happening, it had juuuuuust started to mold a little. We pulled the kegorator out and the shelf we had the beer supplies on (that wasn't working) and I washed the carpet probably five times, each time the water coming out absolutely filthy. Eventually, the carpet looked mostly normal and we let it dry out. We decided now was a good time to find a better solution for the beer supplies. Off to Ikea! We picked up a shelf for the beer stuff and because the closet in Stormageddon's room currently houses things like the vacuum and the carpet washer and the fancy table leaves, we decided he needed some sort of a closet system and bought one of those as well. Unfortunately, we all got sick at the end of July and, as a result, his armoire is still in boxes. Sooooon. We also took the shelf that used to hold the beer stuff and put it in his room for some storage (diapers, wipes, etc.). 

Other things remain undone or untouched or.....pantry, buffet, cupboards, the recipe journal. Yeah, haven't done any of that. The weight loss and the gym and the bullet journal, on the other hand, seem to be working out, at least in some respects. So, we'll just keep on keeping on :)


And now, we need to look ahead to this month:

Fibery Goals

1. Work on the following (and maybe finish something): Wink,  the Caffe Macchiato Socks, and the Gex Sweater.

2. Ravellenics (August 5th-21st): probably making a cowl from some handspun and hopefully finishing the Gex sweater

3. Partake in a fibery endeavor at least 4x/week.

4. Yarn Diet (clubs don't count).
5. Design work.
6. Clean out the yarn closet.
7. Anything else that comes along.

Non-Fibery Goals
1. Put the armoire together in Stormageddon's room & organize.
2. Go through paperwork on the buffet & cookbook shelf.
3. Go through the pantry & cupboards.
4. Gym and/or some other form of exercise.
5. Work on the weight loss shit (woo).
6. Keep up on the (new) bullet journal.



Happy Monday!