Bye Bye 2011

We had a lot of fun together and made a lot of stuff this past year. Here's my looking back mosaic. 

I've updated my project list for 2012. Every year I start with a little list and find I add to it so much during the year I never finish it all. I'm also easily distracted by shiny new crafting ideas. This year, I'd like to focus more of my time on completing things (the things I really WANT to finish, other things just need to get let go) before I start on lots of new things that will also need to be finished. In short, my goal for the new year is to tackle the stack before adding onto the pile.

What are your 2012 goals, craft-wise, or otherwise-wise?

I make stuff

You might not know it looking at my 2010 project list. But I did make a lot of stuff last year. I'm not quite type A enough to add to my list and then cross it off. But while I only did maybe 8 of the 25 projects I'd intended to be completed last year, I did make a lot of stuff, as the above mosaic will show. I'm just easily distracted when it comes to crafting.

But I've updated my yearly list, carrying over projects from last year that I still want to do and adding a few more for 2011. I'm sure more will get added in during the year and crowd other stuff out, but it's nice to have a fallback list as a reminder for my ideas and crafty goals.

I'm also thinking about doing thing-a-day again this year. It was fun last year and definitely helped me MAKE. Although again, the pressure of creating something everyday does tend to make me do smaller projects which may or may not be on my list. I suppose I could work a little every day on one big project... hmm.

Do you have your yearly craft list already made up? Or are you a craft-as-it-comes-up kinda person?

Making a list...

I'm a big one for lists. I have them everywhere: in notebooks, on post-its, next to my calender, and now even on my blog.

(LOVE this little notebook by monster-loving Etsy seller Vozamer!)

If you look to the side you will see I've added a new page where I'm listing the projects I want to work on this year. I'm hoping that this will help motivate me to finish things (FiSoYoFo!) instead of endlessly starting new projects and leaving the old ones undone. (I'm really good at this; I get all excited about something and then either lose interest or get distracted by something shiny and as a result I have a lot of unfinished projects.)

Recently I cleaned out my crafting closet and saw just how much I have in the way of half-done things and supplies for pretty much every imaginable craft. So I'm trying to be a bit more focused. And a bit more content, crafting from what I already have instead of buying more stuff! The projects on my list are ones I can complete either with what I have now or with just a few additional supplies.

While I'm sure I'll still get distracted along the way and find other things to add on, I hope this list will keep me accountable and motivated. What's on your list for this year?

Thing-a-day

A commitment to make one thing each day, every day this month. That's what thing-a-day is all about. And I'm gonna do it.

Am I crazy? I'm sure before February is over I will probably think I was nuts to try. But try I'm going to.

Here's the first of my things completed in this creative sprint. I've tweaked an art collage of mine from a while back and made it into brand-new-today greeting cards!


(I may be bending the rules a bit, as instead of only making something new every day, I also plan to use this challenge to complete my never-ending stack o' projects.)

Want to follow my progress? Check out my posterous. Every day this month. :-)

Projects, Finished and Un-

You know what I'm really good at? Starting projects. You know what I'm really bad at? Finishing them. I keep picking up more stuff to do when I have many things undone. This is not always a bad thing, as I tend to do small projects in between bigger ones, maybe to prove to myself that I can finish the big ones. Here's a few of my current projects, finished and not:

Just learned some amigurumi thanks to the super cute book Amigurumi World.

(Nowhere near as fancy as this guy does, but really fast and fun to do.)

Dishcloths are another fast project. Here's a geeky one I call the Tardishcloth (Time and Relative Dimensions in Suds).

Got the pattern on Ravelry.

Here's two more projects I'm determined to finish. My entrelac scarf with Noro yarn, started in the fall, hopefully done to wear sometime this winter! (I'm on my last skein, anyway.)

And a super-secret mystery project inspired by the hexes I was making. (No, it's not for the flower garden quilt that I am still working on. It's something else.)

Any guesses what it will turn out to be?

As if I needed a new hobby...

I started knitting! Although I learned how to crochet years ago, I was always scared to give knitting a try. I'm not sure why it intimidated me so much. But my mom used to knit and had the idea to start again and teach me, too! So from watching her, reading various books, and looking at online videos, I'm now a knitter.


After getting the basics down, I found that I got bored really quickly doing simple rows of knitting and purling. Thus I started an Entrelac pattern scarf using gorgeous Noro yarn. The pattern is interesting enough to keep me engaged, and watching the self-striping colors change is also helping my short attention span.


Here's another "Hey, let's try something new" project. This is me learning socks on dpns while tackling colorwork. Very interesting. And I love the owls.


And here's one I actually finished! A slouchy beret. Meret, on Ravelry. Because after having an account there sitting dormant, I've gone Ravelry-crazy, queuing patterns, hearting favorites, loving the whole new craft world that's opened up to me while learning knitting. Want to keep up with what I'm doing? Find me here:
In addition to the scarf and socks you see here, I've also got another scarf for a friend and some armwarmers in progress. I'm also planning a shrug and a sweater vest. Add this on to the myriad of other sewing, photo, and other crafty projects I never quite seem to get done. Instead of doing NaNoWriMo and adding one more thing to my never-ending list, I'm joining with a friend who decided to do FiSoYoFo (as in Finish Something You Fool!) (and my friend coined that, btw, not me) (although maybe it should be FiSoYoFoMo?) in an attempt to actually complete a few projects this month. Or maybe just one. I dunno. We'll see what happens.