I half woke up this morning and laid in bed thinking, I totally want to do some kind of video today! Maybe I’ll make an episode of YarnCast, or I’ll stream on twitch. Maybe Ducktales Remastered. Yeah! I really want to stream! I don’t care that I have a cold, I’m gonna get up early and get ready!

Then I got up… it was not early. Turned out I had muted my Kindle Fire (which I use as an alarm) last night, and had nearly overslept past the time DarkstarMatryx has to get up for work (alarms don’t wake him, he just keeps hitting snooze forever, so I have to wake him up).

And that I have laryngitis.

So no streaming and no YarnCast today. Siiigh. I’m super behind on when I wanted to get the next episode of YarnCast out. But the holidays were hectic; having to visit my family, 3 different get-togethers with Darkstar’s family (his parents, his grandparents, and his extended family), Chance’s Birthday on December 28th, and then my great-niece’s birthday on January 2ed. Throughout all that there were small snowstorms, but then on the 4th the big one started, and since then we’ve been having double-digit subzero temperatures (like, -40). And somewhere in there we got colds.

Yeah, it’s been “fun.”

But there have been good parts too. I got an additional cube shelf, and was able to organize my stash

Before

After

I put the bamboo sock yarn on a time-out. It’s way at the top left there, unreachable without a chair (on the top right is cotton, which I hardly ever use). I decided that I don’t have to use it just because I have it. That there is no reason to knit something I’m not going to love knitting and where the FO is going to be subpar. There’s no reason to deal with this yarn when I can and want to buy something better. So in 2014, no more doing things half-assed or powering through… if I don’t like making it or won’t love the FO then I won’t do it. The bamboo yarn just doesn’t work for socks for me, and that’s fine; there will be other projects to use it on. I took apart my bags, because so much of it had the bamboo yarn.

I’m still going to knit 14 pairs of socks this year. But it’s going to be socks I want to knit. I frogged the socks in the bamboo yarn I was knitting for Yuji, and told her to pick out a color from my other sock yarn. She picked Ella Rae Lace Merino for the main color. Pricey socks for a 6 year old. But I’m enjoying knitting them, and they’re going to yield an enjoyable FO. And of course they can be passed down to Chance when Yuji outgrows them.

I’m doing these on the Hiya Hiya Sharps, which I’m loving but they are definitely sharp. I had to get out of the habit of pushing the tip of the needle with my finger.

Other socks on the needles include some sport weight socks for Chance, in that Kashmira (what was left over when I admitted to myself I was never going to continue knitting the projects half-done in it a few months ago).

I’m going to attempt an afterthought heel on these, to not interrupt the stripes.

And then there’s Lady Igraine which I’m doing with The Bleeping Sockgames. I started these on January 1st, but haven’t gotten much done on them. I’m doing it in Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine which a lot of people say doesn’t have very good stitch definition.

I’m thinking they are definitely right and I will probably frog these, but I don’t know what I’ll do it in instead. The only other solid colors I have are that super-dark blue in Yuji’s socks (which won’t show the stitches either), and a lime green (which doesn’t really fit the mood of the pattern). Maybe a trip to the LYS is called for.

In non-sock news, I have my first FO of 2014! I started this on the 1st and finished on the 2ed.

It was a birthday present for my aforementioned great-niece.

In stash-up news, I finally got the final yarn I ordered myself for Christmas –

FishknitsYarn’s Fuji Fight Like a Girl colorway. I got it on Strong Heart. I’m thinking about knitting my dog a sweater with this – it just seems appropriate, right? But I can’t find a pattern that won’t interrupt the stripes. So I’m not sure yet…

I desperately needed multiple project bags, fast and cheap, and since I didn’t find any suitable cheap fabric to make my own, I decided to give these produce bags from Amazon a try. I figured, if they weren’t good for project bags, I could always use them for produce.

But they are great as project bags. I love that they’re see-through. And they fit a Chancey-sweater worth of yarn.

Then I got this for the Marigoldjen one-skein KAL

Yeah, I know it’s not stashbusting if you buy yarn for it lol

On that same day, I ordered something from somewhere closer, and that shipped immediately. This was suppose to be here Monday. It’s only just now out for delivery.

Now it is quite interesting actually. This is the most efficient route from Clinton, where Leading Men Fiber arts is, to Griffith, where I am. It only takes 2 and a half hours.

This is the route the USPS uses. Supposedly it’s easier/cheaper for them to take packages to the big hubs or something. Anyway, it’s a longer route but still only takes 5 hours.

Somehow, they managed to have it take 6 days.

GG USPS.

Anyway, this is what it is

100% BFL Fiber in Tequila Sunrise. Because after deciding not to half-ass things, I thought, well sure, I could do thrummed mittens with superwash fiber, but it won’t felt, and that’s part of the point… I’ll never be satisfied with the FO. So, why not just buy some fiber that isn’t superwash, and spin up that superwash stuff on my drop spindle? So that’s what I’m doing. I hoped to be wearing those thrummed mittens by now. Thanks USPS.

Oh, and thanks for “losing” (I think it was more, it was cold as fuck and snowing a lot and they just didn’t feel like taking packages anywhere) 5 packages I mailed out December 19th, and only now finding them. Some of those were suppose to be there by Christmas, and you SAID that I could send them out on the 20th at the latest to get them there by then.

Also, thanks for sending one of my packages from Ohio – the next state over from me – over me and across the country, all the way to California, before bringing it to me. I guess that skein of yarn wanted to see the country first – That was so generous of you to take him on that trip. Love ya USPS!

What ever happened to me buying more indie sock yarn? I guess I got so caught up in the success of selling stuff that it got put on the back burner. I’ve been favoriting and coveting stuff all year, but for some reason never dived in.

Welp lately I have been realizing that I need to put my money where my mouth is, and buy more handmade/indie/local. That, combined with Leading Men Fiber Arts (which both has AWESOME yarn, and is kind of local) starting to sell handdyed yarn a few months ago, and Chance desperately needing some more wool socks (and to buy some mass produced wool socks for him, I’d have to order them online, and pay as much as I would for the handdyed yarn, to get some ugly socks that don’t fit as well), has led me to remember that I need to buy more indie sock yarn.

And when Sock Bunny said her plan for 2014 was to put 12 skeins of sock yarn into bags, and then chose one at random on the 1st of each month and cast on, I got an idea. I’ve prepared 12 bags, some with more yarn than others, so that I can get 2 pairs of socks out of them. On the 1st of every month in 2014, I will have one of the kids pick a bag, so that I don’t feel the shape or weight of the yarn inside. Then I will cast on, and every time I finish a pair of socks, I will buy a skein of indie dyed sock yarn.

I expect a lot of it will be from Leading Men Fiber Arts, because I’ve fallen in love with them. I took advantage of their thanksgiving week sale and got this. Now I don’t even like pink (Chance does) and I think it’s amazing. And it’s even more beautiful in person.

I also got some mini skeins from Dyeabolical, which should actually be enough to make a pair of socks for Chance, or could be combined with other yarn to make a pair for myself. These are in one of the 12 bags, so I’ll decide what to do once I pick it.

So here are my 2014 goals:

So now I just gotta get through December first…