Friday, February 15, 2008

Wanna kill stuff?

Katherine asked what computer game took me away from knitting for so long. Well, it is an older game that Paul and I used to play a lot. Diablo II to be exact. It's an RPG game where you get to pick to be one of 7 characters and choose a "build" for that character based on where you decide to put your skill points when you earn them. Around the first of the year Paul found a mod to the game and it pretty much made the game brand new. Yes, the basic quests are still there, but the designer of this mod completely revamped all the skillsets for each character, and added a lot of side quests that earn you nice bonuses.

Our days went pretty much like this:

(first thing in the morning)
Paul: Wish we could stay home and play Diablo.
Me: Me too.
(later)
Paul: Man this day is dragging.
Me: Yeah, I feel like I've been at work a whole week today.
Paul: Wish we could go home and play Diablo.
Me: Me too.
(still later)
Paul: So, we gonna play Diablo tonight?
Me: Well, I want to do some knitting, so maybe just for an hour or so when we get home.
(as soon as we walk in the door)
Paul: Wanna kill stuff?
Me: Yeah!

And we'd be questing until we realized that the 11:00 news was over and it was time to get some sleep before starting the whole thing over again LOL.

In yesterday's post I promised a rundown of my January and February knitting goals and how I stood on them. For 2008, I decided to not be so darn aggressive with my goals. I put a lot of pressure on myself to finish a lot of projects in 2007 and when I couldn't get them done I felt like I had failed. How could anyone who finished about 60 projects in one year (a lot were small, but still 60!!) feel like they failed? My initial idea of "not so aggressive" was to set a goal of finishing one large project that was in progress, finish one small project that was in progress, cast on one new project, and knit both monthly dishcloth kal patterns. That may still seem to be aggressive, but I have a lot of fairly far along on progress large projects, so it seemed reasonable for at least the beginning several months of the year.

For January:
  1. Knit both monthly dishcloth kal dishcloths (done)
  2. Finish Annemor #11 gloves (done, but in Feb)
  3. Finish Russian Coat (sadly, still not finished)
  4. Cast on Norwegian Snail mittens (done, but in Feb)

The mistake I made was setting my February goals too soon. Now, since I didn't complete my January list, I feel like I have to finish that and my original February goals. Will I ever learn?

For February:
  1. Knit both monthly dishcloth kal patterns (1 down, the other starts tomorrow)
  2. Finish Norwegian Snail mittens (not about to happen since I just cast them on)
  3. Finish Asymetrical Jacket (not gonna happen since it's still sitting in the craft room and the Russian Coat still isn't finished)
  4. Cast on Lowry Sweater (done)

I have refused to even think about March until I see where I stand on the first 2 lists at the end of February. I will train myself not to stress about knitting. It's supposed to be relaxing after all.

I made a resolution not to spend any money on yarn until I've knit up most of the projects I already have yarn for, but I have not set any limits on book, pattern, and tool purchases. Tonight when I got home from work I had my newest acquisition sitting on the table waiting for me.

I bought the Options Harmony wood interchangeable needle set from Knit Picks. I am so in love with these needles! The colors make knitting even the simplest project more interesting. I've never used the interchangeables from KP, so I hope the joins are smooth and the cables stay in place. I've heard some not so good things about the Boye set that was similar to this one.


As for the Russian Coat ....

I finished up the bodice and arm (except for the cuff) section before the end of December, and was really hoping to have the skirt finished in January. Alas "killing stuff" took over my life and I knit a whole 3 rows I believe.


I'm just about to the color change on the skirt, and the progress should seem to go faster since the decreasing makes the rows shorter and shorter each night. I am enchanted once more with this yarn and thus this project, so no other large projects should take my attention away until it's finished.



I did cast on the Lowry sweater as I planned in February. This will be a monstrous mutant man sweater for my step father for his birthday in October. I haven't figured out all the settings on the new digital camera, but I'm sure once I do, I can get a much better photo of both the color and cables in this project. I plan to take my time picking away at this project for a few months before putting a lot of energy into finishing it.




The Norwegian Snail mittens I cast on a couple days ago will probably become my small project to be finished in March. I love the color combo I chose, and the fact that it's using up some of my stash!




Woohoo I've managed to blog 2 days in a row. Let's see if I can be more consistent now that I've gotten a start.

2 comments:

  1. I have missed reading your blog. You received the "you make my day" award. Details on my blog. WELCOME BACK!

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  2. Too funny! I have lived that life, let me tell you; most recently over Zelda and Fable. It got a little tricky after we had kids, so it isn't quite to that degree anymore.

    You are knitting some beautiful stuff.

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