wiwo wednesday vol. 18

Welcome to this year's first edition of 'What I'm Working On'. January used to be my most productive month of the year; there weren't any exams when I was in high school and it was the beginning of a new term when I studied in Vancouver. Also, January is usually dreadful weather-wise so I didn't feel guilty when I stayed inside to knit instead of spending time outside.
Unfortunately, January is the most stressful month for German university students, because all the research paper deadlines are in January and exams start at the end of January, so the whole month is basically spent in the library studying / paper writing.

There won't be much progress in the next couple of months, but I wanted to share with you what's on my needles (& on my nightstand) anyway.

First, let's talk books. I used to read a lot and I miss it. So I'm determined to start a new habit that involves banning my phone from my nightstand so I can't browse instagram before I go to sleep. Alas, I'm more likely to read in the evening. Depending on my mood I either read in Mindy Kaling's book or the first volume of Rita Falk's Bavarian crime novel series.

I never thought I'd be much of an audiobook person but I started listening to Fall of Giants last year and loved it. So I started listening to Winter of the World the other day and I'm loving it. I especially love listening to it while sewing. Also, John Lee is an amazing narrator.

I spun a roving of alpaca finer. I bought the fiber at a small local store in Idaho and it's so soft and squishy. For now it's still on the bobbin because I can't decide whether to attempt a Navajo ply or to ply it with a commercial yarn. Any thoughts?

Eventually this will be a sleeve for a sweater for my dad. But somehow the yarn doesn't seem to like my style of knitting. The gauge is either off, the stitch definition is awful, or the fabric is too dense. Sigh... Once I'm done with all my finals I'll frog it and re-knit it beautifully, no matter how many attempts it might take!

These 'Christmas socks' have been mocking me for... well, since before Christmas. I'm gonna get them done eventually. Maybe in time for this year's Christmas?

Finally my Elfreide scarf. It's gonna take me approximately two more years if I keep going at the same speed. Maybe I should write 'knit one Elfreide repeat' on my weekly to do list until it's done. If I'd be disciplined it might only take me one more year to finish it...

I have one exciting FO to share on Friday. So until then why don't you tell/show me what you're working on? I'd love to see!

Goals 2012

I'm not much of a fan of resolutions because most people forget about / ignore them after only a week or two. Also, I find it difficult to plan ahead since you never know what will happen, how your style / interests will change, etc.
But writing down goals (and making them public!) helps me remember them and ignoring them will be more painful than if they were only in my head. So here are some of the goals I wanna work on this year. I know that I won't be able to complete all of these (if I did it would be a miracle.) but just working on a couple of these will cheer me up :)

Read more
I used to be an avid reader but a bunch of readings for school and many new interests has left me with rather little time to read. I'll prioritize this year and read at least 12 books for fun. I already have a bunch of books on my list (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, At Home by Bill Bryson, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, ...) and I'm excited to spend cozy evenings reading instead of watching TV series.

Knit Knit Knit
I finally wanna knit a sweater. And finish all my UFOs (unfinished objects). I only have two or three of these but they are projects I've been putting off for a long time because they involve colorwork or other techniques I'm not too fond of. I wish I could put buy only yarn needed for the next project on here but I know exactly that I won't be able to resist a great sale or some very soft yarn. So instead I'll put knit 52 items on my list of goals because it will help me reduce my stash and I won't feel bad about buying new yarn.

Document more
The main reason why I put this one on my list is because I miss taking pictures!! The rainy weather in Vancouver is not very motivating and taking pictures indoors doesn't seem very appealing either since I live in a small dorm. So I wanna take pictures in Vancouver and on campus and art journal more. This one will probably be put of until the summer since I don't have many scrapbooking tools here. I've also wanted to make a notebook with all the items I knitted this year for future references to see which yarns I used etc. Last but not least, I wanna participate in Ali Edwards' Week in the Life project and make a minibook about it.

There are certainly more items on my list of goals like figure out my future (that's a big one!) and find and decorate a comfy apartment. But since I have no idea what I'll do from May onwards, I will keep an open mind and wait what will happen :)