he End of a Year and a New Beginning in Knitting and Crochet

I am sitting in my living room this morning. It is 8:13 a.m., which is funny because my hubby believes that is his magic number. He swears every time he looks at the clock during the day it says 8:13. He is goofy, and I love him.

The boys are in the den playing with their Christmas presents and watching cartoons. My darling hubby is working this morning, trying to finish up a house. We own a gutter business, but I expect he will be home soon since I can already see the rain starting to drip onto our Auburn flag on the front porch.

It is a rather gloomy day outside, and despite having some spending cash, I have no desire to go anywhere. In fact, I have not driven my car since last Saturday, and I love it. I am still dealing with the leftover effects of this head cold or flu, and am completely over it.

I have not taken down my Christmas decorations yet. Since Thanksgiving came so late this year, I feel like I was cheated out of a full week of Christmas. I usually try to take everything down the weekend after the first, but I may wait until my son goes back to school. It will be so much easier with only one kiddo running around.

Currently on my needles is my Easy Folded Poncho. It feels like it never ends. I have about twenty inches left to knit on the body, plus the collar. I am thinking I may have enough yarn left to add an edge along the bottom. I am really loving the fabric, but the print reminds me a bit of camouflage, and I am hoping the edging will give it more of a feminine look. I would really love to have it finished by the New Year.

Once that is done, I want to knit a hat for Halos of Hope. I am also slowly working on a blanket for my oldest son using a palette of blues. That one is a crochet project and is moving along little by little.

I have also been playing with my drop spindles and the rolags I got for Christmas. They are spinning up so thin, and I am loving it. The colors are beautiful, and the process is so relaxing.

Speaking of plans, I have set some knitting and crochet goals for myself for 2014. January marks my first anniversary of crochet, and July will be one year of knitting and spinning. I cannot believe it has only been a year. I keep kicking myself for not learning sooner, because I truly love it that much.

Here are my goals for the coming year:

I want to knit a sweater.
I want to crochet a sweater.
I want to knit or crochet at least one donation item every two months.
I want to knit one square after each pair of socks. I need to go back and make one for my Christmas socks.
I want to knit a twelve-inch square each month and turn them into a throw next December or January.
I want to complete half of my Ravelry queue.

That last one might be the hardest, since I am constantly adding things to it.

If you have knitting or crochet goals for 2014, I would love to hear about them.

I also plan on adding reviews to my blog in the New Year. Some of the things I want to review include knitting tools, magazines, yarns, and other fiber-related goodies. I am really looking forward to it and hope you are too.

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe New Year. Happy yarning!