Nomadic Gamer

knitting

Knitting Yarn

Hobbies – Round One: Knitting (Little Sock Arms 1)

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There are a lot of things I enjoy doing besides video games. For the longest time, I thought there were too many other things I enjoyed doing, and I would actively try to narrow them down only to feel their lure once again after some time had passed. Unfortunately, I do not have all of the free time in the world, and trying to make sure I dedicate time to everything rarely ever happens. One of the main hobbies in my life is knitting (and other fiber related activities, including spinning) and above is a sweater in progress that I’m knitting for my 5 year old daughter. Eventually it will have rainbow striped arms, and it might even be completed in time for use this fall / winter. I’m knitting it in fingering weight yarn which is perfect for socks but takes FOREVER for garments. I think the last time I knit such a garment I swore I’d never do it again – and yet, here I am.

I try to knit for at least 30m-1h each day, but if I can’t manage that even 10 minutes is enough to see a bit of progress. I feel like if I can just dedicate a little bit of time each day to the hobbies I enjoy, then slowly over time I might see results. Whether those results are getting better in a craft, or a completed piece, depends on the craft.

I love talking to other fiber lovers about the hobby, too. I love sharing projects, seeing what others are up to, and learning what yarns they enjoy using. I have any close friends who spin yarn, but I do know a handful who knit or crochet. It’s a subject I could go on about for some time. One of my major motivators is this blog, DailyCreativeThing. I’ve been following it for years now and it always makes me smile.

Have a crafty blog to suggest? Let me know in comments and I’ll add it to my to-read pile.

Gaming Real Life

An Early Year in Review

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It sure has been a very full year – though my blog doesn’t exactly demonstrate that. I’m hoping for 2023 I’ll get back into the swing of posting more frequently, but that’s never something I promise or count on. This year it didn’t feel like I accomplished very much but then I remembered we drove across Canada and moved from the far North to the Atlantic Coast as a family of four, and we bought our first house, and none of that was small potatoes.

What am I up to these days besides simply trying to get by?

When it comes to video games you will usually find me in World of Warcraft enjoying the Dragonflight expansion (I write about my gold making adventures over on my web site dedicated to that), or in Dwarf Fortress which FINALLY released for steam. It is absolutely everything I hoped it would be, and more. I have dedicated an absurd amount of hours to this game already, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I would ideally also like to try to fit some Wurm Online in there, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Art! I had set a goal of completing 52 pieces of art this year, and right now I stand at 39 – considering the year we had, I’m OK with that. Next year I hope to challenge myself in the same way, and I hope to blow that challenge out of the water. Unfortunately with AI art and moral issues concerning both DeviantART and ArtStation I have no idea where to post my works any more. I’m contemplating setting up a Patreon, where people could subscribe to see my art process and my works without giant obnoxious watermarks on them. I’d like to get some prints of my pieces made, so I could give them away or maybe even sell them. I haven’t decided on anything yet.

Knitting – I did manage to finally complete my cardigan, but that was all I completed besides some wash cloths I knit before we moved. I also did a lot of spinning on my new Daedalus Starling e-spinner, which I adore. Knitting went into the “I wish I had time” pile, but I still managed to get that big cardigan project done (I am now living in it for the remainder of winter) so I’m pleased. I have to keep reminding myself I cannot do all of the things.

Speaking of all of the things! I made my way through 23 books this year – raising my original goal of 15, twice. I’m two books short, and I think I might still be able to make it.

I had more MS relapses than I care to admit, and homeschooling my 6 year old was both rewarding and exhausting, but overall 2022 has been alright. I’m hoping to settle in for a rewarding 2023. I plan on doing another reading goal, along with my art challenge, and maybe I’ll set something up for knitting so it doesn’t get forgotten about.

I hope everyone had a great year – thank you for reading my posts and keeping me company all this time.

Real Life Yarn

DailyCreative Goals – December 2021

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Completed:

November was a pretty good month as far as knitting goes. I finished four socks on my circular sock knitting machine (gifts for Christmas) and I also knit a Christmas ball (I know the goal was two, and technically I DID knit two, but the second one just wasn’t working at all and I frogged it) – AND I made progress on my cable crush hoodie. I just have one sleeve and the hood left to knit. I decided to chart out how much yarn I used over the year vs. how much yarn I purchased, and I was pleasantly surprised. If I manage to finish my cable crush hoodie that’s another 2100 yards of yarn out vs. in, and that will put me in a pretty large deficit for this year. That’s going to be the goal for December. Of course I also didn’t make that many purchases this year, and I don’t have any advent calendars going or anything like that, so even with minimal knitting, I would not be far behind. My goal for this hobby is to use more yarn than I bring in – or at least keep it equal. Granted, I already have quite a yarn stash from previous years, but I’d like to keep it (somewhat) under control. I’m also not including spun yarn in this math, because that’s a whole other ball game.

WIP:

  • Cable Crush Hoodie

December Goals:

  • Complete cable crush hoodie
  • Complete 1-2 more Christmas balls
  • Complete one or more other creative pieces (drawing etc)

I know December tends to be pretty hectic and I don’t expect this one to be any different – but I do have all of my gifts completed, so we’ll just have to see. I hope everyone has an amazing month, no matter what it brings.

DailyCreative

DailyCreative Goals – October 2021

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Normally I have this categorized as ‘knitting’ goals each month – but I do a lot of creative stuff, and I was feeling a bit off about the label so moving forward we’re just going to call this DailyCreative goals. Again the inspiration (and motivation) comes from this amazing blog that I’ve followed for years now. It just puts me in such a happy place. Anyway, it’s a new month so let’s see how we did.

Completed:

  • I didn’t complete any projects for the month of September, but I did get a lot of progress done, and that’s always nice.

WIP:

  • I finished off the front of my cable crush hoodie and am now working the back. Once the back is done I’ll seam the shoulders and I believe the sleeves will be next, then the hood. I’m trying not to stress about the hood because I really want it to turn out but I’ve never knit one before.
  • I also started my very first stitch a long! It’s a Halloween one, and we’re 15 days in so far. This gives lots of time to finish before Halloween so I can use it as decoration. I’m not an enormous fan of the daily images, but adding some backstitch has helped.
  • Scrap blanket is still in the works, but I’m thinking of changing it to a 10 stitch blanket instead of squares that I keep having to seam together. We’ll see how that goes.
  • I did crank out some tubes for socks, but the gauge was off, so I frogged them and need to start over. On the plus side, my circular sock knitting machine is oiled and ready to go.

October goals:

  • Finish off the cross stitch SAL – I am HOPING I’m able to complete this. So far I’ve managed just fine, but I never know with my hands.
  • Complete the back to my cable crush hoodie. I was feeling a little too adventurous thinking I’d be completely done it by now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make some awesome progress on it.
  • Finish one more creative project, either a smaller knit project or maybe a smaller cross stitch kit. I have a few now that I’ve been saving up and they’d make perfect weekend projects to gift to friends.
Knitting Yarn

A lot of Sweater

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Even though most of this month has been taken up my my cross stitch SAL and poor days with MS issues, I haven’t forgotten about my cable crush hoodie. I’ve been working away on it slowly, I separated the back and front, and now I’m just working on the front. It’s a lot of sweater, and so squishy and soft. I’m really looking forward to being able to wear it once our winters drop to -40C. At this rate it won’t be too much longer before we’ll be seeing snowflakes.

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Nomadic Gamer