12 Skills in a Year - Halfway Point Check-In

I know, it's almost the end of August. The halfway point of 2010 has already come and gone. But I wanted to write a quick check-in post about what I've accomplished so far this year with my "12 Skills In a Year" New Years Resolution.

If you aren't familiar with this adventure of mine, please check out the posts already dedicated to this subject:

January - Knitting
February - Blogging
March - Cross Stitch
April - Nothing
May - Coupon Clipping
June - Plarn

  P.S. The July and August posts are coming, I promise. Things got a little hectic at the end of the summer so I've been behind a bit.

Having completed learning the ropes and practicing almost 7 new skills this year, I've gotta say this is one of the best New Year's Resolutions I've ever attempted. For one thing, I have a rough case of anxiety. The severity varies from day-to-day and month-to-month, but having a few hobbies to focus on has given me something besides stress to dwell on, and that's been terrific. Also, just the act of creating something or practicing something new (particularly with knitting) calms my frazzled nerves pretty quickly.

The seemingly endless possibilities of having these new skills are another great thing about this resolution. For the past 2 years, I've attempted to make most of the Christmas gifts for my family and friends. I'm usually scrambling during the last 2  weeks before the holiday trying to come up with really simple ideas and putting them together without much success. This year, I've already completed 2 gifts for my family, and it's not even September! And this time, I'm actually quite pleased with the results and am looking forward to handing out the presents. In fact, it's taken a great deal of willpower not to hand things out already!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventure ... now, I have a few more fairly inexpensive skills lined up for the remaining months of the year, but I'm asking for some assistance here. With my family in a bit of a financial pinch that's not likely to let up anytime soon ... do any of you readers have any skills with a relatively minuscule price tag that you'd suggest I attempt in the coming months?

12 Skills in a Year - June (PLARN!)

First, say it with me: plarn. Yes, plarn. Plarn is SUCH an awesome word. Even more awesome, it's super easy to "make"! If you aren't familiar with plarn, it's basically just long strips of plastic that you can use just like yarn or string. Plastic + Yarn = Plarn.

For a while now I've been considering reusable shopping bags. We come home from the grocery store with ridiculous amounts of plastic bags, and even though I usually reuse them, I always feel bad about the sheer amount that I have in my trash can after a trip to the store when my 'plastic bag containers' are already full. So I was actually thinking about other ways to use those bags when I stumbled upon plarn on the internet.

My first thought was "what in the world would someone do with something like that?", but then I searched further and found lots of fascinating, practical, and interesting things that people were making with plarn. I found a great tutorial on making it here:

http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/02/17/instructions-for-cutting-plastic-bags-creating-recycled-plastic-yarn/

If you know how to knit/crochet already, then make some plarn (it's pretty much free!) and give it a go. It's just about as easy to use as a regular yarn. I have started to make a reusable shopping bag from my ball of plarn (ironic, huh?). I'll post a follow-up with a picture as soon as I get it done. Other project ideas that I LOVE are coasters, rugs, and bowls (my next plarn project). But seriously, anything you could knit or crochet, you could make with plastic yarn ... though I'm not sure I'd suggest a Plarn Afghan or anything.

12 Skills in a Year - May (Coupon-clipping)

As life can (and often does) throw twists and turns into even the most well-thought-out plans, I came into the month of May not having any extra spending money to use on a craft to learn as a new skill. So, with that in mind, I started clipping coupons. This is something I really never did before. Not because I couldn't use the savings, but just because it never occurred to me.
I have several friends who have used the services of a "coupon guru" online - the website/company finds deals and coupons and sends them to you ... for an upfront, monthly price; my friends swear that they've saved tons of money and stocked their shelves to the brim. However, I'm not going to pay someone else to find coupons for me ... maybe I'm old-fashioned, but that seems counter-intuitive.
So I started getting the Sunday paper, watching for coupons in the magazines that I subscribe to, and keeping a lookout online. I also found a great resource in a blog called Couponing 101 - www.couponing101.com.

I must say, this is a skill that (even now into the end of June) I'm still trying to REALLY master. I've saved some money here and there ... but nothing like stories I've heard from other blogs. However, I once scored a brand new $8.00 razor for 99 cents! The trick is combining the coupons with in-store sales/discounts. So not only do you need to clip/print the coupons, but watch the flyers of your local grocery/retail stores as well.

P.S. The blog above is a GREAT place to start if you are interested in learning the ins and outs of really saving you some cash. If you have any other resources, please leave me a comment!

12 Skills in a Year - April (an explanation)

I didn't learn a new skill for April. I don't think of it as a failure, because I had a lot of very stressful, very important, and very time-consuming occurrences happen in April. And, to be honest with myself, I did learn a *lot* of new things in April, though I'm not sure any of them would count as a skill. So ... I may have missed out on my New Year's resolution ... but I do plan to continue on strong through the end of the year.

Everyone and everything is fine now, but I wanted to post an explanation as to why there is no formal "April skill" posting. :)

12 Skills in a Year - March (Cross stitch)

I've always wanted to learn to cross stitch. In junior high I tried my hand at the latch-hook rugs, and I was hooked (pun intended) ... but lost interest with the designs quickly and never had the resources or creativity to come up with my own creations. Cross stitch seemed to have more flexibility and more opportunities for application, but I just never picked it up, and I'm not sure exactly why. So for March, once again a month with little "craft supply" room in our budget, I went for it. I bought a ready-to-go kit at the hobby store and completed my first project (a little frog pattern) within a few weeks. It was easy, and fairly enjoyable. And I've thought of many ways to incorporate this new skill into a lot of my other projects. Here are some tips I learned along the way:

1. Start with a kit already put together - you'll save time and money by buying a kit rather than trying to find all the right thread colors and materials and putting your first project together on your own. Our hobby store sold very small kits for less than $5.00 ... that's what I'd go with if you've never tried this before.

2. It's not a hard skill to master, but DEFINITELY read the instructions all the way through before starting out. There are a lot of tips on that tiny piece of paper. Also, keep the instructions for reference; I had to read through a few steps several times before I mastered the technique.

3. Don't feel limited to hanging the item on a wall! Take your finished project and frame it on your desk at work or give it to someone who will appreciate it. I like to display my projects around the places I work. It always gives me a mini confidence boost to inwardly say "I made that!" when I walk by. 

After completing the kit, I dove headfirst into creating a masterpiece of my own for my sister who was moving into her first house with her husband. I made several mistakes (including buying the wrong kind of thread for the project), and there were things that I would have done differently (make a border or something to fill in the white space), but all in all I was pretty proud of my creation!

It's not just for grannies! Think outside the cross stitch box! Have fun!

12 Skills in a Year - February (Blogging)

For the skill to learn in February, I tried my hand at blogging. After spending so much time/money on my January skill (knitting) I needed something that wouldn't require me to buy any new tools. My sister suggested blogging ... it would give me a journal and a venue to document my "12 Skills in a Year" attempt.

I've gotta say, the basics were easy; to start a blog, there is very little you need to know. I simply went to www.blogger.com and BAM! I had an account set up and ready to go. I think the hardest part was deciding what to create a blog about ... I actually spent a few days of deliberation on that before deciding on this blog and my other (http://aspirationsthroughanxiety.blogspot.com/). Then I searched on the internet for blogs that are dedicated to helping you learn more about blogging, and here I am today.

I think the most difficult thing for me now is actually finding the time to sit down and formulate a post. I think about things to write about several times throughout the day ... but it's one thing to have it in your head, and a completely other thing to actually sit down and write it down. I think I need to work on my scheduling and organization, but that might be a skill that will need to wait for another month. ;)

In the end, if you are looking to create a blog, I really recommend Blogger or Blogspot. I haven't used any other hosting services, but these 2 are through Google and I find them pretty easy to navigate. And do some searching on the web for ideas and tips. The books I got from the Library on blogging weren't very helpful.

Good luck!

12 Skills in a Year - January (Knitting)

As part of my New Year's resolution this year, I decided (among other things) to try to learn and practice one new skill each month.

For January, I took up knitting. It's something that I have always wanted to learn, and even tried a few times with the help of a "teach yourself to knit" book ... only to wind up with a tangled mess of yarn not even suitable for a pompom.

But this time ... I did it, and I discovered a new hobby that I thoroughly enjoy! In fact, it's now almost the end of February and I am STILL knitting things. I continue to look for fairly simple projects that I can complete in a few days, but I have a couple of ideas for giveaways and Christmas presents that will take a bit longer. Anyway ... here is how I did it, in case you also want to learn to knit:

1. First, I bought needles (size 8) and yarn. What I learned from this step is to buy simple, yet fairly soft yarn, or you won't want to work with it for any project. The yarn I purchased was inexpensive and very scratchy and hurt my dry-winter hands something FIERCE. And, had I actually completed that scarf I never would have worn it.
2. Next, I checked out a TON of Knitting books from my local library. At the beginning, I really didn't learn anything worthwhile out of any of the books. I couldn't find any that really explained each stitch; the pictures were not helpful at all.
3. Not to be deterred, I turned to the internet. Specifically, to YouTube. And this is where I experienced my breakthrough. Now, there are several videos out there, and I did a LOT of searching/watching before finally getting the hang of the first steps, so don't give up! I wish I would have saved the link to the videos I used because the camera angles and the instructions were perfect, but I cannot locate them anymore. If I find them, I'll definitely post them later.
4. After practicing casting on and knitting for a while, I knitted a full scarf! Wa-hoo! It wasn't perfect, but I learned from my mistakes. Then, I went back to the knitting books from the library, and everything started to make sense. Since then, I've learned several new techniques, and I'm trying them out all over the place (more photos to come later).

I've gotta say, I really got hooked on this skill/hobby, and it's not one that I will likely ever "give up". It's perfect for me to relax at the end of the day, or on breaks at work ... and you just oughta see the little old ladies smile at me while I'm knitting at the doctors office.

More to come on the knitting adventures on a later post, but let me know if you are interested in learning and have any questions! I'll be glad to share whatever tips/tricks I've learned so far!