I have done a terrible job of updating in the past few weeks. I can’t point to any one thing; I think burning the candle at both ends just overwhelmed me. I did the Five Scarf Challenge in Oct, the Five Hat Challenge in Nov while also completing NaNoWriMo 2016, and then starting the last week of November, after finishing NaNoWriMo a few days ahead of schedule, I began knitting every day, almost all day, trying to complete a bunch of gifts for the holidays.

I fully admit, I did not adequately plan for the holidays, which is why I spent 3 very harried weeks knitting 2 scarves, 9 hats, 3 Big Pillow Bros, and a throw blanket. I will better plan for 2017, because I don’t think my hands, wrists or shoulders could do that again. Somewhere in here I also managed to list and sell a dresser and our dining room table/chairs, which required rearranging the living room, getting items moved downstairs to the garage for folks to pick up, and a then a slight rearranging of the basement (my craft room/office/Twitch studio). Things came together just fine, really they did. But there wasn’t a lot of time for gaming, or blogging. Not an excuse; just an explanation of the radio silence. 🙂

I mentioned NaNoWriMo. On Nov 25th, I reached 50,003 words and stopped writing. I know how that sounds – this was the first NaNoWriMo that I really did not want to write, and I had to force myself to get the words in with a story that I hadn’t prepped in advance. Some days it went smoothly, but overall it wasn’t a great effort. I ended up with a romance that had a beginning, an end and a very swiss-cheese middle. I’m not planning to do anything with this manuscript. I’ll see how my schedule meshes with April and CampNaNo. No commitments to that event yet. 🙂

In October I discussed my current Twitch and Twitter follower counts. As of today, I can report:
* 502 Twitch followers (up from 383 followers)
* 172 Twitter followers (up from 150 followers)

Special thanks to fellow knitter and Twitch Broadcaster xMiniBergerx for sending me my most recent 10 followers over the past 48 hours, as she was determined to see my follower count roll over to 500. For that I am very grateful! I’m definitely enjoying being part of the Twitch Creative community and looking forward to ramping things up in 2017.

We haven’t seen as much troll activity on the broadcasts lately – If and when it happens, it’s minimal and easily dealt with. Twitch has put in place some new safeguards (AutoMod anyone?), and the broadcaster experience has definitely improved.

I also began using two loyalty bots: Mikuia and RevloBot. Mikuia gamifies chat, allowing users to earn experience points while interacting with chat and the broadcaster, and leveling up at certain points. RevloBot allows viewers to earn points while watching the broadcast, and in the case of my channel, viewers can redeem those points for knitted items. Two viewers have redeemed Loot Bags (what I call the Looty), and I’m looking forward to making many more.

Lastly, the donations for Warm Up America: Everything is washed and almost ready to go. Here’s a shot from a couple of weeks ago of everything drying:

What is going to be sent: 5 hats, 9 scarves and a blanket for Warm Up America to distribute to folks in need!

What’s Next: I’ll be launching an Etsy shop in Jan 2017. Yep, it’s currently offline while I get things ready. I’m also spending some time this week planning projects for 2017 so that I can either improve upon items, or try some new projects on my broadcast — socks, slippers, fingerless gloves, headbands and maybe finish the crochet blanket. I’m also looking into launching a Patreon account to help offset costs of streaming while I grow the channel. So lots of good things are on the horizon! I’m excited about the new year and hope you’ll swing by the Twitch channel to say hello and check out a broadcast. o/