Wednesday, January 18, 2012

So Far, So Good

The third week of the year and I am keeping to my resolutions.  I finished a pair of socks for myself that I started in October!  Yes, they are my take along project, but I really haven't been knitting on them as much as I should.  I also finished a hat for Granddaughter#1's birthday and started a pair of socks for DH.
Penguin's
In the "projects I've been avoiding" segment, I put together my sister-in-law's sweater that I took home last summer to do for her.  Took me a few hours while watching playoff games this weekend.  Why did I wait so long? So that's one bag out of my craft room.  We also cleaned out the front hall closet which had the picture overflow that needed sorting and throwing out.  These included posters and pictures we purchased that will never go up on the walls and old pictures of the grandkids that need to go in albums while I recycle the picture frames.  Another nagging project that took very little time when we finally got to it.
So far three weeks, three completed knitting projects and three nagging projects done.

No movies this weekend, but I did re watch one of my favorites "About a Boy" on Monday when DH had his monthly Romeo dinner.  Great movie with Hugh Grant.  We are also really enjoying the second season of "Downton Abbey"  I recorded and am re-watching the first season and loving it.

Book Department:  I finished 3 books, so far this year.  "Endangered Species", "Firestorm" and the second Flavia De Luca "The Weed that Strung the Hangman's Bag".
And I actually had to go to the library for a "real" book on Saturday.  I'm reading my way through the Anna Pigeon series and "Endangered Species" was not available for Nook or audiobook.  I found, interestingly enough, that I was reading much faster with the paper book.  I think it is because turning the pages is a totally unconscious movement, with the Nook, I am still very aware when I turn the page, either by touching the screen or clicking the button.  I have to think about it for a split second and it disturbs my train of thought.  Sometimes the pages don't turn or too many turn so again, it stops me for a few seconds.  I'm sure I will get used to it.  The convenience of having an assortment of books at my fingertips is worth the learning curve.

Friday the kids had a half day of school and of course we had our first real snow storm of the season.   It was a little tricky driving and it took me about an hour to get there, but we managed.  Then over the weekend it warmed up and rained buckets.  Today the weather turned again and it is very cold and a bit snowy.  This type of weather is really bad for the garden.  Plants heave and the roots freeze.  Better a deep blanket of snow like last year.

Let's see how this resolve holds!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

New Year

Some people start the new year by cleaning their houses, sweeping out the old to bring in the new.  Some people eat herring at midnight to bring good luck in the coming year.  Some people clang noisemakers at midnight to scare off the bad and ring in the new.  I should have done one of these things to break the string of bad luck that started right before Christmas.
Beginning the Friday before Christmas, I lost my little MP3 player, that I use to listen to books downloaded from the library.   It must have gotten lost somewhere between the bakery where I was buying the Christmas morning coffee cake and the Botanical Gardens where we took the kids for the Christmas poinsettia show.  Loaded with books, it was distressing. Then the Thursday before New Year's, just before going to see "War Horse",  I broke a tooth while eating a sandwich.  The dentist wasn't available until the 2nd so I babied it for four days.  On New Year's day, the desktop computer died.  No picture, no nothing just a humming sound from the tower.  Sigh.   Backup?  What's that?
Oh, we got a new iPad for Christmas, fortunately, and we have the laptop, so we have time to decide if there is a new computer in our future or we'll just make due with what we have.  One of the small gifts I got was a gift certificate from my LYS.  Did I tell you they had a fire in the building and have smoke damage, so they are closed until they decide what they are going to do. So all the bad luck isn't mine, I guess.
I lost the last week due to the tooth problem.  I had a crown put on that required some very painful oral surgery, and the week between the surgery and the crown being put yesterday on passed in a haze of painkillers and eating the softest things I could find.  So I'm just getting to the year end review and New Year's resolutions.

Looking back at my resolve for 2011, I fell down the rabbit hole and am now digging my way back out.  I foolishly went every which way in buying yarn and making things for the sake of taking classes.  I have a bunch of items I am not really sure I even like.  Certainly not the one's in my queue or even the ones I had yarn for.
As a result, I have more unfinished objects and yarn waiting to be knit than ever.
So, even though I had about the same yardage used and items finished, it is somehow less satisfying than what I accomplished in 2010.
So 2012 is the year of production.  I want to have something produced every week.  Not just knitting, but a project that has been sitting around waiting for me to get to.
The first week I finished one sock and the elephant vest for Jordyn.  I also took down and put away all the Christmas decorations and cleaned the house from top to bottom.
I organized all my Ravelry queue matching up projects with yarn in my stash and I started Dad's Cardigan for DH with KnitPicks Wool of the Andes that I have had for so long, it is the large skeins of 220 yards.
Even though I love making them and have yarn for a large number, I am going to slow down on shawls.  I never wear them.  And no one I know does either.  My thoughts of wearing a different shawl as a scarf each day haven't come to pass.  It's been too warm.  No need just yet to wrap oneself in wool. I took a walk through my garden this morning after feeding the birds and saw green leaves on the rose and butterfly bushes. Weird.
And this is the year I get through piecing my Cream bedspread and knitting some of the other 5 afghans I have yarn for.  Hmmm.  2012  the year of the afghan is a good thought.