2015 Week 4

Its almost the end of January and as I look back at the beginning of this new year I see that I hit my stride and maybe over did it a little in my enthusiasm. Not a bad thing and it certainly got my creative juices flowing in a big way but my muscles are telling me I should have eased into it a little bit. 

I started to make progress on several socks, my temperature scarf project and my shawls. In an effort to get a few things off my needles I powered through a night and a morning of dedicated focused knitting and finally finished my monthly shawl/cowl knit a long project, the Armonika Cowl and my 1st of 12 Mystery Hats, this one a stranded colorwork with cables.

I also started planning for February and making lists of things I wanted to make, groups I wanted to knit along with, yarns and needle required and what I needed to purchase. Putting this on paper make me realize that not only am I not slowing but I'm planning to ramp up even more in February but the I find I like the challenge of trying things I either haven't done before, like sweaters, or that push beyond the difficulty of what I already am comfortable with, like complicated socks, mystery patterns, cables, fancy lace and a variety of yarns from singles to super bulky. Here is a quick run down of my plans for February:

• Februarys mini hat in Meagheen Ryan's 12 month series
• Hats 3, 4, and 5 in a 12 week Meagheen Ryan's Mystery Knit-a-Long (MKAL) series
• His Golden Lair shawl for the Mega-KAL KAL
• Talamh Sweater for Carol Feller's mini-KAL
• Buttercup's Heros Sock for the Feb/March Solid Sock MKAL
• No Purl Monkeys Sock for the Fire theme Solid Sock KAL
• 3 Meagheen Ryan MKALs; one sock, one hat and one big warm thing

I also plan to continue and finish these projects if they are still on the needles by then:

• My first lace shawl, Waterspout, which will be a gift for my dd (through with 1st chart, still have 2nd to go)
• Mystic Cuppa, I'm doing as a MKAL with Knit and Knag (finished 1st clue, have to catch up with clue 2 and then several more still to be released)
• Simple Stockinette Sock for January's Bigfoot theme with Sock-a-long (top down; turned the heel on the first sock)
• Meagheen Ryan's Name Game sock (top down; still working on cuff of fist sock)
• Finish January's rows on Temperature scarf (16 days done so far)

New year, old ideas

It's the start of a new year and like most I took time to reflect on where my like is and what I want to be doing with it. I've had a rough few days but am coming out on the other side more focused and committed to making some changes for the better. 

I actually began the introspection last summer but then I was focused in my career and my immediate relationships, or lack there of. While most of that work remains ongoing, a work in progress, I've hit a good point to look at some of the holes I created when I backed up and simplified. When I need an escape I turned towards books and let myself get lost in some great stories, and a lot of crappy ones. And I've enjoyed watching tv and movies with my friend and now with my boyfriend. But at the end of the day, while I read and saw lots of creative things, I was not creating anything myself and I was suffering for it. This was especially noticeable when I realized how much joy I got from just preparing a meal from scratch for someone I cared for. 

This brings me back to something I started looking for over five years ago...balance. So I'm bringing back some old hobbies, practices and ideas. Where as the past few years have been focused on fitness and sport, I pushed myself too hard too fast. I let it take up too much of my time and I allowed it to overwhelm my focus

My immediate goal is to bring knitting into my life. To that end, I found a quick, practical project, the mason jar cozy, which I knit up in my spare moments over just a few days. I jumped back into my Ravelry.com site and decided to follow along with a one-a-month shawl group and a 52-in-52 group to keep my motivation up. I'm also going to try knitting a row-a-day temperature scarf that will be a year long project. More to follow but here is my first finished project:

Happy New Year, 2015!