Happy New Year! I have a love/hate relationship with New Year’s Day. On the one hand, it seems to mark the passage of time that increasingly seems to go by way too fast. On the other hand, it marks a chance to make a fresh start and to look forward to a year that holds all sorts of possibilities.

If you remember from last year’s post, I am a great fan of New Year’s resolutions. Who cares if most of them are not kept? I am always lured by the chance to improve and to make needed changes in my life. Even if they are not kept in full, I like to convince myself that small changes are made each year. I won’t bore you with the usual eat healthier/exercise more/declutter, etc. etc. But I will share a rethinking of my knitting philosophy. But before I do, here are some picturess to keep you interested:

This is some of the knitting I’ve accomplished while family was here. The wee socks are for – guess who? I got this yarn from The Loopy Ewe (highly recommended, by the way). It’s by the Yarn Pirate and I was totally sucked in by the colorway – Isobel! So, of course the natural progression was to make little socks for little feet to wear while she was here. They served double duty because yesterday when we went to City Beach park to play, she used them as mittens! I’m sure people looked at her and felt sorry for the poor child who couldn’t afford regular mittens and had to wear socks on her hands! But it doesn’t make much sense to make mittens for an Orlando girl!

The fingerless mitts are for a demonstration I’m giving at our knitting group on Wednesday. We’re doing a year of gloves and mittens and I’ll be presenting fingerless mitts. This is the excellent Diamond Handwarmers (version 3) by Ruth Garcia. These are from Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and will eventually go to CIC.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my knitting philosophy. As in much of my life, I tend to be drawn to very complicated, intricate patterns that are complex and have a higher degree of difficulty. However, I need to accept that those garments usually don’t end up being worn a lot. Part of the problem is that heavily cabled Aran sweaters (which appeal to me) are usually done in worsted or heavier yarn and those garments just are not practical for the milder winters that we have here. Sport weight for outdoor use or fingering for indoor are much more practical. I could rewrite the patterns for the lighter weights of yarn, but I get impatient and just want to cast on right away. So, my goals (knitting-wise) for the New Year are as follows:

1. I will try not to be so impatient and will really give a lot of thought as to the wearibility of a garment before I cast on. If I need to rewrite the pattern for a different yarn, I will buckle down and do it.

2. I will limit my on-the-needle projects to the following: (stop laughing Debi and Marguerite)
a. One sweater
b. One difficult, longterm lace project
c. One shorter term lace project
d. One CIC project
e. One colorwork project
f. One pair socks
g. The Great American Aran afghan
Hmmm – that seems like a lot of projects, but I just don’t think I can get it down any smaller than that. Currently I am over the limit with two sweaters, three difficult longterm lace, one short term lace, one CIC, two colorwork, three (blush!) pairs of socks and the Aran afghan. Some projects will be trimmed by buckling down and completing them before starting another, others will sadly be frogged. Headed for the frog pond: St. Brigid and FLAK (don’t cry for them, they are the heavier Arans I was talking about and probably would never or seldom be worn), The Unst shawl (only about 1 inch completed, so no big loss), and Ingeborg. The last just kills me because I really, really love this sweater and it is lighter weight and would definitely be worn. But if you remember, I was devastated to find holes in the already knitted portion and many weak spots in the yarn. I don’t know if it was due to insects before or after I acquired the yarn, but I just can’t take the risk of continuing on. The yarn has been frozen, microwaved and quarantined and I will have to do some intense consideration on what to do with it.

Remaining on the needles will be the following:

The sampler lace from Victorian Lace today, Icarus, the Alberta shawl with my new cashmere, a new CIC project (more on that next post), Kongsberg (yes, I’m going to finish it this year!!), three pairs socks (blush!) and the Great American Afghan. A new sweater will be started for Abby (one of my Christmas gifts to her). Exceptions to the rules: A small kid size sweater can be started for Izzy any time I darn well please and if any near and dear to me (son, nieces, nephews, exceptionally close friends) announce an impending arrival, baby knitting will commence.

Ok, now do any of you believe one word of that lengthy resolution? As a reward to those of you who have managed to wade through all that, I present baby eye candy:

A kiss for Nana:

Somersault:

Escape:

Tomorrow they leave for home. : (