Photos

I've been lazy and down lately. I think these last months of winter are difficult for me; it seems I'm more prone to melancholy now than at other times of the year. Because of that it I have failed to post pictures of my completed projects so here are a few:




...Or maybe only two, since it seems I have actually failed to take pictures of my work not just failed to post them. Yes. Well. More later.

Knitting Away the Winter

It's very pleasant to knit in the winter, a big project on the lap keeps you nice and warm in the cold weather.

Although, sometimes I wonder if I'm happily knitting away my life. Should I be doing bigger, grander things? I have talents, should I be making better use of them?

I always second guess my choices. I wish I didn't but I can't help it, my mind always tends towards thoughts about what-might-have-been. I keep hoping I'll get better as I get older and I have, a little bit. But still I'm plagued by the idea that I should be striving for greatness. Seems silly when I put it in writing. Maybe it's our culture, or maybe it's my inner competitiveness showing up when it's absolutely useless. Who knows?

In any case I find sitting on the couch watching a movie with a nice warm future sweater on my lap far more satisfying than conquering mountaintops or scaling the corporate ladder.

Television is ruining my neighborhood!

Stupid TV! First Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins (or whatever it's called, the one with the stupid bleached blond guy who wears his sunglasses on the back of his head) ruined my neighborhood burger joint. I live a block away and can't get into the place when I'm hungry for a burger or beer. Lines out the door all of the time!

Now, as I write this ESPN is filming some homecoming show with Joe Mauer at the high school down the street. I couldn't even drive to my house! Well...actually, I could drive to my house but I had to use the alley and clearly there were a lot more people driving around who aren't familiar with the streets, or how to park on them, or how to properly pass cars on them, or how not to do stupid Y turns in the middle of a busy street and nearly kill other drivers.

I hate TV.

Damnation!

I started a beautifully cabled top-down cardigan in hopes of using up a large chunk of yarn I bought for another sweater that I never made. I used up the first skein of yarn and grabbed another out of my yarn drawer without looking too closely. I then set aside the project for a couple of days and only looked at the new skein and the quarter of finished sweater together as I was packing up to go visit a friend. Shit. Different colors.

Going back to my yarn drawer I realized that the first skein was one of two that I had purchased for accent colors in the original sweater, not one of the eight skeins of main color I have. SHIT!

Now I'm left with two ultra shitty options:

1. Buy 5 more skeins of yarn at a total expense of around 50 bucks

2. Rip out a perfectly good sweater and start over with the yarn color that I have enough of.

Now, normally I promote ripping, but for me normally is when you have a terrible mistake that can't be fixed any other way or your sweater looks like crap and you hate it and will never wear it. This sweater is pretty, I really like it and I don't especially want to rip it out. I also don't especially want to spend 50 bucks when I have eight skeins of the same yarn in a slightly different color that need to be used. What to do?

My lesson from all of this is don't be flippant about your stash, check before you start that you're using the right stuff.

I even made a gauge swatch for this one!!

January Already

I've been in a lazy slump for the past few weeks. Maybe that's what comes with cold weather and shorter days, maybe I'm just lazy, either are very plausible, and maybe both are happening at the same time. I had a nice vacation that was very productive knitting-wise, mostly due to my extended hours on the couch, and would post pictures except I'm too lazy to find my camera.

I did do one good thing recently: I joined a gym. I know, I can't believe it either. I got on the scale after Christmas and felt my heart stop a little from the shock of the number (or the eight hundred pounds of extra fatty holiday food clogging up my arteries) and thought that maybe I should tweak my routine. Hopefully I'll go... regularly I mean.

In that spirit I have put myself on an extra-strict no fudge diet. That's right, NO fudge! I can eat everything else that I normally eat just no fudge. It's great, I'm setting myself up for success since I don't eat fudge outside of the holiday season normally. Brilliant right? Goal accomplished!!

Hmm...Maybe that's kind of lazy too, oh well.

Vacation is Great!!

I took some vacation between Christmas and the new year because I thought my brains might explode and take whoever was nearby with them if I didn't.

Here's a rundown of yesterday's activites:
11am wake up. Eat some breakfast.
11:15 start watching favorite new murder mystery.
11:45 Mimosas!!
1:30 Reading with hubby on the couch.
2:30 Feeling a little sleepy, naptime!
5:30 Wake up refreshed. A little cleaning. Then, what to do?
6:00 Decide to go to movie
9:30 Home from movie, more reading and some sleepytime tea.
11:00 Snug in bed.

Is that the best day ever or what? I feel pretty lucky.

Whoa!!

What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks happened to December? Seriously, where'd it go? One minute it's Thanksgiving and the next it's Christmas. Isn't there supposed to be some time in between? I seem to have misplaced that time, and I guess it's lost forever. Once time is gone, it's gone, there's no getting it back. Hmmm....

I'm in dire need of a vacation from the daily grind and am planning to take some days off in the next couple of weeks. Maybe that will help me with my missing time.