tackling 2012

Wednesday, January 11, 2012


Oh, January, already you have brought me changes. Who can tell what kind of year this will be? It's both daunting and interesting.  Last year, I didn't have a ton of personal time. During 2011 I often found myself too anxious and energy-depleted to enjoy my usual hobbies. If it wasn't for taking up the guitar... which required so much of my attention and dedication to slowly learn that it was the only thing that distracted me from my anxiety completely... I might have gone insane!! I am so thankful for my guitar and I love spending time playing on it every day, and so I cannot regret 2011 even if it was so busy that it soaked up my life forces. Because I wasn't crafting with the same vim and vigor, I also began to write a little more. Writing is a treasured pastime of mine, so I am happy to be writing again too.


Happily, this year, I have immediately found myself freed up again a bit. I have been practicing knitting again, inspired by a friend, I, who asked if she could knit me a pair of socks!! I was like, "Man, I want to knit, I don't know if I remember how!" But I magically remembered not only how to cast on and knit, but to purl. I couldn't believe it. I'm still so poor at it that I am just making practice squares with spare yarn... but I'm really enjoying it a lot. With a Christmas gift card, I got some extra knitting needles to add to the small, varied collection I have acquired in various ways throughout the years in my journey to Try And Knit.

In further yarny news... It has been on my mind for the past couple of months: I am also going to attempt to crochet a throw. I've crocheted one before -- for my grandma. It was back when I had very first learned to crochet and it was simple, thick stripes of burgundy-red, cream, and navy blue, to match colors in her living room. It took months! But it was worth it. To this day she snuggles up under it. I think it sounds very pleasant to have a long-running project that I can pull out anytime, even if it takes a long time. I am a short project type of person usually. That's why I like to make things for Blythes.

Through the years my skills have expanded very slightly, so I am going to attempt a ripple blanket. Can I do the ripple? NO! But I'm going to learn! I usually have to look stuff up on YouTube because I'm so terrible at understanding patterns and written instructions (a big problem I have with expanding my knit/crocheting skills and why I really can't sew either). So I excitedly picked out a bunch of yarn that is already cheapy but which was on sale!


It's going to be mostly white, cream, and more muted pinks, but with zings of golden and rusty tones, and if I can find any, some sherbet orange or peach. I'm super-excited. If I get this puppy going I'll be sure to post in-progress pictures.

By the way, my sweet Middie finally got named...


Her name is Bonnet! Look forward to seeing Middie hats in my shop fairly soon.

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