…and the first day of the rest of your life! Does this time of year make you philosophical? Do you take stock of your direction in life, where you are, where you wish you were, all of that? That used to be my favorite way to spend New Year’s Eve; now, I’m afraid, I drink my annual eggnog with a shot of Jack Daniels from my nearly 30-year-old bottle and knit (carefully) till I’m sleepy and go to bed. I used to make resolutions, all so trite: Lose weight, spend more time with family, save more money…but at 68, I don’t worry much about my weight – I’ll never be thin and I’ll never be obese and that’s the story of this body that I inhabit. I don’t spend much time with my family but it’s enough that we’re all still healthy and busy and love each other. I don’t save more money, what I have is what I’m going to have and as long as I don’t start betting the ponies or flying to Vegas to play high-stakes poker or something equally risky, we’ll be okay and the dogs can continue to have Science Diet instead of Dad’s. (I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with Dad’s Dog Food, just like there’s nothing wrong with Maxwell House coffee, but when you’re used to Starbucks…)
I hope your holidays were fun and fabulous. I wasted most of my time off, just the way I had planned. If my goal was to eat every cookie that came within grabbing distance , I achieved it. I also finished Jack’s new sweater, which he already hates because I made him try it on after every inch or so of knitting. It’s custom-fit and accommodates all his lumpiness
and you can tell just how thrilled he is.
He looks like an 8-year-old boy who found underwear and socks under the Christmas tree.
I also made a pair of Dotlets, which Karen is teaching soon. I was just curious about how the yarns would look together and wasn’t really going to make a pair, but they turned out to be really fun to make and I love the way they came out.
They were designed to be just cuffs but it was very simple to add a thumb hole which will make them more useful I think. Karen is making them in a different color way and I can’t wait to see them. If you haven’t had time to look over the class offerings, please do; there are a lot of fun things to learn and the projects are great.
I also started a cardigan in a skinny little yarn that is due in the spring sometime. I’m knitting it on size 2’s so it will take until spring for me to finish it, but I’m enjoying it so far. I wanted to make a shawl from the yarn, and I still may when the new colors come in, but working with a lightweight yarn on tiny needles appealed to me right now, after knitting with fluffy bulky yarns for a while. There are many things I did not get to over my break, and we just won’t talk about them right now. The point of the break is to be able to look forward to a new year with enthusiasm, and I can’t wait to get going! Hope to see you soon…
