It Was A Mistake Until It Wasn't

Hello all, I hope that you and 2024 are getting along well so far. It's pretty much tried to flood everyone around here, but we have been fortunate because we seldom get flooding. And since our roof was repaired at the end of last year, we don't even have flooding from above, thank goodness!

We've mostly just been staying inside and being cozy when we can, as Pip is demonstrating below.

This week I have been working on slowly organizing the Christmas decorations to be put away, which I always hate because I love them so much. But then I do my annual self-lecture on how they are the best because I only get to see them and enjoy them once a year, etc. We'll take our tree to be recycled on Saturday, and then next week I'll do some more serious cleaning for the grand finale of back to the usual.

I have formulated a few goals for the year, which I may or may not share later, but I had to laugh at myself because I already forgot about one and acted in the opposite way! Like a lot of us, I told myself that I was not going to buy a lot of yarn in 2024, because I already have more than enough. I actually did pretty well last year, though not necessarily in a conscious fashion, just more to not spend as much money. And over the last few years, I've done OK with knitting from my stash. Anyway, I saw in a post from the designer Susan B. Anderson that her yarn company, Barrett Wool Co., had kits available for the Alpine Bloom Hat. The cost was very reasonable, too. I've seen a few versions of this hat, in person and on Ravelry, and it has appealed to me. So I ordered a kit. Then about ten minutes later, I thought, "Wait, I wasn't going to buy more yarn!" 😀😟 And honestly, I was a little annoyed that I'd so quickly forgotten.

Then I remembered that one of my goals for 2024 was to knit something - preferably a sweater - with colorwork, to see if a) I could do it successfully, and b) if I enjoyed it at all. So I decided that ordering the hat kit was in fact not a mistake. Nope, it will be my first colorwork attempt, and isn't it better to try on a small thing like a hat than a whole sweater? Isn't it? RIGHT??

(That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But seriously, this did make me feel better about ordering the kit, and now I'm excited about it.)

So now you know two of my goals - don't buy yarn/as much yarn, and try colorwork. Granted, the real bulk of my stash is fingering/sock yarn, so if I want to knit anything in a different weight, I may not have the yarn I need, but we'll see what happens as the year goes along. I have even considered doing one of those  "Nine Things I'll Knit This Year" plans, but rather than specific items or patterns, more of a generic version, and I still may give that a shot. You'll certainly know if I do.

In other news, I tallied up my personal stats for my year of walking/exercise with my niece Amanda and my friend Lisa. I haven't quite figured out how best to keep track of things other than walking, since I have an app that keeps track of distance for that. But in 2023, I walked 129.14 miles! I figured that is a little more than 10 miles a month, which is 10 miles a month more than before. And of course, now that I have that information, I want to try and do much better during 2024 - so there you go, another goal, just a non-knitting one. 

There's not a lot else to report right now. I hope if you have been flooded, or live someplace where the weather has been dangerous, that you are doing OK and are not in any serious danger. Take care, everyone.