01 January 2018

You say you've got a resolution..........

Back to my sadly neglected blog.  Another year, another resolution* to keep up with it.

And a resolution to record the things I have made - I started last year, then that fell away too.  I recorded some in lists of donations to charities, or in entries on KAL sites and the UFO-finishing group to which I belong, but not all in one place.  I'll see if I can do better this year.

I've finished one thing already:  A pussyhat I started while working at First Night Hartford last night, which someone commissioned after seeing one I'd made for a friend of hers.  Two of us were knitting while working at the wristband-sales station at the Bushnell Park Carousel, and it got very quiet so we had plenty of time to work.  Then I shifted to helping at the Maze Gallery, which kept me busier, and I was released once we cleaned up the venue.  Given the temperature, even with free entry at any other location, I decided to head home, where I ended the evening in a bubblebath with a dish of ice-cream.  I finished the hat this afternoon, will deliver it on Wednesday.

Other resolutions?

I read a lot, but I am going to read or re-read the following three books:


Why these?  No particular reason, except for the variety.  I have many other books I want to read, but for a resolution decided to set a very low bar so I have a chance of accomplishing it.  Maybe another resolution should be to track all the books I finish this year?  I'm sure it will be more than three, but I keep putting these off so maybe this year I'll complete reading them.

Looking back at things I wanted to accomplish last year, I wasn't good about keeping up the blog.  I did finish several UFOs, including a shawl of handspun, handdyed mohair I purchased during a class at the long-deceased Studio N111 in Hartford.  I am mostly finished with another, a shawl from a KAL with Marly Bird that I began when living in Madison a couple years ago.  I changed up the colours a bit, and so far like the result.  I've gotten to the third main stitch band, and then have the I-cord edging to finish.  I did complete this year's KAL and won one of the random prizes!  I haven't opened the box because I was on a yarn diet, and only finished one of the two shawls I was working on during the KAL, so I'll try to get the other one done this year.
This is the shawl that I finished, which is made with Red Heart Reflective stripes, so I show it with and without flash on.  In the lower photo you can see what the reflective thread does - a safety shawl!

Upcoming projects include finishing some paintings for the 6x6-4-peace project; some items for this year's Mittens for Akkol Grads project; and helping people make pussyhats (probably by sewing fleece, for speed) at MakeHartford's open house this Wednesday evening.  And of course I'll be making scarves for this year's Knit Your Bit collection at DFW Fiber Fest.  And I have a couple UFOs to finish for myself!

*Back in 1890, the Hartford Courant bemoaned that "the making of resolutions" seemed to have become an "old-time custom[ ...that] died out."  I wonder how the author of that comment would feel about the effective commerce in resolutions nowadays?