A New Year, A New Blog

New Year's Resolutions have become very important things to me. I learned to knit at this time last year because it was my resolution to do so. That was the first resolution I ever kept and it completely changed my life. I fell in love with the craft and now a day where I don't knit a little on something rarely goes by.

In light of last year's success, I have formulated several resolutions for this year. Some are fun and some aren't. In the interest of having them written down somewhere, here they are:

1. Start a knitting blog and update it at least once a week.
2. Learn how to do color work in my knitting.
3. Learn how to knit jewelery.
4. Help my husband to lose weight and keep us both on a healthy eating plan.
5. Learn to let things go and focus on myself and my happiness.
6. Read at least one book per month.
7. Participate in the Harry Potter Knitting/Crocheting House Cup on Ravelry.
8. Get a teaching job.
   

So there they are - and now I have to make progress on them all since they are immortalized in a blog (see, I'm already making good progress on resolution number one!). The most important and most difficult one is probably number five. I have a hard time letting things go and I tend to hold grudges for ages. Since getting married I've come to realize that this is stupid and it must change. Why do I allow myself to get so worked up over unimportant things? Well, more specifically speaking, why do I allow myself to get so worked up over what my mother-in-law says and does? *snicker* Getting to a point where I just can smile and shake my head at her antics will be a looooong process.

Anyhow, what good is a knitting blog without any talk about knitting? I was just sorted into Slytherin today in the HPKCHC (see resolution number seven). I have some ideas for projects to cast on, but I'm holding off until the first month's assignments are posted tomorrow just in case any of my ideas could fit one of them. For now I'm working on my Horseshoe Lace Scarf from 101 Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders.

I'm using Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk in the Tiger colorway. It's 70% silk and 30% sea cell and I absolutely love it. My one precious skein of it was a Christmas gift from my DH. It's my first time using this yarn and the scarf is working up very nicely so far. Of course, this is lace, so I won't be able to see its true majesty until it's blocked.

The stitch definition is wonderful. The scarf almost has a sheen to it. My horrible camera can't pick up the true color of the yarn under artificial light, so you'll have to take my word on it. This will be beautiful when it is all done.

As for mods, I changed the pattern from 7 repeats of the lace in each row to 5 repeats to make the scarf a bit narrower. That's it so far. There's a lot of rows left to do, so this will be an excellent project to bring along on the five hour ride I'm taking this weekend down to my new BIL's wedding. I could do a whole blog entry on the various annoyances associated with that little affair, but I'm remembering resolution number five right now. Breathe in, breathe out.

2009 is going to be a long year.