March Resolution

I'm a little late for my March resolution.  My months are sort of sliding to the middle.  (As if I'm frosting a cake or something...)

Water.  I resolve to drink 8 glasses of water a day.  

That's the goal.

The plan is to drink a 4 cup water bottle over the course of the day at work.  And that just leaves four cups to fit in at other times.... maybe two cups in the morning before I leave the house and two cups in the evening?  I'll have to see if that works.  The trouble I have is I don't like to drink cold water.  I like it lukewarm.  So I really need to fill my drinking water bottles the night before, so that it's room temperature when I drink it.  This will be a big part of the challenge for me.  Remembering to refill when empty.

Plus I'm still completely on track with both my January and February resolutions, too!

5!!

Umm.  Yeah.  That does bring my works in progress (WIP) up to FIVE.  I will finish this this weekend.... and then the other four quickly... and then I'll go back to my one (or maybe two-- with one in the purse) at a time.

1. Pebble Vest in Monsoon
2. Flowing Lines
3. Socks
4. Missoni Cowl
5. Pixie Hat for GabGab

Maybe I should be doing some prioritizing....

Pebble Vest

When I gave this Pebble vest to the mother of the newborn in summer 2010, I didn’t think she liked it. (She did like other gifts she got that day.) Fail. I thought it was cute, but I guess I didn’t have a read on her. Oh well.  It was the third Pebble I had made, and so I sort of stopped making them after that point.

About two years later (in spring 2012), I saw the vest on an unknown little girl at my local library. Huh? I "ended up" sitting next to them for a small performance that was going on…. because maybe someone used the same yarn and pattern, but not the buttons??? So, yeah, I was angling to see the buttons. They were the ones I’d selected and used! After the performance, I told the mother that I had made vest. Turns out we have a friend in common-- the mom I gave the vest to in summer 2010.  She then told me how much she loves it! She has even gone so far as to have a knitting aunt in Mexico copy the vest and make a larger size for her daughter. Not such an epic fail after all.

All of this is to say that this weekend I've dusted off the Pebble pattern and am again knitting one for a new mom.  I'm a little nervous, but I do love the pattern so.  We'll see how it goes.

Resolutions 2013

I've made the decision to create a mini-resolution each month of 2013 instead of one big goal on January 1st.  (It seemed silly to resolve to hang my pjs in the closet as a year-long resolution.  Surely, I could master that goal in less time.... a month?  Sounds good.)

So in January, I resolved to hang my pjs.  (They used to live under my pillow, but they made the bed lumpy.)  And I did it every day.  I'm still doing it every day.

The trouble is... I didn't pick my February resolution until the middle of February.  (Not 100% true, I knew what it was going to be, I couldn't make myself do it.)  So in the middle of the month, I started keeping the counters clean.  Stove, kitchen counters, and kitchen table.  Once a day clear them off and wipe them down.  The interesting thing is that it has also extended to keeping the sink clear of dishes and keeping the clean dishes put away.  It's made for a much tidier kitchen, and has improved my mood.  Pride in my ability to stick to this one, and happiness when I see the clean counters and stove.

I really should create some sort of plan for the rest of the year.... what I'm thinking....

• create a weekly meal plan frame
• drink more water (really a winter goal, I do alright in the summer)
• cut out salty snacks (or salty junk food)
• cut out candy (this could be a full year resolution)

And that's not going to get me through the year.  So I'll have to keep thinking.

Of course... I did resolve to not buy any more yarn.  I will continue knitting only from the stash.  It's a good challenge, and has been really fun to figure out ways to use up little bits and pieces of yarn leftovers.

Gemini the Second

So with a week of this...

I managed to finish this...

While Little Boy Blue played in the sand and water, with cousins and alone, with additional aunties and grandma to watch him, I knit.  I knit on the beach, on the dock, on the couch, in the wind and in the calm. It was a lovely time away with my family.  The cousins had a fabulous time.   The tears ramped up towards the end of the week.  It seems that you can only sustain that level of play for a few days.

It's Knit Picks Shine Sport yarn that I've had in my stash for over a year.  I knit it up at the 22 stitch/4 inch gauge that Gemini required, and though I had gauge I ended up with 36" instead of the 34" bust I thought I'd have.  It's fine.  I love the feel of the fabric the yarn creates.  It's so soft.  I've worn it for a day and I know it'll be in the rotation until the weather gets too cold this fall.  Love.

Threads

I was fortunate to receive my grandmother's sewing machine and craft supplies.  I still use her machine, a late 60's Viking that sews well.  I use her notions/thread tin for my buttons.  And I am using her thread.  This afternoon as I was working on a craft project, I pulled out a spool of red thread and threaded the machine.  I realized fairly quickly that it was not your typical thread.  It was many small pieces of red thread knotted together into one long thread. It made me stop and ponder and wonder......  What was she planning to do with it? Was she trying to conserve thread?  How did the thread get to be in all of those small pieces anyway?  And it made me miss her a little bit more.

Gemini the First

So I started my first Gemini on a camping trip in June.  Checked gauge for the first four-five inches. I know... I'm "supposed" to knit a swatch and check that, but I haven't found my gauge to run true on swatches.  So I pick a small part that I'll need to knit anyway--in this case, the neckline and yoke-- and just begin with the needle size I think I'll need.  And truly, I had gauge.  22 stitches/4 inches.  But somewhere along the way, I didn't have gauge any longer.  However, I had stopped being worried about it.  It wasn't until I was trying it on to determine if I'd knit it long enough that I realized it wasn't going to have negative four inches of ease.  In fact it felt a little roomy...

Pull out tape measure.  Check gauge.  20 stitches/4 inches.  Measure width of NEARLY FINISHED garment....  38 inches.  Which means I have zero ease.   I finished it anyway.  I wore it for a day.  And then I passed it off to my pregnant sister.  She'll wear it for the fall, and then return it to me.  I simply can't bear to frog it without any wear.

I've become extremely interested in waste in the fashion industry.  I have a minimalist shopping philosophy  (reduce!), and I've always been a mostly thrift store clothes shopper (reuse!).  This feels like I'm moving in the right direction.  And this sweater is made with recycled yarn (recycle!).  It was originally a lovely summer sweater that I knit in the summer of 1997.  I distinctly remember knitting it on the plane to Japan where I was going to start my first "real" job.  My current struggle? Can I continue to buy new yarn it I don't ever put it in the waste stream?  Can I just keep reknitting the same yarn from one project to another?  And what about the things I give to others?  Can I ask for them back if they want to "get rid" of them?  Will folks admit to getting rid of hand knits?  But no one keeps baby sweaters forever, do they?