I mentioned before that, owing to the Evil Lice Outbreak, we canceled our road trip to Utah and instead stayed home — and it turned out to be the loveliest, most relaxing holiday ever. Whenever I reflect back on it, my brain presents a delectable swirl of jigsaw puzzles, gingerbread and pancakes and I want to swoooon into a fluffy cloud of carbohydrates until springtime.
The problem is that the overwhelming coziness has become something of a habit that’s difficult to break. Every day I wake up and simply want to knit all day. So I get up and do the minimum amount of productivity required — exercise, basic chores, e-mail, piano practice, like maybe 20 minutes of writing after goading myself into it — and then turn to my knitting basket.
Despite all this, I’m usually still only finding knitting time for 30 minutes before bedtime. And yes, it’s a rather relaxing 30 minutes, but it still leaves me craving more.
I’ve been trying to figure out why my interest in this hobby has suddenly become reinvigorated over the last few months. I think it’s owing to two factors:
- I managed to complete my first (successful) sweater for myself, a beautiful green wool cardigan made with an all-over lace pattern. Wearing it feels SO GOOD. This gave me the motivation to start and finish several other projects through the rest of the year: a baby sweater for my nephew, William’s Hufflepuff scarf, an Advent mystery knit-along scarf, and two quick hats made from super-bulky merino yarn that’s the softest wool ever spun. There’s nothing like finishing to make you feel like starting all over again.
- On a whim, I decided to follow a lot of knitting hashtags on Instagram. Now my Insta-feed is filled with gorgeous photos of knitting projects from around the world. Socks from Russia, shawls from Japan, fair-isle sweaters from Iceland, fingerless mitts from Brazil. All of them bathed in natural light and beautifully photographed.
The idea with following the knitting hashtags was to use social media to inspire me to do more of what I love. And it’s working like gangbusters.
Therefore I’m giving in to the desire — my goal for 2019 is to start and complete nine different knitting projects. I’m not entirely certain what they will be. Right now I’m working on a “Featherlight Cardigan,” which is an ultralight layering cardi made with laceweight wool. (Mine is a beautiful dark purple/navy alpaca-merino blend I picked up at a yarn store’s going-out-of-business sale.)
The next project will be a “Chrysalis Pullover” for my sister-in-law, Kristen.
Beyond that . . . I’m not sure. Possible ideas:
- A few hats that involve a technique I’ve never tried (like stranded color knitting, or brioche stitch)
- Perhaps a gansey sweater for Brian, or a cabled cardigan for my mom?
- A “stashbuster” project that uses up a lot of the bits and bobs of wool in my big box of yarn
- A “zickzack” scarf that uses contrasting skeins of gradient-dyed yarn (click here to see what that looks like)
- There’s a pattern called the “Weekender Sweater” that looks like the coziest thing ever, and similar to my favorite grey shirt that I recently had to toss when a hole tore in the arm
- Socks. I’ve . . . never made socks before. You can tell how enthusiastic I am about this.
Only time will tell if I’m able to finish my #MakeNine2019 . . . hopefully I’ll be able to revisit this in 2020 with happy news . . . and a whole lot of happy coziness!
Casa Camisas 