Simple choices

At this time of year I often find myself seized with a burst of frantic startitis. The urge to knit all the things is very strong and I survey my stash with a mounting sense of urgency. So many beautiful yarns hoarded away and so little time in which to knit them. This is then usually followed by feelings of guilt that I have managed to amass such a stash in the first place and that all these gorgrous yarns are being hidden away, unable to show themselves to the world.

Also, at this time of year there seem to be KALs without number, my social media feed is awash with a host of fabulous looking KALs, all tempting me to cast on right now.

Fortunately for me however I am approximately 300 miles away from my stash and my knitting is strictly limited to that which I brought with me. I have my Rift pullover for DH, my new brioche project for the Everyday Knitter #briochechallenge, my Foolproof cowl and my emergency sock knitting bag. And, that's it.

No need to agonise over yarn choices, no point in browsing through the Ravelry queue to find potential projects. Just pick up a project I have with me and work on it - now there's a novel idea.

That's all well and good though, but pretties win over a dark grey, plain pullover any day - sorry DH but your sweater may not be ready to wear until next Christmas.

Morning!

Well, here we are are on January 1st, 2017. All set and ready to go for the first of my daily blog posts this month. Fortunately I have hot coffee and am currently holed up in a cosy lakeland cottage with my small and slightly bonkers family to keep me company.

Today sees the start of my first Everyday Knitter monthly challenge too - and this month we are focusing on brioche knitting. I was up bright and early this morning - one advantage of staying in on New Years Eve and playing board games with the kids - so I made a start on my first brioche project. It is going pretty well so far but I don't want to jinx things. So I will keep quiet and move on.

I don't normally make a lot of New Years resolutions but this year has seen some fairly big ups and downs and I'm grateful for these quiet few days, alone with my boys to take stock of events and to formulate an action plan for the coming year. Tucked up here in our favourite part of the world, everyday life seems a long way away and it's easy to have lots of good intentions which quickly evaporate when faced with the harsh reality of our normal, busy routine.

One thing which I do want to get into the habit of is setting aside 15 minutes every morning just for me. To sit and knit before doing anything else and certainly before turning on any news or social media. Just a few minutes, just me, my knitting and my coffee is a great way to start the day and if it helps me finally finish a few long term projects, then so much the better.