I'm not sure I'm ready for 2015. I know I'm not ready for Christmas, but it is already Christmas Eve regardless of me. I am almost finished with one sweater for one of my brothers. This was supposed to have been the year of the sweaters for me. Well, it wasn't quite. Now there's a designer knitting club challenge with my knitting guild that I'm totally stoked about for 2015, plus two KALs that I want to participate in. And I intend to complete the two men's sweaters that are for Dad and my other brother. At least one of those might be part of the designer challenge, but the one for my dad was set to be a simple Henley design. People, I've actually created a spreadsheet to help handle all this knitting in the coming year. It includes the type of yarn, the gauge, and yardage needed. Now, I just need heaps of sweater quantities of the actual yarn.
In more positive news, I found (via a tip from CarolinaSpinner's wonderful Twisted Stitcher Podcast) a bunch of ChiaoGoo fixed circular needles at Tuesday Morning in Asheville. They were all marked at least half price and Mom gifted me with as many as I could reasonably predict myself ever needing. It was such a giant pile of knitting needles that I won't even picture it here. Just ridiculously huge. And I'm already using them. Merry Christmas to me! Thank you, Mom! We also picked up several skeins of Llama Lace by Queensland Collection (100% llama) that were on the shelves there, too. Very nice surprise!
I have recently discovered Instagram. Yes, in fact, I have been living under a rock. Here's my new Instagram account: http://instagram.com/kbryson77/. I didn't begin an account to share my own photos as much as I wanted to access the accounts of many of the blogging and podcasting knitters that I follow. Some are not easily accessible without an Instagram log in.
I've really been getting into the podcasting world more. It is nice to listen to other crafters while I knit. I began with Gynx's The Dyer's Notebook video podcast earlier this year. Now I listen to / watch the DancingGeek, Twisted Stitcher, and FO&Dye. I just watched / listened to the Must Stash Podcast and the 2 Knit Lit Chicks for the first time yesterday.
On the other hand, I've pulled back from Facebook a bit. FB can lead to some anxiety for me. It has become one of those things, kind of like Christmas cards, that is so often too easy to do with no real sincerity or careful thought. I'm trying to be more careful in many aspects of my life, including what I decide will be a part of my daily influences. I try to control too many things that are impossibly beyond my control, while neglecting the small things that I actually can do something about. I don't always remember that even that must take place in small steps. And I need to acknowledgement my own small steps. It's not all about big benchmarks. It's going to be OK. Right? Right.
