I’m a New Year’s Fail, and I Don’t Feel Bad About It

It’s been a long, long, long, long time since I last posted!  A little over two months!  A lot has happened in my life since then, but not a lot of knitting has happened.  I’ve totally fallen off of the bandwagon in regards to my New Year’s resolution.  If you’re new to my blog, my resolution this year was to knit a pair of socks a month for all of 2017.  I still only have one sock done of my April socks, and while I technically did finish my March socks, I had a bunch of leftover yarn so I ripped out the top ribbing and decided to knit the calf up higher, which I haven’t finished!  I didn’t even cast on a May pair, let alone a June.  I’ve decided I’m not going to feel bad about it, though.  It wasn’t a resolution to improve my health or finances, or anything important like that.  It was more of a challenge to myself.

I think I’m just naturally a fickle knitter and I don’t like sticking to one type of garment or technique.  I like sweaters, socks, shawls, and hats, and I like cables, colorwork, lace, and knit-purl texture.  Forcing myself to stick to one thing never works out in the long run!  That’s also why it takes me so long to finish projects (except for socks), because I like to have several things going at once and rotate between them.  I used to feel so bad for abandoning projects for a few months and then coming back to them, which is so weird.  Why should I feel bad about that?  It’s not like I just keep casting on new things and never finishing them.  I’m going to embrace my natural tendencies from here on out!

Is anyone else like this?  I always see people on Ravelry and Instagram who are able to just work on a single big project like a blanket or sweater from start to finish, and not touch anything else and I get so jealous sometimes!

The reason I haven’t been knitting very much at all is that a few weeks ago, I finished up the busiest semester of my life.  I signed up for 16 credits, which doesn’t sound like much, but three of those credits were laboratory sections (which only offer one credit per three class hours, as opposed to one credit per one class hour like lecture classes), three of the credits were being a teacher’s assistant (why is it that students always wait until 12 hours before the essay is due to ask the TA for help with fundamental problems?  I had a student ask me the day before an essay was due if I thought he had a good topic!), plus I was doing non-credited research in my free time for about ten hours a week.  Plus, I am the president of the knitting, crocheting, and sewing club on campus.  Huge mistake.  Oh, and did I mention I went about a month without a computer when mine died right before finals?  I just got a new laptop yesterday!  My goal for next year is to not overwhelm myself, so I’m only enrolled in 13 credits next semester.  I really only have three classes left to take before I graduate, but one of them is only offered in the spring, so I have to stay a full year anyway.

Back to the interesting stuff, because I doubt anyone cares too much about my academic stress.

I have been knitting some, though.  I cast on and have made serious headway on an Ebba pullover sweater!  I changed the colors from white, blue, and red to camel, olive, and cream, inspired by a field trip I took to some famous local dunes here on Long Island.  Also, I realized that I have very little “natural” colors in my wardrobe, so I had to fix that!  I’m about halfway through the waist shaping increases, so right now it’s just a big swath of camel wool.  Not too cute for pictures!  I do have a picture of the beach near the dunes though:

There’s just something so soothing about the beach in the wintertime.  I do love being able to swim in the summer, but I love the way the water looks when it’s cold and gloomy, and the salt air feels so bracing when it’s chilly.  Most of my friends think I’m bananas for that, though!

I’m sorry for this long and rambly post, but I wanted to get my feelings about my resolution down on “paper.”