It was bitterly cold the first week of January, then we had a lovely weekend a few days later, now the bitter cold is paying us a visit again. I wish it was the perfect weekend to knit but with school just starting a few days ago, I have plenty of reading to do instead.

For Christmas this year, I made my sister a sock. Yes, one sock, the second one isn’t finished yet. Do you ever have projects where you think, “wow, I never thought I could knit something that beautiful”? This is one of those projects. It’s the Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush from the Favorite Socks book. After finishing the first sock in about 9 days on size 1 needles, my hands needed a break, hence the reason for the delay of the second sock. I now know why everyone raves about Nancy Bush sock patterns. They are amazing, she pays attention to every detail to make the socks perfect. The toe on this sock fits the rest of the sock so well and I’ve done this heel on other socks but it just fits this one so well.

This semester is starting off busy with lots of reading. I think it will be a great semester. My classes are Libraries, Information and Society; Media Literacy and Youth; and Reference. I also have a practicum at one of the local libraries with the Young Adult Librarian. I’ll be helping her plan the summer reading program while also learning the ropes at the library’s reference desk. I’m really excited for the practicum and the semester to come. It should be a good one.

I’m really excited about Lolly’s Project Spectrum this year. The Artist Trading Card swap sounds really great and I think it will be a great time to try out some new stuff. I may try my hand at some collages. As far as what I’ll be knitting with Project Spectrum, my first goal is to finish the Martha sweater. My Tweedy Vest is nearly done, it just needs a neckband and armhole bands.

I receive Knitting Daily as an email and usually feel inspired by them. Then this post “The Year of Knitting Fearlessly” appeared in my email last week. I’ve been thinking about it all week and the idea of knitting fearlessly seems to fit so well into my established goals this year. Will this be the year that I finally tackle my fear of knitting an entire cabled sweater (don’t ask me why it’s taken so long)? Or knit my first fair-isle sweater? I’ve always wanted to make the little yoke sweater on the cover of Knitting Around by Elizabeth Zimmermann. This may be my year.

Another project that has been sitting for several years that I’ve been fearful of but am still truly in love with but have always been afraid of even starting is the Garter Stitch Jacket. First it has nine bazillion colors and each color only lasts about two rows meaning that it will be a real pain to deal with all of the ends. For right now, I’m focused on finishing up Martha and the Tweedy vest.

Is this going to be a fearless knitting year for you? What are you planning on trying this year that’s new for you?

Yesterday was a big day around town with a new local library opening. We were in line about fifteen minutes before the library opened and by 1pm the line was really long. I’ve never seen so many people in a library. Very exciting for two librarians! There were long lines to check out materials. It was so exciting to be in the library on opening day. It’s beautiful and just a welcoming space. I’m sure I’ll be spending a lot of time there studying in the coming semester. To top it all off, we watched the local news coverage of the library opening last night and for a split second, Bryan was shown walking into the new library.

New years are always so wonderful. It’s a fresh start to make goals for the next 366 days (it is a leap year). Most years I set some higher goals for myself than I did the year before while still being reasonable. This year I’m trying to be as realistic as possible, so my goals are:
1. Continue to do well in school.
2. Use more of the yarn that I already own or have already spun.
3. Spin at least once a month on my wheel. Possibly spin a skein a month.
4. Finish projects I’ve already started.
5. Knit what I want, maybe more for myself and less to give away (just for this year, of course).
6. Read as many books as I did last year (61).

Last year, I thought I would do my own Knitter’s Almanac but friends with babies side-tracked me half way through the year as is usually the case. This year, I have had several projects just sitting on the back burner that I want to make. I already know what yarn I’ll use for my next big sweater project since I’ve had the yarn for more than five years and it’s begging to be knit. It’s Blue Sky Alpaca’s sport weight alpaca that I was originally going to make into a nice basic cable sweater. Now I want to make a sweater that’s a bit more interesting than just straight vertical cables.

I hope you all have a wonderful new year!