Inbetween

So what do you do to fill that time between Giftmas and New Year? Last year I worked, not hard admittedly but I went into the office and spent the time doing nothing much. This year though, my boss has closed the office until the new year so I am left with things that should be done, things I could do and things that I want to do.

So thus far today I have made some soda bread (wanted to) and some washing (had to as we had run out of towels) and now I'm left with a few hours before the decent xmas telly kicks in so I have started to sort out my yarn stash (again).

Since discovering Ravelry almost 5 years ago I have played about with my stash pages. There are times when I diligently record everything before starting a project. Usually I just rip off the ball band and start which has led to a truly scrappy looking set of wools. And my stash has become scattered about the house. skein separated from skein, ball missing its twins. So the project that I am going to concentrate on for a few day will be sorting out this mess and try to reunite sets. 

It will also give me a chance to really think whether I want some of this stuff any more as I have quite a few single balls of things that I don't really like and in 2013 I want to start becoming more critical about the things I have and whether I really like them or not. Keep the good things and jettison the duff stuff may become my motto.

Small steps

Fitting in with my small steps leading to small changes leading to actually doing things I have decided to start with my blankets again. When I first arrived on Ravelry I saw loads of projects following Shelley Kang's Sock Yarn Blanket and I thought "OOOOooooohhhh, Pretty" so started on my own in 2009 using what ever scraps of sock yarn I had left after knitting socks. I started fairly well but I began to do fewer blocks a week until it just stopped. I even used to pull it out every now and again with the intention of starting but nowt happened. This is what it looks like today

I even started another one in September 2011 when I found a great source of lovely blue double knit wool (Sirdar Escape) and felt the stirrings to knit another - this one was going to be a stocking stitch one as I loved the way the blocks looked like scales (the original is garter stitch). And although all went well for the first few weeks I gradually stopped that one too.

But small steps means that I have dug them both out and have decided to knit 10 blocks a week to each of them - it might be more but will not be less. Thus far I had added my 10 weekly blocks to my blue blanket and it now looks like this

 

I shall crack on with scrappy one and gradually it will get to be a size that makes it useful but in small, small steps

Small change

Yesterday I was thinking about how much time I waste over the course of a day, a week, a month and who knows how much over the course of a year. Birthdays always make me feel reflective (it’s mine tomorrow) and perhaps this is what triggered my pondering.

I’m by nature a lazy person, the type that will lie in bed all day putting off going to the lavatory for as long as possible just so I don’t have to get up: laying there getting hungrier because I don’t want to move from my snug. I realise that this is quite a childish attitude and how (potentially) destructive it is but I have formed a habit and as we all know habits are hard to break. But how do you go about finding a different style of life that doesn’t feel like an imposition?

I’m a great fan of change one small things and keep doing that (well I am a fan of it now but my laziness could kick in and then I’m back to the beginning) so I did the first small change yesterday. I took up running again.

I don’t pretend to be a great athlete (I’m lazy remember) but I started C25K last summer and found it oddly enjoyable. Unfortunately I managed to seriously twist my ankle to the extent that I could feel the ligament ripping and gave up, well was forced to give up. Instead of finding another exercise regime that would allow me to retain the fitness I had painstakingly gained I just hobbled away. DOH!

Yesterday was the first small change that will lead to my very short term goal of doing again tomorrow (but maybe not as it is my birthday) and leading onto my short term goal of running/walking every other day for the next few weeks. I’m not planning anything beyond that as it is a point that I cannot imagine but I figure if I get a few short term goals behind me then I might just start planning a few mid-length goals and then who knows? World domination may be mine.