Goals for the New Year

With both the calendar and the lunar new year begun I feel like it is appropriate to mention some of the goals I'm trying to meet during this upcoming year. First is a reading goal, I've been giving myself a reading goal of 50 books per year for the last several years; and (with the help of some quick reads like comics) have been able to meet those so far in my life. I'm currently on track with those but have really not been reading anything of actual substance so far.

As for knitting or otherwise crafting during the new year, I mostly want to set specific goals to finish projects that I have had ongoing for some time. I have a scarf in a nylon sock yarn blend I want to finish and a shawl in a beautiful silk and wool blend that I bought from a hand dyeing artisan last January. That particular project is about halfway finished; a one-skein wonder project.

The one I am most determined to complete is the sweater I have been attempting to complete for 4 years now. This is the first sweater I have ever made. The process has been ... rocky. I started with a cabled pattern that was beyond what I really should have tried for a first attempt.

The sleeves I just finished in the photo here, are actually a second try. You see, because I purchased the yarn for a different pattern, I did not have the right amount of the main color. When I finished the shoulder of the first sleeve I had less than half enough yarn for the next sleeve. So I frogged the first sleeve, divided the yarn in half, and restarted on the pair.

In my experience with knitting, I have almost always found that it takes three restarts to get a new technique looking competently done. This sweater has been no exception, with the body started and restarted, then the pattern changed, then the body started and restarted, then the arms frogged and restarted. This sweater has been a learning process and I'm finally almost finished. (knock on wood, no more big flubs.)

I'll talk about the gauging some other time. That's a whole other kind of process that I have feelings about, as most knitters do. For now, all I have left is connecting the sleeves and finishing the collar. I'll be using the dark red for that, adding a turtleneck style collar instead of the shorter, garter stitch collar the pattern calls for.