Good intentions....:-)

Hello, hello! A belated happy new year to you all. Well, hmm. My new year has got off to a good blogging start! Halfway through the month and no posts - that must be a bit of a record:-)) When my mum is asking me if I'm okay because she's heard I've not been blogging (not having the internet herself) then it must be bad!!

So yes, I am still here, and thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post looking back at 2009. So far this year I've only managed to get sidetracked by my 'Good Intentions'. That is the problem with good intentions, it's a nice idea.... This year, I've been trying to 'focus' on one thing 100% and trying to do it well before moving on to the next thing.  This resolution came about because, as usual, I got to the end of the year with a huge pile of unfinished projects and no inclination to finish them as there are new socks and warm cable jumpers to be knitted, like the Fireside sweater designed by Amber Allison. See how easy it is to be distracted from the project at hand?

Picture By Amber Allison

But isn't it nice?  And it's even nicer that Agnes gifted this pattern to me for Christmas through Ravelry - what a gorgeous and thoughtful present. Thank you so much Agnes:-) I have to match some yarn to the pattern before I can start though but I'm not sure what colour to go for yet. I may surprise you all and not knit it in bright magenta:-) But it will be perfect for all this cold weather we're having at the moment here in the UK.

One of the main reasons for not managing to blog so far this month is my monitor upped and died on me. RIP little monitor..... you were lovely and only had a short life of three years, which seems very short financially when it comes to replacing you - but how I miss a decent screen! At present I'm using a little tv that can be used as a monitor but the colour and red tones look very red and heightened. The menu buttons to change this are greyed out and not available to change when using it as a computer monitor so I can't post my pics as they all look terrible! And if I alter them in photoshop, to what colour level? It's like working blind:-)) On the good side though, my new 23" widescreen monitor (great online deal) will arrive this weekend - fingers crossed -  so hopefully I can get back to posting with decent pictures soon.

And I have lots of things to show you from over the christmas period - the finished spun black coffee yarn, my crocheted stripey lucy bag, a pair of cabled mittens that are ongoing, my durrow cabled jumper that should have been a christmas present that has been resurrected, a pair of yummy socks I'm test knitting..... See! there is so much to January that I haven't managed to post about yet.

Yarn for my test knitted socks - trekking hand art

As well as the monitor issues, I have been carrying out my 'good intentions' of sticking to one project at a time - to the detriment of everything else it seems! And that good intention has been DIYing. Trying to get my living room finished so I can have a normal room again, just like everyone else. Hoping I won't have to climb over any more moved furniture whilst trying to remember which room the TV is plugged into today! Dreaming about evenings filled with knitting, spinning and crochet rather than sanding, polyfilla and paint. Can you tell I'm not in love with decorating? When you're a perfectionist it just goes on and on.....:-) Personally I can think of so many things I'd rather be doing!!!

Anyway:-) Decorating with Chronic fatigue is hilarious!! With only such short bursts of energy it's like watching a comedy:-)) Week 1 has all been about filling and smoothing all the walls which is about finished and I'm just about ready to start painting so not quite out of the woods yet. Anyway, my day goes something like this:

*  Get up, groan, hide knitting, and wear messy DIY clothes (yup, I had to actually designate some DIY clothes - sad, I know.)

*  Fill and sand for a bit, rest for a bit,

*  Fill and sand for another bit, rest for another bit,

*  Sand for a smaller bit, rest for a bigger bit,

*  Sand for an even smaller bit, rest for an even bigger bit,

*  Collapse;-) day over, go to bed.

Repeat for a week or as long as required until walls are prepared.

*  Week 2 - repeat above with paint, collapse;-)

Hopefully at the end of two or three weeks, you can look at the finished room and think how nice it looks, have a party and treat yourself to a nice present ** yarn** for having slogged so hard - oops, you've already got the monitor coming, scrub that - okay, a big tub of yummy ice cream then. And collapse for a week of hard earned rest:-)) January finished. But at least I can rest nice and relaxed in my new room, feet up watching a good film with some comfort knitting at hand!

Can you see a flaw in my good intentions plan? Yup? Not much time for knitting. Not much time at all to make projects to blog about. No time to blog!!  It's just not going to work, is it? I've already caved in and started to knit some chunky cable mittens as a quick knitting fix this week:-) I think I just have to admit that it's all well and good making these 'logical' intentions but it's just not me, I just don't fit that mould.  As much as I hate having lots of UFO's (unfinished objects), I can't be anything else it seems, so bring on the multi-tasking:) They'll all get done at some point -maybe not even this year, but hey! So maybe my resolution should just be to go with the flow, which is what I've always done anyway. If it ain't broke:-))