Happy 2014!

It is so hard to believe that we are now in the year 2014.  When I was born (a VEEERY long time ago, mid-last century if you must know), there was a movie which debuted in 1968 called “2001, A Space Odyssey”, and, I confess, it was nearly impossible to imagine the year 2001, being so far in the future as it was.  Now, of course, the dawn of 2001 is thirteen years behind us, and a mere memory for most.  A new calendar year always brings with it the thought of fresh starts and new beginnings, and 2014 is no different from the rest.  In 2013 I had a goal of completing twelve shawls in twelve months, and I am very happy to report that I accomplished my goal.  (And here is a link to the page where they are all displayed:  http://www.ravelry.com/projects/grannyjannie?set=12-shawls-2013&view=thumbnail)  But I forgot to blog about it all, so here is my twelfth shawl of 2013. from the lovely pattern ‘Windward’, designed by Heidi Kirrmaier.  You can find more of her designs here:  http://www.ravelry.com/designers/heidi-kirrmaier  But this is my version, which I so cleverly called ‘Green Windward’, knit in the incomparable Madelinetosh Sock yarn, in the colorway ‘Grey Garden’:

Windward is a very interestingly constructed, asymetrical shawl.  I, of course, made it much more difficult than it really was, and spent quite a bit of time tinking and re-doing Sections D and E.  Please do not be confused there, as I was.  I kept thinking that the reverse stockinette section had the stockinette-looking side on the right side of the shawl, but, of course, the stockinette-looking side belonged on the wrong side of the shawl (duh – it’s called REVERSE stockinette!!!), thus my confusion.  I kept re-casting on the same ninety stitches in an effort to make the reverse stockinette section look like  stockinette!  That is what I get for mostly knitting lace projects and not being very familiar with reverse stockinette and which side of it is the right side, but that’s a musing for another post.

But back to new beginnings and fresh starts……I have not yet decided what my knitting goal for 2014 will be.  However, I HAVE decided what my knitting goal for 2014 will NOT be:  I will not be knitting a shawl a month in 2014.  It felt a bit too much like pressure, and knitting, for me, is the antithesis of pressure.  Among other things, it’s about falling in love with a yarn and then deciding what to use it for; it’s about falling in love with a pattern and then finding the perfect yarn with which to knit it; it’s about the friendship that surrounds me when knitting with my fabulous Knitting Divas; it’s about curling up in my favorite chair with my knitting needles in hand while watching the lastest episode of Downton Abbey.  It is NOT about pressure!  Pressure can maybe be in another part of my life, if at all.  But I will NOT tolerate it in my knitting life.  And neither should you. ❤