The End and the Beginning

In accordance with our usual custom, we invited a bunch of friends over to play board games for New Year's.  In fact I was too busy trying to dominate the railway industry of the US to pay much attention to the clock-we noticed about three minutes after the hour that the New Year had arrived without ceremony.  (The game was Ticket to Ride, and while I did not succeed in that game, I redeemed my honor the next day and crushed all opposition in the final game of the party.)

However the party was the occasion of the year's last FO- many of our frequent guests bring slippers to wear, since we tend to leave shoes at the door in the winter to avoid tracking in slush.  One young guest arrived without her own slippers- and since all the guest slippers on hand were too large for her, I grabbed a convenient skein of yarn and knit her a pair.   I will admit that I mainly did it because it amused me that I could. 

After I finished the slippers I went back to the socks-of-the moment.   I didn't finish them right away, but I made enough progress that I finished them today.   So the first proper FO of 2014 is the Panda Silk Sagittarius socks:

I was really quite pleased with them.  The yarn showed off the pattern beautifully.

And then in a fit of efficiency, I rounded up various other WIPs that were near completion.  The way the holidays fell this year, I didn't have all that much extra time to do an end-of-year WIP marathon.   Also, I'd already told Toni I was in for another 100 projects challenge this year, and we both appear to have held off on a couple of WIPs just to get a running start at the total.

In my case, I also plan to try and wipe out some more Lost Projects on my list, so my projects will likely be a varied lot.   See, last year when I was reading about the goals other people were setting for the year, I decided to try and make a list of all the things I had planned/wanted/intended to do.  So I started writing.  And writing.  And when I got done I winced, and decided not  to post it, because it was four pages long.  And that was after I reduced the font to 8 point.   I concluded that  I'm either enormously ambitious or not too tightly wrapped.  (You don't have to tell me which you think it is.  Really.)

Still, it never hurts to start off the year on a high note- it deludes encourages you that your goals are reasonable.  So I found these mittens that fell off my needles in the car last weekend and did the finishing for FO#2.

And one day-  Monday?   I think it was last Monday, I attached the handle for the little bag I'd crocheted last summer.    Then I ripped it off again.  It turns out there are a surprising number of ways to incorrectly attach a handle.   I managed most of them- wrong position, wrong side facing the bag, with a twist in the handle, with two twists in the handle. (One guess as to what problem got the bag put into time-out in the first place.)  I did it twice more, determinedly remaining calm until I finally got the darn thing on to my satisfaction,.  Then I hurled it into the knitting bag where it remained until I fished it back out this morning, wove in the ends, and sewed the button on.   And finally, here it is:

While it would fit a book, or other small items, I actually made it to fit my Nook.  While listening to audiobooks is fine if I'm in the car (with the Nook plugged into the car speakers) or sitting down at home, I really wanted some way to easily carry it- so I could listen to an audiobook while washing the dishes, for instance, or take it with me when I'm walking.  I did consider an iPod or something of the sort, but I don't want to own a zillion electronic devices, and the Nook interfaces very smoothly with the electronic offerings from the local library.   Besides (as you saw at the start of this post) it amuses me to apply yarn to solve such minor problems.   It's not the prettiest bag- I'm still a beginner when it comes to crochet- but it works quite well.

I started the year with five WIPs, and I'm now down to two (unless I've mislaid and forgotten something, which is entirely possible).  I have a vast list of goals, and quite a few intentions that aren't written down.  I've joined a KAL for the Mr. Dress-Up Socks.  I've never done a knit-a-long, so a new experience there.  I've already got one trip planned, another in the works, and possible business travel on the horizon.  And the 100 Projects goal to spur me along. 

So far 2014 promises to be a fun time- here's hoping it's also a productive one!