Losing Steam
The new year has lost its luster. I'm doing alright with my goals (except maybe the blogging every day in the month thing, oops). But everything seems to have slowed down.
A big part of that is the weather. Our perfectly respectable winter, though there was very little snow, turned into the coldest weather in four years. I found it harder to get to the gym, but I did. But in general we all stayed inside unless we couldn't avoid going out.
One walk out in that cold, even with my wool winter accessories, convinced me I was missing something. Last year's beautiful archangel cowl is now stretched out. It still does a wonderful job of keeping my neck warm and the wool of my coat from itching, but when it is ten below with with a windchill even lower, and I'm walking into the wind to work, my neck is not my only concern.
So I picked up two of my favorite skeins of yarn and grabbed a free cowl pattern on ravelry, and tried to get it done as fast as I could. It is amazing how much of a motivation not being able to feel your face can be.
I call it the Minnehaha Creek Cowl, it comes from this wonderful pattern here at a wonderfully named blog. I went down a needle size, to keep the wind out, and it's very tall, blocks out the wind, and generally helps me feel my own face.
Since finishing that and my selbu mittens in a flurry of winter activity, the weather changed, and with it my mood. We had a week of what the weather man aptly named "nuisance" snow. Less than an inch a day, sometimes falling in two separate storms, means I have to go out and shovel, and I don't even feel like I've accomplished anything afterwards.
I know I should pick up some of my hibernating knitting, and I have tried, my Tuscan Sunset shawl is a few repeats longer. But my heart just isn't in it. I would relax and take a break from knitting, but the list is long, and there are only so many winter months when knitting is an extremely comfortable and necessary activity. So instead I push myself to keep going on something, knowing that sometimes progress is its own reward.
A big part of that is the weather. Our perfectly respectable winter, though there was very little snow, turned into the coldest weather in four years. I found it harder to get to the gym, but I did. But in general we all stayed inside unless we couldn't avoid going out.
One walk out in that cold, even with my wool winter accessories, convinced me I was missing something. Last year's beautiful archangel cowl is now stretched out. It still does a wonderful job of keeping my neck warm and the wool of my coat from itching, but when it is ten below with with a windchill even lower, and I'm walking into the wind to work, my neck is not my only concern.
So I picked up two of my favorite skeins of yarn and grabbed a free cowl pattern on ravelry, and tried to get it done as fast as I could. It is amazing how much of a motivation not being able to feel your face can be.
I call it the Minnehaha Creek Cowl, it comes from this wonderful pattern here at a wonderfully named blog. I went down a needle size, to keep the wind out, and it's very tall, blocks out the wind, and generally helps me feel my own face.
Since finishing that and my selbu mittens in a flurry of winter activity, the weather changed, and with it my mood. We had a week of what the weather man aptly named "nuisance" snow. Less than an inch a day, sometimes falling in two separate storms, means I have to go out and shovel, and I don't even feel like I've accomplished anything afterwards.
I know I should pick up some of my hibernating knitting, and I have tried, my Tuscan Sunset shawl is a few repeats longer. But my heart just isn't in it. I would relax and take a break from knitting, but the list is long, and there are only so many winter months when knitting is an extremely comfortable and necessary activity. So instead I push myself to keep going on something, knowing that sometimes progress is its own reward.
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