This blog is re-shared here courtesy of She Sells Yarn and More.
I am excited to start this year’s Shetland Sampler Shawl Mystery Knit-A-Long with Toni Lorenz. To help me stay on track, I thought I would document my experience with the project each month. I have just sent off for my Sandy Skeins Sandy Sock Trios and an extra pair of needles, and as soon as they arrive I am going to cast on. Here is to knitting goals in 2025!
January
Knitting has been a long-known remedy for anxious nerves. A frazzled or distraught mind can be quickly relieved at the ends of a pair of needles. After certain experiences, it might be necessary to calm one’s mind by sitting down for a few stitches in search of a bit of peace. I had one such experience this morning.
While I was taking my usual walk around the block, I had a bit of a fright from something that is normally behind a tall wire fence. Somehow, whether intentional or unintentional (I am never too sure with my current neighbors around here) the stout, muscular mastiff that lives around the corner was, in fact, on the opposite side of the fence than he normally is. I was alerted to this fact as I rounded the corner by a great, rough bark and the sound of a metal stool flying backwards as something pushed off of it. My head whipped to the side as the dog charged into the street toward me. In all my walks past this house, until they were right in front of me I had not before noticed how glistening white and pointy the dog’s teeth were. His fangs looked like they belonged to a Great White instead of a canine. My feet stopped dead in their tracks as I stared at this shark-dog’s rippling muscles and bulging jaws. His sidekick, a tiny yapping chihuahua, backed his friend up with increasingly loud yaps behind the mastiff’s cruel bark. Luckily, when I stopped walking, the dog stopped charging forward, and I cautiously stepped backward out of his territory. Not wanting to forgo my walk, I took my chances and briskly walked around, skirting the large dog’s property, and continued forward. He must have decided that I was not a worthwhile snack, and he did not follow me.
As I continued my walk, I determined that what that grumpy dog needed, and indeed what it seems we all could use a bit more of, is productive meditation. I thought of how glad I am that I decided to try the Shetland Lace knit-a-long this year. I have never been a part of a knit-a-long, but this year it landed on my 2025 Goals list. Hopefully I will not have any more close calls with shark-toothed dogs, but I do anticipate the knit-a-long project giving me something consistent to work on and look forward to, especially in what may be a stressful and transitory year, with two upcoming moves just this year, one of which is to a location that is yet to be revealed to us! I thought it might be nice to have something tangible completed at the end of the year; something to look back on that in some ways stayed the same, but in many ways morphed and grew and changed as extraordinarily as we will this year.
February
It is March 1. I am just finishing the last row of my February clue, so I appear to be on a decent track. I was able to complete the first two months, largely in the absence of my built-in knitting instructor (though I did visit my mother for a few days mid-February), and with a move across the country at the end of January. Fairly impressive, I think, at least for me!
My lovely husband has us watching war films some evenings now, which is fine by me as I can work on my shawl; I suspect, however, he may grow annoyed at my habit of consistently looking down at my work and then every few minutes asking questions about what just happened or which one that guy is (they all look the same, in those army helmets). Not much can be done about that, as it is one of the few times I have to work on my projects, and I suspect a large part of the reason I have been able to get both clues done.
Hopefully I am able to continue this trajectory into March and the rest of the year. I am really enjoying watching the shawl take shape, and I love the gentle color changes in my beautiful green Sandy Sock trios. Though, admittedly, when I see my mom’s work in progress, I get a bit jealous at how much neater hers is! I have a few more “fudges” in mine. I’m hoping my granny is right and, as she (apparently) always says, “that $%*& will block right out.”
March
March was a close call. With five days left in the month, I was not even halfway through the March clue. It was a busy month, I guess! I’d made a March goal to complete both the knit-a-long clue AND the book I started on March 1st, the consequence of this being that I came close to finishing neither. Luckily, I went to visit my built-in knitting instructor the last week of March, and was able to sit and knit to my heart’s content each evening. I managed to finish the March clue with one day to spare. I shall try to finish the April clue earlier in the month, so that I don’t get behind and have to panic over any more close calls. Especially as I now have a new project I want to start – a happy byproduct of visiting my favorite yarn shop. (Otherwise known as the BEST yarn shop, though I might be biased.) Despite my panicking that I had already failed my 2025 goal and it was only the third month, I am, in fact, still on track. For now.
I even finished my book, too, on the very last day! That’s two March goals checked off as accomplished.
