Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Many members of my family are sharing lists of goals for this year with each other. So, in no particular order, here goes:

Yoga x 20 days per month, for the whole year
Practice French more often
Write two blog posts a month
Pay down credit cards
Pay off two student loans
Pay off piano loan
Increase our contributions to our kids' RESP fund
Lose weight
Save money in a TFSA
Clear out my office
Use a cash envelope system, like Gail Vaz-Oxlade recommends
Follow at least two 'bites' per month from One Bite at a Time
Learn to play the violin
Knit one lovely thing each month
And finally, my sister and sister-in-law both set seasonal goals, so I'd like to come up with some fun things to do with my family each season


Not a bad list, if I do say so myself. Everything feels either manageable, like something that I wish I had more of or less of in my life, and/or will stretch me a bit. I really like making lists, especially because I am the kind of person who needs to refer back to them when my energy is running low and all I want to do is have a nap.

Some of these things are lifestyle changes that I want to make. So far, I've done yoga six out of eleven days this month, taking a break for a couple of travel days. Very manageable. I've been tackling the 'Eating Your Frog' and making a list suggestions from One Bite. Again, a bit of structure for things that I already do.

Some of them are pushing me to do things that I've wanted to do for a long time. I have a chance to learn to play the violin right now but I haven't taken it up yet. Even if all I do is learn how to crank out a scratchy version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", I'll be happy. I've also been losing the rest of my baby weight steadily over the last few months, so I'm excited to push myself to do that. You'll notice I didn't put up any specifics about my weight loss. I believe that it's important to know specifics of your goal and how you'll get there. Trust me when I say that I have specific weight loss plans, I just haven't posted them. Likewise, the details of my loans.

And, they also give me permission to do things that I really want to do, with the key word being 'permission'. I love using beautiful yarn to make beautiful things. However, I often don't get exactly what I want. So, this year I'm going to choose one project a month that has been in my knitting queue forever and make it the way that I want to. This month I've chosen to make the Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig. I splurged and bought two skeins of madelinetosh tosh merino light in antler (the cream colour in my picture). I bought two other skeins to make a dress for my daughter, but then poached the skein of tern for my cardigan (the gray stripe from my picture). I'm going to do stripes of antler, tern and cousteau, which is a rich green. I love how it's turning out so far.

Finally, you might have noticed that none of my goals are work-related. I decided that, following last year's workaholic tendencies, that I wouldn't make any personal goals that were work-related. I work more than I should already. Instead of making goals about limiting how often I work, I decided to add things into my life instead, like more yoga and more knitting, which will help keep my sane and hopefully interfere with some workaholism.

And, on an unrelated topic, in the picture, my cardigan is on top of another skein of yarn that I just opened up. I was approached by a student and asked to make something for a charity auction. I tried not to be, but have to admit that I was flattered that they thought I would make something that people would bid on. The problem is that I don't have a ton of time to spend on it since the event is coming up in a week and a half. I landed on making the Marian Cowl by Jane Richmond. I decided to make it with Rasta yarn by Malabrigo. I went to my LYS to buy a skein, and when they heard what I was doing they donated the yarn, along with about 20 scarf-making kits. I was so impressed, especially since I was about to spend $30 on the yarn, and left the store with several hundred dollars worth of merchandise. I so excited to tell the student who originally asked me about the donation from the yarn store. Good karma!