Happy New Yarn!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday this Christmas season.  I had a few more days off from work than usual, and it was very nice to spend a few extra days without a schedule to follow.  Or an alarm clock, he he he.

As you probably guessed, I did NOT get all of my holiday knitting done in time.  Clearly, I will have to have secret projects started by July in order to have them done in time next year.  I disappointed myself more than anyone else, as they had other things to unwrap.  And then its not as fun trying to get something finished after the deadline.  Like half the fun is sucked out of knitting it.  I'm sure I won't feel that way when I'm binding off... I will be delighted, and will gleefully say, "Look!  It's done!".

There are a few inches left to go on the Shapeshifter Shrug, then it will need to be grafted.  I picked out some nice buttons for it that have been approved of with a smile from the intended recipient.

Then there's the dinosaur.  While I adore the photos and patterns in the book, Knitted Dinosaurs, I loathe the fact that they are all written to be knitted flat and then seamed up.  And I've chosen to do them in stripes, so they will look fun.

See the disaster dinosaur so far?

 So much to seam...
and weave in...
I really hope this doesn't become a UFO up in the closet.
My goal is to finish jamming knitting it together, then convert this pattern to be knitted in-the-round.  If it converts well, I will be bold and just knit lots of other dinosaurs in the round, instead of how the pattern is written up flat.  I was told on ravelry that it should be as easy as omitting the first and last stitch (that is used to seam together) and to keep in mind that the wrong/purl sides become right/knit sides.  Should be easy enough, right?

Now, for the hard part.  Anti-procrastinating... here are my resolutions for 2013 (not in order)

• blog more
• laugh more
• take more time for God daily (bible, prayer)
• explore more (outdoors, road trips, possibly a yarn store I haven't been to yet)
• stop promising to knit things for other people... that only jinxes me to not get it done.
• knit more for my family and kids, and not forget myself now and then
• actually use my Zumba game this year - it's a lot of fun, when you find the time to do it
• Go away on vacation for a couple days with my family.  Like, actually leaving the area.
• convince my husband that yarn and vacation do belong together.  Does your hubby think like this, too?
• Oh, and to surprise my hubby with a basement that has been decluttered.  
• knit from my stash.  I'm curious how much of it I can use up.  It's not that much, just a few bins.

Oh, that looks so boring.  I will have to rethink this and see what exciting things I can add to the list.

OK, how about this:

• Take my kids Zip Lining
• Get to the beach at least twice this year
• go camping or lodging
• Explore another convention centre event with friends (maybe a spring yarn show in Toronto?)
• Take my hubby on a Hot Air Balloon ride for our anniversary... will have to hint and see if he likes this kind of thing before I commit all the way and book it
• learn some new fun recipes
• host a murder mystery who-done-it theme evening, with a cool theme
• Bring my kids to a comic convention (they have one in Canada, I forget where)
• knit all the yarn from my stash in time for the yarn fair, then celebrate with new yarn!
• Take my kids somewhere fun for a mini vacation, like Fallsview in Niagara Falls

There, that's better.