Some New Projects

No, southern Arizona has not been inundated with snow. Although it would be nice. This picture was taken at Bryce Canyon, Utah, in June 2005. We woke up one morning to find that it had snowed overnight; I insisted on taking a drive to see the Canyon in the snow. Sometimes I really start longing for snow, and around here I seldom get it. I have to go to places like Utah in the summer to see it...

There are always tons of knitalongs to join, and frequently it becomes a question of what to pick. Time is in limited supply, and I've decided this year that I'm not going to join anything with a strict timetable or requirements involved in it. Having made that declaration, I've decided to join Runagogo; if you haven't seen it yet, the goal is to run/walk/bike/whatever and do a hundred miles by April 1. I may not make the hundred miles, but I figure that anything involving exercise has got to be good for the body and soul. I only had 1.5 miles last week, but today I took Buddy and we went for two miles in the afternoon sunshine. I've been feeling a bit under the weather and the fresh air and exercise felt good. I intend to post my mileage in the sidebar as an incentive to myself. I've taken the next ten days off from work just as a treat for myself; although I will be working around the house I want to do at least two miles a day for that time period.

Another no-stress "along" will be the Friday Night Spinners. I ran across this one on Margene's blog. The concept is to just spend some time on Friday nights spinning, with a sense of solidarity with all one's fellow spinners. I like the idea of devoting one night a week to spinning; I want to do more spinning than I have been lately, but often it gets lost in the daily grind. I still hope to do more spinning than just one night a week! But I am certain that I will enjoy the feeling of working in harmony with everyone else on that one night.

Project Spectrum is starting up again next month, and I hope to do better this time! I think I will, since there will be two months devoted to each color group. The first group of colors includes grays, and that will be perfect for working on Joe's socks. I think I will do a pair of socks for each color grouping this year.

Finally, I decided to knit myself a hat like Barbara's (see last post), using up more yarn from the stash. This is a skein of Noro Silk Garden. One of my New Year's resolutions last year was to knit something with Noro; I'm only a few days late on it! I really love the way the colors blend and progress in this hat. They are not quite as bright as in this picture, though.

And lastly, thanks to the links from both Margene and Susan, I am going to go out tomorrow and get some furry yarn for Kate's chemo caps for kids in Boston. I'm certain I can knock out a few by the end of February, and some of those eyelash yarn colors are really wild and fun looking. If you aren't already signed up for this, why not? And give a teen a fun hat to wear this spring.