AKQGuy: And So We Begin Again

What begins again you ask? To me, the new year. I know, it's not truly the new year, but to me the Winter Solstice always feels like the beginning of a new year. The return of the sun harkens spring and new growth much more than what feels like the arbitrary placement of New Years on the common calendar.

The Solstice Sun's Arc over the Tyrrhenian Sea from the coast of Italy in 2005. Photo originally posted to www.pod.nasa.gov and credited and copyright: Danilo Pivato

So, in my minds eye, the new year begins today. With that being said I've been looking back on this last year a lot the last couple weeks. It's been a doozy with two major household moves (one 1,900 miles), new jobs for both of us, the loss of Shiela, and countless other changes. Here's hoping 2015 is a bit quieter but no less fun.

the other morning I laid in bed (after walking the dogs mind you and getting a bruised hip in thanks) and watched the sun come up for a few minutes, and found myself looking forward to the return of the light more this year than previously. With my current schedule I'm seeing very little of the light, and with our local dearth of snow, when I'm out with the dogs it is very dark indeed. So much so that The Guy pointed out how filthy a local trail is getting with dog crap and I couldn't even find myself agreeing; because when I'm on that stretch of trail in the morning, it's dark and cold. I haven't actually seen the reported dog turds, nor smelled them. The latter being a small blessing of this time of year mind you.

With this feeling of darkness I for some reason have been feeling that my fiber pursuits production was down this year, which for some reason makes me feel as though I'm a lazy unproductive bump on a log, and I wonder where all my time went, sitting in front of the boob tube? So, I've been looking back at my projects of this past year, and the books I've listened to while working with my hands and I suddenly feel much better about how I spent my time in 2014. For I realized that I knit 12 pairs of socks in one year, each pair being on an average of around 20,000+ stitches and 350 yards of yarn per pair. That means just those projects alone left me with about a quarter million stitches and over 2 full miles of yarn knitted into said stitches to my name for a year.

Then I looked at the fact that I just finished up the last unfinished item in my queue which was the second of two large shawls knit in sock yarn, both taking up about 3 skeins of yarn apiece and the fact that it was designed on the needles as I knit it. Then there's the realization that I designed and knit the mystery knit along for the yarn store, which was another 900 yards of yarn (which I just discovered I never got a picture of it for the blog! I will work on rectifying that this week), and there were nine other smaller projects that if I play on the conservative side of approximating the yardage knit, was around 1550yards of yarn. Which all together means I knit about 8750 or just shy of 5 miles worth of yarn this year. And now, I don't feel nearly so unproductive, though I'm sure there were other things I could have been doing with that time mind you, and let us not discuss how much spinning I did this year.

Lets not discuss the tediousness and frustration of a double picot edge. Why did I come up with this idea of self torture? Some people... No, I have my limits people, and I will not torture myself more so with sitting down and writing out this pattern either. It was long and boring, believe me, you don't want to do it.

I can tell you that in the Tour de Fleece alone, I spun 5827 or 3.3 miles of yarn and then my other two big spinning projects for the year were an additional 1670 yards and 3976 yards so all together about 11470 yards of yarn spun or six and a half miles.

So, with all that said, and the purple and pink beast above (Peacocks in the Vineyard) I am going to start something for me. Yes, for me... What is that little green square? The beginning of a sweater (Redford) that I've been looking at for almost 2 years now. It is mine!!! Or, it will be in about a month I hope. That is if I stop screwing it up. Of course, it's amazing how much better it went when I said to myself, "Screw what the pattern says, do it your way." I went from tearing out the first 12 rows of that square four different time, so getting all the way through the first round of decreases. The yarn is a Louisa Hardings Aimee which is a 90% Cotton/10% Cashmere yarn. And yes, i'm knitting myself a cotton sweater. Why? Because I realized one day when I was thinking about buying this yarn and kept coming back to the fact that it was a cotton yarn, that all of my favorite store bough sweaters are actually cotton... So, go with what I know I like and will wear, no?

So, with all that said, I hope the solstice treats you all well and here's to another year of watching the ebb and flow of sunlight and seasons with you all. Do something for you this year.

Oh, and eat good too. To celebrate I made a little tropical inspired dish for dinner tonight that is sitting in the fridge awaiting baking. A Chorizo and Cornbread Strata. The Guy made cornbread (from a package mind you... from a package...) for a work gathering so I broke up the leftover and layered it with fresh browned chorizo, green onions, salsa, corn, cheese, and chopped asparagus. Beat up 8 eggs, and a enough milk to bring it all to about 4 cups of liquid, dumped it over the top, let it sit in the fridge overnight and I'm going to bake it tonight at 350 degrees for 45min-an hour or until it's firm and browned. Yep, that's as close as a recipe as your going to get out of me, I create recipes like I create knit shawls, Just Do It Baby! And for those that stear clear of mystery Mexican meat sausage or pork products, I think ground turkey spiced up with a bit of crushed peppers and green chiles would work great too... Just say'n Sara.