Surprise.

I haven't forgotten about my project for this year.  It's still ticking over in my head. After a few idea false starts, I may be getting things moving. Slowly. Sometimes that's the best pace to go at. Paying attention to what is being done. Focusing on the detail in the moment. Memorising it all to savour, to roll around in later.

I enjoyed my two weeks off immensely. It went by too quickly and since I returned to work two weeks ago, I've been working full days. At the same time we were thrown a property inspection at the end of last week. Never a fun time. I am not the tidiest of people, never learned the art of keeping an impeccably clean house, managing kids, working and making things. Now my mind has turned to the important things and I'm feeling creative. Which for me means following someone else's instructions.

January saw me complete my first pair of socks for me. I was surprised I stuck through the entire way without giving up. Without a doubt, what made it work was the two at a time method. One giant long circular cable (1.5m), a set of new tips and away I went. The socks have been washed and dried. All I need now is the weather in which to wear them - not that I'm hoping for it just yet.

February has seen me focusing solely on the jumper/cardi I've been making for my partner in Cascade. I had a bit of a false start at the end of last year, made a mistake, and instead of undoing it there and then, kept knitting in the correct pattern for a bit before realising how bad it looked and undid the entire lot back to the beginning. So far I have two sleeves and half the body done. I'm really enjoying it, almost like the socks, it's growing up in one piece, apart from the sleeves which were becoming a bit of a chore by the end.

Today I was inspired to plan some sewing. As part of the cleaning up for the property inspection, I had recovered a Burda magazine from somewhere. Flicking through it this morning, I came across a winter coat and decided I had to make it. How lucky was I to find the fabric shop had a 40% off sale today only so I acquired some chocolate brown wool fabric and some black cotton for work pants for less than the full price of the wool fabric.  And a spool of cotton too.

The next part of this plan involves copying the coat pattern out while the fabric is washing. This always takes a long time, but is worth the effort when done properly. It has taken me quite some time to figure out I need to slow down and take time to get a good result. Generally, the more time taken, the better the result. Another knitting project I have on the go, but currently neglected, is a bright green semi-solid scarf/wrap I think will go quite nicely with the coat when done. Neither go too well with the gloves I have planned - grey and a pink with green (quite different green, clashingly different). Oh, well, I'm sure it shall all resolve itself. I do need more socks. Actually, am on the lookout now for a good black sock yarn to make some sock for work. Black is horrible to knit with I found last year. Black is the colour of the pants, shoes and socks I am required to wear for work, so I want to make some socks to wear with my mary-jane style shoes I bought.

I'm rambling. And as I have nothing else to say, I shall call it a blog post and head to bed quite content with where things are. For now.