chilly Friday morning

Nope, not going in - coughed much of last night (taking an expectorant before bed was probably not a brilliant idea) and it's v. cold outside and I don't have anything I HAVE to do to prep for Tuesday's classes that I have not done yet. So in a bit I'm going to try to motivate myself to do a bit of clean-up/put-away of stuff, and some laundry, and maybe a little handquilting or something.

But a couple of photos, first.

This is the last actually-finished item I made over break:




These are the "Matane" mitts (link to pattern on Ravelry). I modified it a good bit - making things longer (the mitts in general but also the thumb) than written. I was mostly intrigued by the idea of a top-down mitt (most are knit from the cuff to the fingers; these are knit from the fingers down).

I used a String Theory Colorworks yarn for these - Continuum in "Temporal Rift" (which I THINK is an allusion to Dr. Who; the colors resemble those in the Fourth Doctor's scarf). I'm also making a little hat (from the excellent Scraptastic Hat pattern, which is a nice simple hat that works with fingering weight yarn and works up fast). I'm not quite done with it yet, but when it's done, I'll post a photo of both together.

One other photo. I took the tree down yesterday (the ornaments are all put away; the boxes I bought for them work a treat - these were stiff cloth boxes with trays segmented off into either 16 or 20 slots (depending on the size of the box) and you put the ornaments in the trays. They now occupy less space than my old "original box they came in or egg carton" method and are probably better-protected. The tree is in its bag but that's sitting in my dining room because (a) I'm not strong enough yet (not totally over being sick) to move it to the closet at the back of the house and (b) I need to clean up a little to make a better space for it.

But I wanted a little cheer to remain, so I put up all the cards I received - both before break and the ones that came during break, on the grounds that I need to be able to enjoy the ones that came in my absence.

I got a LOT of cards. This makes me happy. You know the bit from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" where Charlie Brown feels like no one likes him because he didn't get any cards*? So I guess by that logic, I must have a lot of people that like me...

(*And I've read that for many years after that special first aired, hundreds of cards addressed to Charlie Brown would show up in the mail, because a lot of kids felt bad that Charlie didn't get any cards)



There are about 25 cards there. Granted, yes, one is from the brokerage I use (well, my uncle is a stockbroker there) and a few are from a card-swap, but a lot AREN'T. And that's nice.

One came all the way from Portugal, and one from the UK, and another from Australia (and has a koala on it). So yes, I want to leave these up for a while. 

Another thought - perhaps the resolution I make for this year? Is to put out positivity to the world: to look for things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, and to emphasize those things, to show them to other people. And to ignore the people who either run down the things I love, or who seem to be trying to detract from their own faults by talking about the faults of everyone or everywhere else. Because I can affect my own behavior, but no one else's, and it's happier for me to point out the good things than to deplore the bad ones that I have no control over....so maybe more conscious-ignoring of what goes on in politics is in order, and more emphasis on "hey, this is a really good novel" or "this particular new food product is good" or "This yarn is really nice to knit with" or whatever....because while I don't really believe in karma, I think you do get back what you put out, and maybe I've been (like Lisa Simpson's bathmat metaphor) absorbing too much of the bad stuff.....