2013

We had a quiet New Year's celebration. We watched on old old TV version of Sherlock Holmes that ended at two minutes to midnight and then watched fireworks on TV until the neighborhood quieted and we could head to bed. It was nice.

I like to make the time around New Year's day a microcosm of how I'd like to spend my time during the coming year. So the new year rolled in as I was working on this...

A friend sent me a kit of the view of a canal in Hungerford, England. (I've been there and seen it.) There's a bridge toward the left and buildings above it and on the right. There'll be a boat on the canal when it's done.

Over the long weekend we visited an art gallery, drove along the shore of Lake Michigan, visited the therapist to help improve my vertigo, took walks in the cold, cooked more than usual, did some chores, did a bit of clearing out. I brought a bin of yarn to our family Christmas for people to take...

It was fun to watch their choices. After a couple of other outings, the fibers are all on to new homes.

I'd put this quilt away for a long while (last mentioned here--longer ago than I'd realized). I finally realized it was because I wanted to incorporate some new fabrics from a couple of friends who'd passed away and I needed some time before I could work with them. I began basting more hexagons on New Year's day using the new fabrics.

And all along I've been knitting on the baby sweater, which is beginning to look like a sweater now. 

Word for 2013

For some years now, instead of resolutions I've been choosing a word to focus on.

This year I picked this:

To remind me that all the little things I tend to want to ignore or avoid really do matter.

But, then, last week a radio announcer read a poem called the Paradoxical Commandments by Kent M. Keith, and it really struck a chord with me (and apparently many others--I believe it went around a few years ago but I'd missed it). So I've added a second word this year, Anyway (which will make sense if you read the poem--it's on the linked website.

(I may keep it around as my word for next year. I still feel that "It Matters" is right for me this year.)