Resolutions

Anyone making New Years' Resolutions out there? Seriously? Why would you wait till now to change your life? Why didn't you just do it when you first thought of it?

Okay, enough of that. I have a few things on my list. I usually don't care at all for this type of thing because I feel that if you want to change, you shouldn't need a special occasion to change upon, you should just change, otherwise you are prolonging your bad habit and will therefore make it that much harder to quit doing whatever it is you do that makes you so damn annoying.

For example, I have "quit smoking on my birthday" every birthday for the last five birthdays. See, in my head, I am self-justified by saying " I don't want to be a thirty year old smoker", but the truth is, I was only twenty-nine years and one day. The difference between one day to another does not make you a full year older; it's a gradual process. As is quiting smoking, apparently, because I am now a thirty-one year old smoker. However, I keep my smoking to a minimum (no more than four cigarettes per day, most days it's three) and have done some research. The scientific fact of the matter is, as little as I smoke is not enough to raise the toxicity levels in my body to a harmful level. At my current rate of consumption, I'd be worse off if I lived in New York City or LA, simply due to environmental hazards in the air. So it's not that I think I'm going to die before I reach thirty-two, or that I am desperately concerned for my pocketbook that the two packs of cigarettes I buy per week (if that) is eating into my stash money. It's that I think Yoshi deserves to go to bed next to someone who doesn't stink. So this is the year I am going to knock this bad habit out of me for good. Get ready for the crankiness to go up a notch or two, because I find that less than two cigarettes a day does put me on edge. I'm sure you will work with me on that.

Next up is the stash. The stash is out of control. I want to be that knitter who has only one drawer of stash, not four (they're really, really big drawers). I feel I am being wasteful by having so much. I also feel that whenever I buy yarn, I am making a commitment to it, to turn it into something useful and beautiful that I actually wanted. I don't want a pile of pretty string, I want knitted things! So really, it has to go by way of knitting it as much as I can. Which may or may not help with the quitting smoking. It must get re-organized, then thrown out, donated or knitted. Again, it's a process, and one I've been talking about for too, too long.

There's another little something on my horizons for this year as well. About two years ago, I bought myself a nice sewing machine. I have no idea how to use it. This year, I am going to learn how to sew simple garments, bags and housewares. This has already been started by buying up a few books at the Barnes and Noble, as well as a pattern for a bag I really want to make. So, the self-teaching is coming back. I figure I taught myself to refinish furniture, knit, built myself a dining room table out of two stained glass windows and sheer force of will, can hang wallpaper and decoratively paint any wall, fix my coffee maker, repaired my couch numerous times, taught myself to bind books, embroider, hand sew stuffed critters out of discarded socks, hey, how tough can teaching myself a machine really be? I am going to do my best to make my sewing machine a little more useful. Even if it means asking the nice girl I work with to come over and show me what to do. I know, socialization, too. What will I think of next?
Is three enough? Quit smoking entirely, bust the stash once and for all, and create a learned return on the investment of my sewing machine? Yeah, that's enough. Let's not get crazy, here.

Next time, pictures of the Eyelet Cardigan, which is quite finished and ready for it's photo shoot, but I am personally in no fit state for picture taking. Maybe I should resolve to get out of bed before one in the afternoon.