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Christmas was relatively quiet for us this year. Like much of the country, we had some snow and high winds for a few days in a row just before Christmas – ideal conditions to stay in and cozy up at home.
It's that time of year where I catalog and review all the projects I've knit in the course of the last year. I find it interesting to note trends in my making, and to look back on how my creativity has served me in that time.
The week just before Christmas, we left to visit my family. The drive north was quite possibly the most beautiful it has ever been – all the trees covered in a heavy blanket of snow, like a scene from Narnia.
I blinked and realized it's been two weeks since my last blog post. I spent a good portion of November doing Christmas prep – making lists, ordering Christmas cards, Christmas shopping, and the like. Having learned from previous years, where my December fills to the brim, and I nearly miss Christmas because of the frenzy of it, I tried to do as much ahead of time as possible, so as to preserve a slower pace in December. I don't want my anticipation of what is arguably my favorite holiday to cause my heart to feel hurried, impatient, and stressed out.
It's that time of year when life feels extra full, with plans and preparation, not to mention the seemingly inevitable bouts of fall sickness. I just realized that it's been two weeks since my last post, and that I did want to share about our recent weeks and Thanksgiving before we enter into full-on Christmasy things.
After a big garment project like Nicholas' Towns Sweater, I love working on smaller projects that require less mental fortitude. (Knitting a sweater for him wasn't difficult, but since he and I are both picky about fit, it required lots of tweaking as we went, and thus required more concentration).
At the very onset of fall, I set a little intention to visit as many local, beautiful places as we could to fully enjoy the fall colors. We managed to visit several new-to-us trails and parks, and visited some other year-round favorites too!
It's finally done! It has been for a few weeks, actually, but we needed the weather to cooperate for some photos. After being together for twelve years (married more than nine) I finally knit a sweater for Nicholas.
I've written countless times about how organizing and planning my creative projects helps me ward off overwhelm and stay "on track," so that I actually finish projects. And much the same, a general outline of my projects in various statuses continues to be greatly helpful to me.
A few weeks ago, my family came to town from Minnesota to visit us and to celebrate my thirty-second birthday. They came over on my birthday morning, bringing beautiful flowers.
This time of year is arguably one of my very favorite seasons: the fall colors, the quintessential "fall" activities, and the move toward warmth and coziness, bundling up, and retreating to warm homes after time outside. Since I love knitting, and knitwear is certainly more wearable this time of year, that plays into my fondness for this season as well.
This particular project has been on my needles since March of this year. At the very start, it felt like a mindless, but very uphill project. I knit it on size 2 needles, and at first, I had to look down a lot as I knit, and it just felt slow. But bit by bit, I picked it up and worked on it.
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