Ten on Tuesday

Ten Intentions for the New Year

Can I just say I love the word intentions here? The road to hell, and all that, but on the other hand it's good to set manageable goals, knowing that one still will probably fall short of some of them, or what's a heaven for? Still, I'm aiming for the doable, and I know some of these are doable because I'm already doing them. Persistence is all.

1. Be prepared. Yes, I stole this one from the Coast Guard, but it's still a good one. Too often I fall short of my best, in various parts of my life, because of not having paid attention, picked a pattern, read my email.
   
2. Pay attention to what I'm doing, to what's going on, to what people want and need.
   
   
   
3. Continue Project Destash. I did really well this month, making gifts for both the office Yankee swap and Marjorie, whom I got in the family drawing. I thought I had someone else until last Wednesday, an excellent example of failure at #s 1 and 2. I made a nice recovery, however, although I do say it: I found a simple but nifty crochet stitch in one of my books, and I used it to make her a scarf in time for present-opening. (Getting in just under the wire still counts.) I was starting to make her a matching hat when she told me she never wears hats, she thinks they look awful on her, and could I please make her an earwarmer instead? In this case being behind schedule was a good thing: an earwarmer being faster than a hat, I finished before she left.
   
   
   And speaking of simple crochet stitches, when my DSIL Ellen was in town before Thanksgiving I taught her granite stitch; she was so happy with it that she asked if I had any yarn she could use to make a scarf.
   
   Which, strangely enough, I did: STR lightweight in the Jasper colorway. So I've used at least ten skeins/balls of yarn this month (contributing it to a worthy project counts as using), and I'll admit to feeling rather virtuous, until I look at the yarn I still have. (Astute readers will notice that all of this yarn use has involved crochet in one way or another. I don't feel even a twinge of guilt about this: I said I'd use the yarn, but nothing about knitting.)
   
4. Become less fluffy.
   
   
   In this area too I have made progress, although since the holiday season started I haven't done so well. Still, I know it can be done, at least in my case (I'm not so sure about Fluffy's).
   
5. Become a better photographer. I promise that not all of the pictures will involve roosters, even if they do make great subjects.
   
   
   
6. Refrain from sweating the small stuff. To do this I have to identify the small stuff; my theory is that if I have time to ask myself if something is small, it probably is.
   
7. Become more patient. See #s 1, 2, and 6.
   
8. Clean my house. I've been working on it, and I've given away about twelve boxes of old clothes. I thought I'd miss them, even though no one had worn them for ages, but instead I feel lighter, as though I'd been lugging them around. I think this bodes well, but I need to keep at it.
   
9. Make dinner more often. When I started the Diet From Hell I basically gave up cooking, there being so many things I couldn't eat. I still have restrictions, but they're much less stringent, and I'm starting to enjoy cooking again.
   
10. Blog more often. No, really. You can hold me to it.
    
    

Ten on Tuesday

Ten Favorite Holiday Shows

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas. This is my favorite, hands down, always has been, always will be. Little-known fact, at least little-known to anyone who's never watched Grinch or #3 with me: stories of redemption make me cry like a baby. Always have, always will.
   
2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Cheesy and sexist. I don't care.
   
3. It's a Wonderful Life. See #1. One year, I think it was in the public domain somehow, it was on TV somewhere almost 24/7. I think after the 17th viewing I got to the point where I didn't need a whole box of tissues. Of course the following year I was back to square one.
   
4. The Nutcracker (the ballet). Our local ballet company does a very good production, but someday I'd like to see the Boston Ballet do it, just so I can say I did.
   
5. Tree-lighting ceremony: anyone's, anywhere. There's just something about seeing a huge tree light up.
   
6. Thanksgiving Day, Patriots vs. Lions. Heaven knows when the Pats will play on Thanksgiving again. (Last night's game wasn't half bad either, although it hardly lived up to the hype. Then again, it probably couldn't have.)
   
7. Macbeth on Ice, or whatever skating extravaganza is going. We went when Miss B was about five. The crowds were awful, the food and souvenirs to say nothing of the show itself were phenomenally overpriced — in other news, the sun set in the west this afternoon and is expected to rise in the east tomorrow morning — and I loved it. I am a goof.
   
8. A Charlie Brown Christmas.
   
9. First Night in Boston. I haven't been in ages. I probably haven't gotten too old for it.
   
10. Ice storm. We don't always get one during the holiday season, of course, and I wouldn't want the one a couple of years ago that took out everyone's power for a week, but if you want a show you really can't beat nature when it puts its mind to it.

Yarn Report

Almost two weeks ago I began my stashbusting program: I will use at least one skein (ball, hank) of yarn per week, and, with time, my stash will shrink, or at least quit trying to take over the house. So how's it going so far? So far, so good. You see above another granite-stitch scarf in Noro Yuzen, two skeins down, one to go. All of the yarns I'm using for Red Scarf this year are new to me, and this is a very nice one. I think it will need a hair-conditioner bath to soften it up a bit. It already does better on the neck test than most alpaca, though. (How alpaca can feel so soft on the hands yet so scratchy on the neck I will never understand, but I've stopped using all but the finest superfine alpaca for scarves.)

I'm also knitting another scarf that I'm keeping under wraps for the moment, but it has consumed two balls of Di.Ve Zenith. So, four balls in a little under two weeks is pretty good. This skates over the fact that I bought this yarn to make Red Scarves with, but I bought it before I began the regimen, and it's a start. My next challenge will be to match projects I want to undertake to existing stash. I have made the heartening discovery that a lot of people on my Christmas list are fond of purple. I'll have to check the stash to be sure, but I think I may have some purple yarn.