A New Leaf

The new year brings new experimentality in an unlikely guise...  KNITTING!

I entered into a friendly challenge: learn to knit (from scratch) in 2014. 

I was going to leave it until later in the year, but then a late night text message from my friend / challenge opponent ("I'm knitting!" said she!) nudged at some dormant competitive streak within my psyche.  Oh yes, I thought.  It is ON!  I went out and got me some 4 mm needles and a ball of double knit that very next morning.

I never knew I could get so addicted.  I have shown more perseverance in teaching myself to knit than with most of my past relationships.  I have calmly unravelled bad row after bad row, and just cast those stitches back on again and again, never once feeling the bite of frustration or temptation to give up.  After all this time I have found the thing to teach me patience, that most elusive of virtues!

Serendipitously, I stumbled across a beautiful local art project (Canopy) requiring knitted submissions by April.  So I upped my game from 'knit one purl one', and have been knitting my first leaves to hang in the woods!

I'll update you on my progress throughout the year.

Retrospective Resolutions

This post has been exactly 1 year in the making...

At the tail end of 2012, my friend and I were discussing potential New Year's Resolutions for 2013, and she told me about an idea she'd heard about as an experimental alternative.  Instead of setting yourself goals for the year ahead, the aim was just to live life as it happened and write down on a bit of paper every good (but unanticipated) experience that you ended up having, and put the bit of paper in a jar.  Then at the end of the year you can see all the things you never resolved to achieve but did anyway.  We decided to give it a go...

Undeterred by the lack of an actual jar (I used a broken mug with a plastic lid instead, y'know just to keep it real), I got the year off to a good start with some spontaneous and serendipitous midnight morris dancing, so into the jar mug went my first 'resolution'...

I hadn't expected to fill up the jar.  In fact I had no expectations at all of how my year was going to pan out, which left me wide open to grab all the adventures that would come my way.  The beauty of this challenge is that it forces you to notice everything you do that makes you feel something, which in itself amplifies that feeling.  Note by note my year progressed, and my cup ranneth over...

Last night I emptied my mug and read every single note I'd put in there.  There were at least 10 notes for each month of the year, and for some months I wondered how I'd ever got any sleep as they were so jam packed with experiences.  And I remembered every single experience, because I'd actually taken notice of it at the time, and reading these little reminders made me feel it all over again.

I am overwhelmed with gratitude to all the people mentioned on my notes - you know who you are.  Chances are, if you're reading this you'll be one of them.  I only hope I've done my job right and brought some joy to your 2013 too, or that you at least know how much I've valued your company.

Happy Old Year my friends, and let 2014's adventures commence!