Onward

With xmas knitting behind me, I'm back to work on my Filled With Secrets for the Early Check In KAL. I'm almost done with the body-just a couple more inches until the bottom ribbing-and hopefully I'll be able to bang out those sleeves real quick (right, because when have I ever banged out sleeves real quick??). This KAL goes through January 9, so I really gotta get a move on so I can finish in time. I'm also doing Andi's Selfish Sweater KAL this year-more on that when Filled With Secrets is done, but I have cast on and I am loving my project so far. 

After my wrap-up post I debated setting knitting goals for 2017, and so far I don't think I'm going to. I got tons of knitting done in 2016, and I love all my projects, but they didn't really line up with the goals I had set for myself. And it turns out that I kinda like being able to change up my knitting at will, and work on things as I feel the drive and desire to. Knitting is my calm, and setting goals (for me, at least) takes some of that calm away and turns it into a task. And yes, sometimes I have projects that feel like tasks (gifts, samples, sleeves), but there's a difference between plowing through a huge sweater to give to my mother because I love her and knitting eight pairs of socks in a row because "my goal says I need to."

I'm still trying to find my balance here between knitting and fun stuff and political stuff, but 2016 was a really rough year for most of us. And as much as I can't wait to see 2016 vanish in the rear view mirror, I know 2017 is probably going to be rough as well. I hope that 2016 was a wakeup call, not a harbinger, but in light of all the pain and despair and uncertainty that we have surrounding us, I want my goals for 2017 to be less about how many hats I  can knit and more about how kind I can be, how much I can give, and how loud I can make my voice. 

This is kind of a meandering post to end the year on, but it feels fitting. I'm still trying to make sense of a lot of things, and part of my response is to stop trying to shove knitting into a checklist of accomplishments. Knitting doesn't make everything better, but it makes a lot of things easier to process and cope with, and it can't be that for me if I try to force it too much. So here's to a 2017 filled with love and light. Peace to you all <3