Insomnia

The Crafty Conservative

I had entitled this entry "Happy New Year". But, what a drag. "Insomnia" is so much better. I'm not the type to ring in the new year. I went to bed about 9:30pm. But, now I'm awake and it's 4:45am (Oklahoma time). We are travelling back home to Indiana today so I really need all the sleep I can get. So, why am I blogging in the middle of the night? Sheer madness.

As soon as I left for vacation, my knitting schedule went out the window. I changed patterns for my socks. The toe-up version just was not working. I'm now about half-way done with the first sock but I must admit I haven't touched it for a week. I've been consumed by a request from my sister for fingerless gloves and a scarf. I decided to make them post-haste so I wouldn't have to ship them. So, I dropped all of my other projects to concentrate solely on her request. The fingerless gloves turned out much better than I had expected. After making one glove too big with the thumb in the totally wrong place, I wisened up and got them near perfect. I'll post pictures and my first original pattern (wow!) once I get home. The downside...she chose Red Heart acrylic yarn. It's a bugger to knit with. It feels like plastic (go figure!). But, that's what she wanted. It was the perfect color. Electric Blue. I gave them to her last night. It was about 70 degrees here but she wore them most of the evening. She will definitely receive more hand-knit gifts in the future.

I have some goals that I feel I should list on this the "unofficial" date of goal-setting. Well, I don't know if they're all really "goals". They're more like thoughts for the new year.

1. I will give hand knit gifts for Christmas next year. I will start today by making a list of projects for specific people. If I always have at least one gift on the needles, I should do fine. I have two little brothers that deserve some Weasley sweaters. My mom wants some socks (which I will probably present to her in a booga bag). My father-in-law deserves a new sock cap (his fashion accessory of choice). My brand-new stepfather will get some of those nifty mittens that fold over to fingerless gloves (perfect for golfing, he says). My husband wants an OU sweater (go Sooners!). So, as you can tell, I really need to get started now.

2. I will lose 50 more lbs. I've already got a pretty good start on this one. I'm down around 15 lbs (who knows exactly now after the holidays) already and I really want to kick it up a few notches before I turn 30 (April 11th). I have PCOS which contributed to the weight gain (along with my insane love of pizza) but I'm really committed to working hard and getting down to a manageable weight. I still won't be skinny after losing the 50 lbs. But, at least I won't have to shop at Lane Bryant anymore.

3. I will read more good books and write about them either here or in a journal. I haven't been reading as much since I've been knitting like crazy these past couple of months. I still get in about 2-3 books a month. But, these have been mostly books on tape. I love listening to books on tape, but there is something about the actual book in your hands that is part of the experience. Here are some of the books I'd like to read this year: "A Great and Terrible Beauty" by Libby Bray. "Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke. That book was recommended to me by my friend that is a librarian. It's a "must-read" and I have it on hold right now at my local public library. My genre of choice is historical fiction. I also love reading the classics. Any suggestions?

4. I will become a mother of two. This is kind of out of my hands at the moment. We are waiting waiting waiting waiting to find our next child. We are really hoping to adopt in the next couple of months so we can finalize before we move (my husband will finally have his PhD and we'll be going to some other University town). I believe it will happen. I just don't know when. It could be tomorrow. We didn't know about our little frog until the day before he was born. Actually, that's kind of nice. No time to worry about potential birthmoms backing out, worrying about so many things out of your control... It was really exciting to get a call about a baby being born the next day and seeing if we would be able to come and get him. OF COURSE! We were out the door a couple hours later and drove all night. My labor was pushing the gas pedal and lack of sleep. Worth it!

5. I will not procrastinate. I have no intention of keeping this one. This is my "throw-away". It is my one resolution I'll allow myself to break. I really just wanted to have a list with 5 (see following post). I'm weird that way, I guess.

Insomnia

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