January

Illness crept in last night and today leaving me very sick, asleep-on-the-futon-in-the-middle-of-the-day sick, icky fear-of-the-flu kind of sick. I am hoping another good night's sleep and the sunshine predicted for tomorrow will do me some good. That, and the zen quality this type of illness can bring if I let go of resisting the illness and just let it be. Letting the illness be has a lot to do with taking it easy, which is probably what I should have been doing to being with. I have a tendency to want to make big plans and run around with high-minded-projects in January and really, each year what I find is that January calls for rest and hibernation. Let the plans ferment. Begin them fresh when the flowers bloom. All else leads to illness and a forced time of rest, which is what I should have been doing to begin with. But I digress.

Tonight, under the influence of ibuprofen, I started my January knitting project. What did I say about grand plans and illusions of accomplishment? Surely I wasn't referring to knitting. Nor writing. Nor finding inner peace and other spiritual whatnot. All other projects, though, can wait. For now. Until duly inspired to return.

I am hoping to knit the art lace bag from the recent winter issue of Interweave Knits this month. I am not using the yarn suggested in the pattern, however, because one of the women at my yarn store recommended another yarn. She said the one in the pattern would pill fairly quickly and recommended another yarn of the same gauge (~2 stitches/ inch) by Cascade Yarns. I chose a lovely rusty orange (#6029) for the color because as Samuel pointed out, that was the color I really got excited about. He said if I chose the brown it would be because I had thought about it too much and where, he asked, is the fun in that? I bought the orange.