New Years Resolutions One Month Later

I made a couple of New Year's Resolutions in the creative area of life, since I figured these would be easy to keep, right? Wrong! For 2008, I resolved to: Knit a pair of socks; crochet a pair of socks; knit a sweater; crochet a sweater; learn cable knitting, learn how to knit Continental style; start designing and enter the CGOA design contest. I'm considering entering the baby blanket I just finished, but I'm not sure it doesn't look like athousand other shell stitch baby blankets out there. I want to make a pattern that's original. I used an old stitch dictionary to find a pattern stitch that I liked. I think that deep down, I feel like that's cheating, so I should do something completely original for the contest.

I have Panda Cotton Sock yarn put aside for a pair of crocheted socks. I'm using the book Crocheted Socks: 16 Fun to Stitch Patterns by Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood and will start with the first sock pattern. I've been meaning to start them, but need to get up the nerve to do it. I don't know why I feel intimidated by a sock or a sweater. For crying out loud, I worked as an ICU nurse dealing with life or death matters and situations, which didn't phase me. But put a pattern. a hook and sock yarn in front of me makes me twitch with fear. Weird. February starts tomorrow. I need to take a deep breath, buck up and suck it up and take hook in hand. Why cotton and not wool? I'm very allergic to wool and most animal and some plant related fibers. I get itchy and have to drag out my inhaler when I get near the stuff. Navigating a yarn store is like walking in a mine field. I had to cut this last trip short because I ended up handling a couple of skeins with wool in them and I started to react.

Knit-wise, I'm working on the Inspired Allover Cable Spa Cloth designed by Kathy Wesley pattern from the most recent issue of Creative Knitting magazine. At first, I had some trouble getting my stitches to go the right way, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. I notice that my stitches seem pretty tight on the cable needle when I go to knit the stitches off of it. I'm using some Sugar n' Cream yarn I had in my stash. Using up yarn in my stash was another New Year's Resolution, lol. I have needed to buy sock yarn, since I didn't have any, so I guess I haven't broken it. Lent starts next week, so maybe I should give up buying yarn. That, will be a real challenge.