Tracy's 2nd Annual "New Year, New Me" Entry

January is my absolute favorite month of the year. I have locked my inner Grinch back in to her cave after granting her a month of freedom amongst the Whos. It's the month in which I can take a moment to appreciate having survived the retail holiday blitz, as well as appreciating everyone who chooses to make Stix their LYS. I have replaced my overindulgent holiday caloric intake with one better suited to a knitter than a triathlete. The daylight to darkness ratio is beginning to perceptibly shift towards the light. I get to think about and begin to implement my New Year's resolution. Life is good.

My resolution this year is to finish more projects than I start. I am a world-champion, gold-medal, G.O.A.T. starter of projects. Conversely, the medals podium for finishing projects is so far away from me that I need a telescope to see it, let alone stand on it. Is there a medal for being the best non-finisher? My propensity for starting all of the things does make my surroundings a little overwhelming at times, championship title status notwithstanding.

ChatGPT created the image above of me in my natural habitat. It's actually pretty realistic in some ways....my eyes do look like that at the end of a knitting marathon and the haircut is pretty close to mine. I don't usually have a 5 o'clock shadow, but to make up for that artistic license, the chat-bot thoughtfully provided me with a third arm. That would come in handy sometimes!

I do realize this begs the question of why the #@*& did I make this resolution? Isn't it really just starting another project in and of itself? Why do I delude myself into believing that just because the calendar year has changed, so too will the habits built over a lifetime? Ha. Maybe I should just skip ahead to December and call it a delusion instead. 

Mostly, I'm doing it because I have a lot of really cool projects in the works. A shocking number of them probably have less than 2 hours to go until they become a finished object. It's kind of ridiculous. Ok, it's really ridiculous. I started counting them over the weekend and stopped when I was approaching triple digits. Maybe some accountability will help........

My Carp-beth waiting to finish the yoke

Autumn Alpine waiting on sleeve island

Pressed Flowers Kerchief at the halfway point

So, with all that being said and a few photos as evidence, I'd like to invite you to follow along with what I'm calling my New Year's Vaguely Defined Good Intention. That sounds better than New Year's Delusion, right? I'll document my progress here with photos of things I've finished each month, along with things I'm dying to start but hopefully won't allow myself to indulge in until I finish other things. Perhaps all of you out there can chime in and cheer me on. Or maybe some of you out there are in the same slowly sinking-under-the-weight-of-all-these-projects boat and could use a little encouragement as well. I'm sure there's a pattern on Ravelry for a life-jacket, maybe that will be our next project!

As my current motivation to get s&*# done, I am obsessed with this basket of chilly blues and moody purples. They have whispered to me that they would like to become a Sea Glass Tee, and my selective yarn-hearing heard them loud and clear. As soon as I've finished knitting the life-jacket, I will cast on!

I'll pop back on here in February to show off what I've finished in January. Does anyone want to join me in my Vaguely Defined Good Intention? Let me know in the comments! We could make it a thing.....if there is a life-jacket pattern I'm sure there are patterns for gold medals, or at the very least, participation medals. 

-Tracy