Hello friends! I hope you are all doing well. I’m writing here on a Saturday night. I am, as usual, being overly ambitious about the amount of projects I can finish before the new year, so I’ve compiled all the holiday-related kits I haven’t worked through yet to see how much I can get done before the end of the year.  (We haven’t even put up our tree this year, and REAL TALK, it’s not going to happen. It’s okay. Next year!)

I’m about to down a cup of coffee, which is probably a poor life decision since it will keep me up late, but whatever. UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ.  Tomorrow I have a drum lesson, and Monday I have a performance review (NOOOO. KEEP IT PLEASE. I DON’T WANT IT). Also we have a winter storm watch between Sunday night and Tuesday morning?  3 to 5 inches of snow potentially?  KEEP IT PLEASE. I DON’T WANT IT.

It’s hard to believe that we’ll be in Texas next weekend. Do you know what the weather forecast is for Christmas in South Texas? 75 degrees.  75 DEGREES.  WHAT IS WARMTH? I am so excited.

Next week will be my last full week of work until the new year.  Work is going well. Project management continues to be a huge learning curve.  I’m getting pulled into an interesting proposal effort that will be keeping me really busy the next month.  I’m excited because it involves digging through lots of historical reports and figuring out what is going on with a site, which is a task I really enjoy.  The timeline is a little intimidating for the amount of work that’s involved, so it’s something I’ll need to keep on top of.  At least we’re driving to Texas, so I’ve got some time to read through reports when it’s not my turn to drive.

And I can also work on crafty projects!

Recently I opened my Little Box of Knitting.  The project is a hot water bottle cover. I received the box in September, so I thought, what? Hot water bottle cover? Why do I need this? This is useless.  And now that it’s December and the weather has been in the 30s-40s for the past month and half, I’m like OHHH . HOT WATER BOTTLE. THAT SOUNDS PRETTY COZY RIGHT NOW.

The project uses the magic loop technique, which, not going to lie, was very intimidating to me and kept me away from the box for awhile.  But one thing I’ve realized about myself over the years is I used to be very bad at learning *just enough* about a skill to be okay at it, then I would peace out whenever it got challenging.  I didn’t want to sit down and do the work involved to get really good and I would get bored with the minutiae involved.  Recognizing this flaw about myself was a game changer, though.  I’ve gotten a lot better at really challenging myself the past five years or so as I realized I was ~~holding myself back~~ and  that I am ~~more capable than I realize~~

I knew I was holding myself back with knitting. I’ve known how to do the knit and purl stitch for three years now and haven’t made anything particularly challenging, other than cowls, so I knew it was time. I was ready. So out came the box and the needles, and I decided to learn magic loop.

As you can imagine, I really sucked at it.  Which is to be expected.

What is this mess, you ask?  It’s so bad that it doesn’t even deserve an attempt at the Instagram lighting for the photo.  This is where I pulled too hard on the cables and accidentally discovered why it’s called “magic loop.” This was super fun to unravel.  But I kept trying, and by the third attempt, I was able to get the proper stitch count on my needles for a very passable magic loop.

It’s really hard to take an artistic photo of a WIP for a hot water bottle cover, so I’m not going to try.  Here is this lump of yarn that will one day be a hot water bottle cover:

Can I tape this to a wall and sell it for $120K?

::insert paragraph about approaching new skills with an open mind and that growth can only come from failure here::

Next up with this project: fair isle knitting. EEEEEEEK.

I should probably go practice drums before I get super lazy, and then make chili!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

edit: this post was brought to you by caffeine, obviously. UNTZ