Winter Blahs

This is not my favorite time of year.  The older I get the more I realize it too.  This year there's snow on the ground for added fun -- it's been there, at varying depths, since the day after Christmas.  This never happens here.  I find myself yearning to see something green -- a blade of grass would do it -- something to remind me that Spring will eventually arrive.  I know I'm going to feel this way until the end of March or beginning of April too, and it feels like a really long time until then.

I've been working away on Michele's sweater.  I am almost done with the front.  I'd post a picture, but it looks the same as the back in my previous post, so that would be kinda redundant.  The sleeves shouldn't take to long.  My mom always suggests that I knit the sleeves at the same time.  I don't know why I have always rejected this idea out of hand, but I think I am going to try it this time. 

Michele is so excited about it.  I'm glad.  It makes me feel good to do that for her, and it's worth every stitch.  The added bonus is that I'm teaching her how to knit.  She has tried before, but felt like she just couldn't get it.  We started small and she has been working on the knit stitch.  She's really doing great.  There were a few spots to fix after her first week of practice, but just going through it with her a second time seems to really have done the trick.  She seems to really be enjoying it.  We're knitting preemie caps for a local charity.  Michele is one of my favorite people on this planet.  She's extrodinary.

When I first started knitting different types of projects, I would have several going at once, socks, a few hats, some charity knitting (whatever I was working on at the time), a sweater of some sort and maybe a scarf with some fun new yarn.  This was fine with me for the longest time until one day I realized I wasn't finishing anything.  I decided that once I finished everything I had on needles at the time, I would start working on just one project at a time until it was finished.  I'm not normally this organized, but I have to say, it's working well for me.  I find when I get toward the end of the current project, I start dreaming, imagining and researching my next project.  It forces me to really think it through before starting.  I really never thought this type of process would work for me, but it does -- so I'm sticking with it.  The only caveat to this is the preemie caps.  They are so fast and easy, I knit them before going to sleep.  It's mindless knitting which is what I need at that time of the day.  Do you prefer one project at a time, or several on the needles at once?

My thoughts on my next project?  A sweater for my niece Kate who is about to turn 12.  A cardigan and something really colorful -- I think she would like that a lot.  Since I made the jumpers for my other nieces, she's due -- hmm -- maybe I could work the green in!