I hope you’re having a good 2015 so far.  I spent the start of mine very quietly, as I was laid low with a chest infection.  When I felt up to knitting, I had a lovely soothing project to work on: the Arboles Cowl by Sashka Macievich.  It was my post-Christmas knitting, cast on after all the rush of gift-knitting and general festive activity, using two skeins of beautiful plant-dyed cashmere yarn from Elisabeth Beverley that I had been looking forward to using.  I had bought the first skein (a yellow, dyed with daffodils) at a Selvedge fair a couple of years ago, and then bought a soft grey skein (dyed with brambles) to pair with it at the PomPom Christmas party in December.  (It’s okay to buy yarn to help you use existing stash, right?)

Working on the project highlighted a habit of mine that I’m determined to break during 2015.  I had no deadline and as I was ill, I wasn’t really up to doing anything very strenuous.  I was enjoying the pattern, and for goodness sake, I was knitting with cashmere!  I should have been relaxing and enjoying the buttery softness of every stitch and the pleasing way the grey and yellow were knitting up together in the slipped stitch pattern.  Yet I found myself rushing through my project, simply to tick another “job done” off my list!

I’m all for goals and planning.  In fact, I generally live by my to-do list and take a great deal of satisfaction from the fact that I manage to juggle all the things I do.  It enriches my life, and if I didn’t push myself sometimes I’d probably still be saying “maybe I should buy some yarn and needles and learn to knit one day”, but sometimes  I take it to extremes.

Luckily, that time I caught myself and gave myself a bit of a talking to.  After that, it was a very relaxing knit.  There are times when I want or need to push on through the to-do list like a person on a mission, but there are also times when I could stop and take more pleasure from small things.  This year I’m hoping to balance a bit more of the latter with the former and to be kinder to myself when I can.  Oh, and I haven’t written that on a list. 🙂