Hi, Everyone! I’m back after some days of very little activity. I live in the upper Midwest USA, and we’ve hit that point in the year where it just feels like endless cold with no reprieve, and I’m finding myself emotionally exhausted with very little drive to do anything. Now that I’m in the middle of a three day weekend (the last one for a few months now), I’m feeling a little more like I can devote some mental energy to my hobbies. I spent some time finishing up that knitting project I mentioned in my previous weekly touch-base, so I’m ready to move onto something a little bit more challenging.
With my journey through fiber arts, I’ve found that it’s helpful to maintain my interest if I’m learning something new each time. In this most recent case, it was learning to use very basic short rows (a shaping technique in which the knitter doesn’t knit all the way across a row before turning the other direction). My brain craves novelty and variety, and knitting the same scarves and hats back when I was just learning (more than a decade ago) meant that it was almost a given I was going to get bored. This time around I’m realizing that there’s just so many new things I can learn to make, and it’s helping to keep me interested in the longer term.