If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit." ~ Oprah Winfrey

Baby - it's cold outside!  Like much of the nation, we are currently experiencing a cold snap. Our predicted low for later tonight is -12º. That's 12 below zero!  The view from my studio window however, is very nice! This is perfect knitting weather!

I find that many knitters I know fall somewhere between two camps. There are those who never knit the same thing twice.  They've conquered one pattern and can't wait to move on to the next.  Then there are those like me, who conquer something once, and are eager to meet with success a second time.  If I am pleased with how a project has turned out, I will usually make another in the same pattern.  Some are bored by the predictability, and others are comforted by it!

I recently began another Icelandic sweater in the same pattern that I just finished.  I had some more of the Lopi yarn, as called for in the pattern, but I was eager to try using some other yarns that I had on hand.  I got the entire yoke completed - the knitting was just fine - but every time I picked it up, I kept saying how I wasn't really pleased with the color combination. I kept saying it, and saying it, until it dawned on me that I didn't have to keep going! I mean really!  I'd rarely wear it if I wasn't pleased with the colors, and even though the yoke was finished, the lion's share of knitting still awaited me!  So I unraveled it. No regrets - just did it and set the yarn aside to be used another day.  I find knitting calming, meditative, relaxing - so it's not like the yoke was wasted time.

Shortly after I completed that task, I came upon the video below - an "un" knitting machine - now I could have used that!

                  

So - onto the new Icelandic sweater, being done in the Lopi yarn I had, and in a much more eye-pleasing combination of blue, white and yellow.  The yoke is begun,  and I'm am pleased every time I pick it up. I should have followed my gut the very first time I second-guessed my color combination before.

I guess that I kind of feel like this is my goal for 2014.  There are some things that we have to do that we would prefer to not - that's life - but there are also many that we are free to choose. I am going to strive to make the choices that will bring me joy, and peace, and satisfaction; and to set aside those that I'm having second thoughts on.  Perhaps I will revisit them in the future, or perhaps I will set them aside for good.  

I like the sound of this goal. I like the feel of it. Do you have any 2014 thoughts for yourself?