January round up

Rounding up my progress towards my aims for the year...

Books read: One and a half. I finished the Casual Vacancy (definitely not an uplifting read but I did find it very compelling) and am halfway through Song of Solomon, my first Toni Morrison book. This one isn't flying by as easily but it is intriguing and I find myself thinking about the characters during the day. 

Yarn knitted: I was estimating 840m. I was into the 4th skein on this jumper I am knitting...

...and adding that to the hexagons, meant I was close. Ish. Not too bad, considering how busy this month has been. 

However, I decided I didn't like the fabric of the pink pullover - too loose and open; the body was maybe an inch wider than it was meant to be so my gauge wasn't far off, but I became convinced I just wouldn't get the wear I wanted out of it. So tonight I ripped the whole thing back, made and washed a swatch (I know) and have cast on a needle size down. I'm narrowing the edges of the lace panel by a stitch each side - this pattern was made to be knitted in pieces but I want to do it in the round - and knitting a purl stitch fake seam instead. 

So...I did sort of knit 840m. But then I ripped out 600m of it. Depressing. That said, I never rip things back. It is a feature of my knitting that I plough on through mistakes and bad signs, even if I end up with something I don't really wear. So on a personal growth level, this was a win. 

Pounds lost: three. Some of the Christmas weight, but not all. I made good strides in the first week of January but then, as soon as teaching from home became a thing, I essentially stopped moving around. Happily PT Jenny is still seeing me on the rugby field once a week or I think my whole body would be one chair shaped lump that refused to unbend. I'm still sticking to the same eating hours but eating the same amount as when I'm running around school all day. So I could do some work here...or I could just not, because global pandemic. I'm happy enough that the weight isn't going up tbh. 

Sleep: I've averaged more than 7 hours a night every week since the start of the year: a significant improvement on pre-covid times, when a weekly average of 6h45m was a success. February is for working on a routine bedtime that is before midnight. It's too easy to stay up when I know I only have to roll out of bed at 8am to be in front of the screen in time.

Blogging: Three posts. Better than last year. Not as good as 2019. But what is there to say? It's January. It snowed. We're in lockdown. Meh.