Forward, march...

Ever curious, I asked my friends about their knitting resolutions for 2010. Mine is simple and practical: I must finish my works in progress (WIPs) before beginning anything else. That would be three at the moment--a dinosaur-themed sweater birthday present for Cy, who turns two in February; a pair of striped fingerless mitts from a crude pattern of my own devising; and a pair of pop-top mitts from a crude pattern of someone else's devising (on this, see my post of December 17th, 2009).

Deborah Newton says she's going to "try to be more original and not repeat myself....That is harder than you think, when you've been designing for as many years as I have!"

Anne and Denise, members of the Langworthy Library Knitting Association, offered the following resolutions:

Denise: I think I will resolve to work on only one project at a time...not to begin another until I've completed the one I'm working on. I'm a great starter, but a poor finisher!!! AND...to learn a new technique--like knitting in the continental style.

Anne: I'm resolving not to buy yarn I'm not ready to use. [She told me this shortly after having purchased some new yarn at Country Corner Yarns.]

This evening I sashayed over to Country Corners in Charlestown, Rhode Island (countrycorneryarns.com/), for a noteworthy knitting event (and Anne and Denise were there, among the assembled), and I managed within a few minutes of my arrival to grill everyone on their new year's knitting resolutions:

Irene:

• to learn new knitting patterns and increase my skill-level. Mirja gave me the 365 Knitting Stitches a Year Perpetual Calendar, which we sell in the shop, and I can learn a new pattern every day!
• Another resolution that I have is to try to persuade some of my close friends and family members to learn how to knit. I have managed to pique their interest so far by letting them borrow some of the many knitting novels that I've recently collected.
• To have a knitting novel library available in the shop by the summer for our seasonal customers to checkout, or encourage their non-knitting friends to think about knitting

Mirja: to finish everything I've started before I start a new project.

Barbara: to take out eight rows and re-do them before I finish the shrug I'm making.

Kathy: I plan to knit more [this year] than I have been.

Sue: To perfect at least one pattern, like mittens. And by next year to have knitted one item for each of my family members.

Nancy: to learn to knit...after I refinish six chairs.

***

Those who shared their new year's resolutions were gathered at Country Corner Yarns for an interesting reason--we were about to teleconference with Kate Jacobs, author of Knit the Season and several other knitterly novels. I was impressed by the genuine, thoughtful quality of the Ms. Jacobs's ruminations about writing fiction, how she tries to reach her audience, and what it's like to write books that carry characters from one volume to the next. She struck me as a writer who's as sensitive to her characters' situations and issues as she is to the concerns and interests of her readership. In the photos you can see her novel on the table in the foreground, and the telephone in the center.

(Note, please, the deep concentration as everyone listens to Kate Jacobs.)