Strrrretch!!!

One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen

again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.  ~~Abraham Maslow

When was the last time you reached out beyond your comfort zone, I mean really stretched your ability?

This year is all about that stretch.  Stepping out onto the 'skinny branch' as it were, where the sweet reward of accomplishment resides, dangling just as ripend fruit does out near the edge.  Out near the edge is where it all happens, where possibility resides.

I've decided to stretch myself specifically within my hobby of knitting.  Previously convinced that a working mother of two could never set aside any substantial amount of time to knit anything too involved, the criteria for my pattern selection would revolve around the quick, easy, mindless knits.  My yarn selection was subject to a similar selection process, as choices usually included worsted and aran weights or more bulky and chunky fibers.  This is not what knitting is about.  More recently, I've developed an interest in making socks & shawls using fingering weight yarns.  This is what I've started thus far:

The Storm Cloud Shawlette by Hanna Breetz (Ravelry Log In Required for free pattern)

This shawl is a great first shawl for beginners, as it uses an elongated garter stitch.  On one row you're kniting the first stich followed by a yarn over (K1, YO), and on the second row you're dropping the YO's.




A finished Storm Cloud in its pre-blocked state:

Some of my knitting goals for this year include projects that I would have shyed away from previously:

Intarsia

Fair Isle

2-at-a-time Socks