Done!

It took knitting into the wee hours of the morning (Ok, it was midnight... but that's really late for me. I'm a 'need my sleep' kinda girl!) but I got Jack's hat done. Phew!

I'm doubly pleased because I recently found this knitting challenge issued by Bridget Allin, owner of Needles in the Hay, a new yarn shop in Peterborough, Ont. I haven't been to her store yet, but I've been oogling it from afar.

So what's the challenge? A year in colour. In her own words: "To knit at least one item in a designated colour for each month of 2011. It can be any project, any size; the point is to broaden my colour horizons, so to speak, and encourage myself to embrace colours I normally wouldn’t choose."

Here's the colour palette and look, January's colour is red!


To be honest, I suck at challenges. I start and usually flake out pretty soon thereafter (anyone remember KinderGARDENS? Me neither.) Life gets busy, I get frazzled and I let goals like this quietly fall to the wayside.

So what's different this time? Maybe nothing. Like most humans, I am a creature of habit, good and bad. I just know that I want to fit more knitting into my life and give myself some quiet space to be creative while making beautiful things for me and my family. I have a lot of projects that I'd like to try, and I thought this could be a fun way to keep me motivated. Or not. I've vowed to be kind to myself if this intention falls apart, but I love the idea of finishing the year with at least 12 completed projects in a rainbow of colours -- even if I make 12 dishcloths! I'll keep you posted.

So on to February: orange. Socks maybe?

P.S. Speaking of socks: If you're looking for some knitting inspiration, check out Bridget's challenge from last year -- Summer of Socks challenge 2010. She knit 14 pairs of socks using different patterns. And we're not talking simple tube socks... these are really fancy dancy socks!