My leading-up-to-Christmas and a bit beyond funk is past. I’m feeling certain it had as much to do with my lack of biking, walking (icy sidewalks) and darkness.
But I paid my $25 for yearly exercise room privileges at our local Linwood Rec Center (once I get my ID card I’ll be able to use ANY St. Paul Rec Center exercise room all year!) and I’ve been a few times already. I’m not doing anything hard core, just stationary bike and treadmill, but it’s enough to make me feel like my leg muscles aren’t atrophying.
It’s also sunnier than it had been. And I think I can DEFINITELY feel a difference in the past week and a half of each day getting just a tiny bit longer. Friends have emailed with info on Light Therapy and on places to get light boxes. It’s definitely something to look into.
Mostly I’m trying to get myself geared up for a decent sized project – I really want to FINALLY get that book on patterns based on historical icons underway – I keep doing research for it – and this is the year it has to happen.
I need to devise different revenue streams because, with Gerry’s mobility as uncertain as it’s been so far this Winter, I can’t really depend on being able to travel as much as I have in the past.
One very good thing is that Knit with Courage continues to sell well (as with the other books, knock wood!), and the audio book will be out soon. The KWC audio book is being independently produced by Holton House Audio, not one of the larger audio book companies, so I’ve heard that it can be hard to get it included as an easy to purchase iTunes audiobook. Of course, if anyone would care to reqeust it, I’m certain that might help…
But – as long as I’ll be at home – there’s that knitting DVD that I keep talking about. Oy. Enough idle chatter!
I don’t have a lot of practice with procrastination. I’m usually on top of things, devising strategies for getting them done and prioritizing like a triage nurse. But some stuff has slipped away (holiday cards, responses to lovely emails from folks) and I just can’t seem to get myself motivated to reply in a deep and kind way.
So either I have to become better at procrastinating and embrace it, or just stop doing it…
A group of us in the Stitch Cooperative are putting together a book of baby patterns using South West Trading yarn. I’ve volunteered to be the organizer of the projects, at least in the first few months of our collaboration, so having someone outside of myself counting on my ‘being there’ should be a help to keep me honest and on task.
So that’s two books to organize – develop time lines, create yarn lists, etc. I’m relying on Cat Bordhi’s suggestion of a color printer for my own book, and my goal is to have samples knit by the start of Summer. As this is something so close to my heart, I really want it to be done well – good tech editing, good shots of the garments, just GOOD and reliable patterns.
Aside from that, the teaching, and the odd design stuff for magazines that contact me, I’m thinking 2009 will be a down-time kind of year – another one – whereby we work through the larger issues by concentrating on the details.