Chapter 13: New Year UFO-along!

Happy New Year one and all! And happy new decade too!  I went into the new year with a super positive attitude this year thinking: "2020 is going to be great, I can just feel it!"  Then I fell ill with a flu, learned about the devastating fires in Australia, and followed along with some other world events and suddenly, only 3 days old at the time, 2020 was not looking quite as promising as I'd hoped.  I'm doing my level best to remain optimistic in the face of everything out there, and of course that means to keep calm and knit on.  

(unsure of the creator of this art but I got it from this site https://newyear2020s.com/happy-new-year-resolution-2020/)

Christmas in our house, like many, was a blur of loud family visits, huge meals, children’s laughter (and honestly their meltdowns too), and quiet moments stolen with just the 2 or 4 of us making happy little memories of playing games, cooking, baking or crafting together. My boys are just at the perfect age for the full magical Christmas experience. Our elf graced our shelf and happily went back to the North Pole with the big man on Christmas Eve. And after a bit of a scare with pneumonia, the boys were delighted with their goodies, even if I didn’t get time to make them each something special this year.

Now that it's January I’m left in a bit of a crafting stupor. By this point, having just cranked out several gift knits, and a cross-stitch to boot, I am faced both with wanting a "new year, new cast-on" and with the desire to complete every WIP I have ever begun in an effort to start this year with a clean crafting slate.  I assume it cannot possibly just be me faced with these conflicting feelings, so I began a CAL (craft-along) for us all to clear out those old energies and begin fresh.  I hope you'll accompany me in this U.F.O. - C.A.L. where you simply grab one of your unfinished projects and work to finishing it up.  I know we all have those projects kicking around that involved 75,000 miles of stockinette and we lost interest, or maybe it was an intarsia baby blanket that taught us to hate intarsia, or perhaps it's a pair of half finished bullet-proof socks that were begun on needles two sizes too small, whatever it is, and whatever the reason, just pick it up and carry on.  Tag us on social media with #plyufoalong2020 and each person who participates will be entered in a draw on Feb 8 for a shop voucher.  

As a bonus for me, my current never-ending WIP is also a square in my card for the Crafty Bingo that Aryn (@ceraphina on Ravelry or @ceraphinabys on Instagram) hosts in her Bling Your String Ravelry group.  In the muddle of wanting to finish projects, start projects, recover with mindless knits, and challenge myself to new heights, I know participating in bingo this year will help me find my path again.  I tried to keep my goals fairly generic to give myself a better chance of finishing everything.  I aimed to challenge myself with some new skills as well as remembering to set aside time to craft for my family. I am excited to see how far I get with this and to see everyone else’s bingo cards fill up too.  This is mine.  I'll include it at the end of each of my blogs with an update on my progress.