Still trying to get my health back. I went to the doctor last Friday and got some meds to help, but it's still been a long slow road. I'm finally able to sleep for more than a few hours at a time, so I'm hoping in another week to be mostly back to normal, whatever that means.

Since I've been sick, I've had little energy for anything but the essentials, so quilting hasn't even been on the horizon. I'm hoping next week to get into the studio for a few hours at least and sort of "swab the decks." Over the holidays all kinds of things got dumped in there, and it's time to clear that out and get back to working order.

I have been able to do a bit of knitting when my cough lets up for a while. I finished a second brown mobius. When I bought the yarn I thought I would need 2 skeins for 1 mobius, but after knitting up the first skein, I thought it looked just fine, so I stopped. The second one I did a little differently from the first, so it has more of a mirror image from the center out look. I don't think it makes a huge difference in the end, but I like it, and that's what counts.

I also made myself a pair of fingerless mitts. It rarely gets cold enough here for gloves, but sometimes a little extra is helpful. They're red with a pretty cable design down the back. I made them on dpn's instead of 2 circs, and there's a bit of a ladder where the needle changed, but I'm not going to fuss about it; I might if they were a gift for someone else, but not for me.

A couple of other projects are coming along, including a baby hat, a scarf, and a pair of socks. Hats for AR Children's are getting done, along with the first baby sweater for CWS. I did a little bit on the pi shawl that is one of the hold-over UFO's. And the best news is that I now have $10 in my yarn bank. Not exactly a lordly sum, but enough to buy a couple of skeins on clearance. Now I just need to get well enough to have the energy to shop.

I got home from my Christmas trip on Friday with a whopping case of bronchitis. Today is the first day I've felt half-way human, and haven't been spending more time coughing than not. So I decided it was a good day to wrap up knitting for 2010 and start to work on 2011.

Actually, I did a little yesterday. I tried knitting on a complicated shawl, but that was beyond my capability, so I got out some acrylic and started a hat. I finished that hat this morning. So the first of the year's charity projects is done.

Finishing the hat made me think about getting my knitting diary up to date, and going through the project bags and all that sort of thing. I frogged a pair of mittens that I didn't particularly like, and put away leftover yarn from a couple of projects. Then I decided to get out last year's lists and see what progress I'd made. Unfortunately, most of the UFO's from last year's list are still on this year's. They are things that have no particular need for completion, so they seem to get pushed to the back burner. I need to make one of this year's goals getting those things done, so they're not on the list next year.

The Yarn Bank got reset to $0 on January 1st, so getting that built back up will be necessary if I am to have any new pretties this year. I also thought I would try something new - keeping all my ball bands for the year. I have 1 so far - from a mobius I finished on the trip home. Not sure what I'll do with them, but maybe I'll think of something clever.

Time for a sit-down. I'll pick out a UFO and work on it. Then maybe I'll choose a pattern for MJ's socks. Or find some other new thing to work on. At the very least there's a baby sweater to cast on. Tomorrow I need to get back to work, so I plan to take advantage of this day of convalescence.

I finally finished the last of the Christmas knitting on New Year's Day and gave away the last bits of it yesterday. It felt so good to sit down in the afternoon and cast on a new project with no deadline for completing other than it's a winter garment and I'd like to be able to use it this season. But since it's mostly garter stitch and I have a good bit of airplane travel coming up the end of the week, I don't see any reason why it shouldn''t be completed in the near future. I also brought a more complicated shawl project with me on this vacation, and if I feel up to it, I may get that one onto the needles this afternoon. I'm battling a cold today, so naps and medication take first priority. Tomorrow we are planning to go yarn shopping in the city, and I definitely want to be well enough for that.

The one kind of funky thing I've decided to do for this year is to keep the ball bands from all the yarns I use. I think it will be interesting to see how many new skeins I use this year, and what gets made from them. I have the ongoing hat and baby sweater charity knitting, but no specific goals beyond that, other than to try not to be finishing Christmas gifts on New Year's Day. I know I chose a lot of colorwork projects this year, and they naturally go slower than some other types of knitting. I'll try to remember to compensate for that next year.

When I get home there will be quilty things going on as well. I'll have to start by digging out the studio. Then we'll see what's next. Meanwhile I'm going to watch the sky get brighter for a while, then I'm going to hunt for a comfy sofa and a dog to keep me company.