A second trip to the doctor and another round of prescriptions, and I'm actually starting to feel half human again. Yesterday I managed a hair appointment, grocery shopping and putting away the last of the Christmas things all in one day. A week ago I cancelled the hair appointment because I didn't have the energy to do it. Today I tidied up the books on the coffee table and loaded up a stack of books to take back to the office, which freed up shelf space to put some of the other work-related books that were cluttering up another surface. Forward momentum.

I also spent some time today quilting on the DWR. I had done a little bit last week, but today managed to put in a little over an hour on it. My goal is to have it finished by mid-May so it can be carried to Canada in the truck that will be taking a load of stuff northward. This is going to mean many days of stitching, but I think it can be done. I find this makes a nice mid-day break for me, so that has helped me figure out when I am going to fit this into my life. After lunch I can load up a podcast or an audio book, and that helps serve as a time marker, as well as entertainment. I don't want to work much more than an hour at a time until my callouses are back in working condition, as that just leads to sore fingers and unhappiness.

I reset my "yarn bank" to $0 at the beginning of the year, since I knew I had depleted the balance, and then some, in buying yarn for Christmas gifts. Since yesterday was the end of the month I added up my contributions for January, and was pleased to find that I've earned $17 in credits. At the same time I realized that I really don't need any yarn. I have plenty for a year of charity knitting, as well as some lovely yarns for gifts. So I'm not planning any yarn purchases in the near future. I'll just bank the credits and see how long I can go before I find something I just can't live without, or some clearance yarn that has to be "rescued."

Right now I'm working on a set of dishcloths for Theresa and Devan's new house. It's a little late to call them a housewarming present, but that was the original intent. They should be finished in plenty of time for MJ to take them back with her in March. I also have a baby sweater and a hat on the needles, working toward this year's charity projects.

I finally decided I'm going to make a kind of "knitting journal," using an artist's sketchbook I bought on sale last year and incorporating the ball bands I'm saving. I haven't decided what all I'm going to include in the journal yet, but I'm open to ideas.

I haven't done a lot in the quilt studio yet this year, mainly because of my health, but I did do a little stitching last week on what is now going to be a Christmas present for 2011. I'm not calling it a UFO because I never put it away and worked on something else; I just ran out of time to work on it. Since it was sitting there, it was pretty easy to just pick up and start sewing. I also have the Tilted Stars on the design wall, and I'm slowly working at getting the colors distributed more evenly and identical patterns separated from each other. That one does count as a UFO, so I have both a new project and an old one going.

My next goal is to schedule a quilting retreat for myself. I'll need to study the calendar and see when I can string together a couple of days to focus just on quilting. If I can go from Thursday evening to Saturday night, I should be able to get quite a lot accomplished, including some of the clean-up tasks I want to do.

For now I'm off to finish a dishcloth and work on a scarf. The weather is turning cold again tonight; working with wool sounds like a good idea.