happynewyear Happy New Year!

Whether this is the day for recovering from last night’s excesses or the day to begin your New Year’s resolutions, I hope you enjoy it.

I have a song for you, today. Here is “Deck the Halls” being sung by someone who seems to intend for people to learn the song by listening to him. Chances are, you already know this song. It is a Welsh carol, originally intended to be played as a game, with each member of the group responsible for making up a new verse in turn. If you couldn’t come up with a verse, you’d be out. Sort of an improv game, with the company singing “fa la la la la” while you thought of a rhyme for the first line. Playing games like this would probably be good for the old language skills.  Here is an ordinary midi. Either way, you have a song about hailing the new year.12

Yesterday was an extremely low-key day at my place. Here you see Spicer demonstrating the attitude we are taking toward the long, long weekend. And yes, that is the new sweater.

Not that we spent the entire day lolling around. I did some slight bit of work. #1 son and I took the dogs for a very brief walk. It was cold, he said, and I was walking too fast, and the dogs weren’t behaving properly, so we hardly got 10 minutes of walking. The boys also went to the park to play with their boomerangs, a friend came over with his guitar, some of the family headed out to parties…

I mostly lolled around and knitted, myself.

12 The cardigan continued to provoke concerns. For one thing, the integrity of the stitches seems to be lost with such an open structure, and I am all about the integrity of the stitches. For another, the lightness of the fabric makes a cardigan with no purpose in life. I was reading Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes as I came to this realization, and had been reading about how Aristotle’s views on the whole purpose of life differed from those of later philosophers. It was borne in upon me that, however one determined the whole purpose of life, it could not be the case that a laceweight yarn could make a proper cardigan, even if the cardigan pattern is in a book called Lacy Little Knits.

It would seem that laceweight yarn ought to be kept for lace, and this cardigan, while lacy, isn’t lace. Why this came as a surprise to me I do not know.

However, it means that I am left with a whole bunch of brown laceweight yarn, and the project I planned for it is a washout. A brown lace shawl? A large wardrobe of frillies trimmed in brown lace? That sounds a bit grim, doesn’t it?12

I found a picture of this cardigan online actually done in worsted. It looked heavy and clunky that way, it seemed to me, but it makes sense that a sweater which can actually be done in worsted would not be appropriate for the yarn I am using, so I will have to frog it and think of something else.

While waiting for inspiration to strike, I made good progress on #1 son’s scarf. I hung it on the Christmas tree to try to make it look more interesting.

Once I finish this post, I will do a strength-training DVD. Since I have hand weights and Kathy Smith ready to encourage me through them, I have no need to wait for the gym to reopen before starting in on my 2008 goals. I may do housework. Tomorrow I get back to work, though, and I have engagements the next three evenings as well, so I may continue lolling around.

What is the maximum number of days I can spend lolling around reading and knitting? I am not sure. I haven’t yet reached it.