small things

My photo-a-day challenge(pictures here) has brought on a bout of introspection: a desire to focus on the small, mundane, simple. My goal with this project isn't to capture the perfect shot, but to capture my life, as it is. I'm trying to improve my "eye", in the photographic sense (to fram the shot, etc) but, more importantly, in my life. I want to see the daily things that make and keep me happy, the small traditions of the work day that bring order and peace into an otherwise hectic day. During this particular hectic day, I had to test a PDF I created, making sure the fields would stretch to fit the content...the following is what I wrote, typing as fast as I could, trying to fill the space:

The snow is just barely drifting down outside and lately I've been focusing on the small things in my life, the things that make me happy. It may sound cliched (carpe diem and whatnot) but truly admiring the tiniest snowflake as it rested on my windshield, the sound of my kitten's purrr, the pattern of the bare skeletal branches against the slate sky outside my window at work, this gives me peace and makes my life full of joy and happiness and love. My mom is coming to visit this weekend (today, in fact) and being with her, in the hurricane of joy, anger, tears, raw emotions that swirls around her and her household...I realize that I've made myself a small life, a quiet life. I rarely allow big emotional storms into my life, in the form of drama-queen friends or by getting sucked into family drama. My family is full of passionate, impassioned matriarchs. women who love wildly and ridiculously and fight and make up and weep. And I do my share of those things, but I refrain from living for those moments, from letting it wash over me and overwhelm me.

Instead I have my knitting, my snuggly Hub and a few favorite TV shows. There are snowflakes on noses, whiskers on kittens, coffee in my handpainted (by me!) mug and hanknit socks on my feet (even in heels).

On the knitting front: it's been decided by popular opinion that my blue sweater will be a cardigan! I've been swatching stitch patterns for the front panels...I've been scouring the internet for interesting cables, but I might just go with a gansey (knit/purl) pattern. Since I bought the yarn to make a pattern decided on by knitters, it is only fitting that, instead of that pattern, I knit one decided by you, dear knitters and friends. You convinced me of a cardigan's superiority...now help me decide on a stich pattern (it won't be an allover pattern, just one on the front panels of the cardigan...maybe on the back). I'm looking for a great cable or an interesting knit/purl design. Leave your ideas in the comments.
This weekend I'll share my swatchings.