For many years, I’ve suffered what my husband calls “the Januaries.”  I might as well call them what they are: Post-Christmas let-down.  See, I’m a bit of a Christmas nut, and once Christmas was over, I’d droop and mope around for a month or so, and eventually snap out of it as life went on.

Christmas 2010 was particularly stressful.  There had been maybe two weekends since September when everyone in my house was healthy at the same time.  Christmas eve found me hiding in the corner at my sister-in-law’s, avoiding hugging anyone because I had both pinkeye and laryngitis, and madly finishing the year’s Christmas ornaments (that year it was angora snowflakes wet-blocked to round plastic needle-point thingies) for the neices and nephews, which I hadn’t finished earlier because everyone was sick.

So as the 2011 Januaries loomed, my husband had a brilliant idea.  “Start Christmas now,” he said.  “That way you’ll be done in plenty of time and we can relax and have fun.”  Immediately my mind starting whirling.  If I had twelve whole months to make ornaments, I could break out the book I’d been eyeing for years: Angels: A Knitter’s Dozen.  It was a whole book of tiny lace angels, knitted on size 1 dpns (aka toothpicks) with crochet cotton, and starched.  They were gorgeous, but I was intimidated.  However, with a year stretching out before me, I decided I could handle it.

Handle it I did – and lo, the Januaries did not appear.  There was no Post-Christmas Letdown because Christmas was already in full swing!  I made seven of those angels, and yes, it took months (mostly because I knit a bunch of other stuff too, and because what REALLY intimidated me was the starching, which turned out to be not so bad.  Not as bad as the fiddly maddening assembly).   By late fall, I had:

And I had a cure for the Januaries!  Simple!  Just keep Christmas going!

I also decided that I would never again make those fiddly, sticky, starchy, adorable angels.  In fact, in a fit of pique over the endless fiddling, I designed and finished the (muuuuch simpler) 2012 ornaments, just because I could:

Which brings us to this January, this one that started today.  Christmas is over, and next year’s Christmas ornaments are done.  So what do I do now?

Never fear: I have a three-pronged plan of attack.

Prong one: The most beautiful socks in the world.  They have cables and stained-glass-window colors and they’re all mine!  They’re fiddly and time consuming and I love them.

Prong two: Fireside sweater.  My darling, brilliant husband bought me enough Malabrigo (Emerald Blue, if you’re wondering) to make a Fireside sweater (Ravelry link).  I just cast on a couple of days ago.

Prong three: I’m publishing a book in the next couple of months.  There, I said it.  Woo!

I know it’s de rigueur to talk about how excited you are about a new project, but it is true.  I am truly proud of this book and excited to see it go out in the world.  It’s not a knitting book – it’s a book about weddings, which I started, oh, 9 years ago.  You’ll be hearing (a lot) more about it shortly.

Socks, a sweater, and a book.  Sounds like a cure for the Januaries to me!