I mentioned in yesterday’s list and in my earlier fall/winter knitting goals that I wanted to make a new sweater.

I wear my Everyday Cardigan all the time, but it’s not really a flattering sweater. It’s functional and warm and a good all-around item, but it’s not … girly. And I’d really like a girly cardigan.

When we were in Iceland, we stopped in a supermarket so I could buy yarn. Yes, this shot is in one of their grocery stores. It’s probably the size of a large suburban Stop & Shop or Giant in the U.S. It was not as big as a supersized Target or the Fred Meyer in Salt Lake (which I think might not be called Fred Meyer anymore). But it did sell dry goods such as basic clothing and toys. And a whole wall of yarn.

I ended up bringing home several discs of unspun Icelandic wool — Plotulopi (which I remember by thinking of it as Plutolopi). That’s it along the bottom shelf.

I had done some research once I sussed out which yarns were available and local in Iceland, and this one was something I hadn’t ever seen back home (semi-regular access to Webs can spoil a girl). Checking in on Ravelry suggested several patterns that were specifically designed with Plotulopi in mind. I hemmed and hawed over a couple of them, but, really the choice came down to two — and I made the final decision last night.

My upcoming sweater (to be cast on later this month after I get back from Salt Lake) will be Haust.

Now I just have to hope I bought the right amount of yarn — or figure out how to get back to Selfoss if I need a few more meters.

This week’s Ten on Tuesday list is 10 Things I Want to Do in 2012:

1. Knit myself a sweater this winter. I have two yarn possibilities in contention and about a dozen patterns. You may see more about this later this month. Of course, the rest of my knitting resolutions for this winter would also be nice to get through.
2. Bake — at least once a month. I gave some baked Christmas gifts this year and then made some quick bread (double chocolate cherry) for Rudi and me to eat while watching the Rose Parade. I like doing it. I’m not always good at it, but even when you mess up baking, it’s still usually tasty.
3. Read. I stalled out at just over 40 books for the year, well under last year’s number. I’d like to get back to reading one a week (and then quickly blogging about it).
4. Have people over. I think we fell to an all-time low for entertaining last year. I’d like to get this number back up to once a month. Maybe a potluck? Or a movie night? Or a way to not eat all of those baked goods mentioned above by myself party?
5. Focus our cleaning efforts on one major thing a month. I’d like to keep the Burrow generally tidy, but we have way more than we need, and (I hope) it’s just a state of being overwhelmed that keeps us from dealing with it. If we divvy it up into reasonable chunks — like a month to deal with our two closets — maybe it would seem more manageable.
6. Plan our next big trip. It would be nice to plan another big trip like Iceland for 2012, but it may be that we can’t take it until next year. Either way, I think it would be good to figure out where we might go next.
7. Start going to yoga again. I vowed early this fall that I was going to go to yoga every week and then I didn’t go to a single class.
8. Explore four new-to-me restaurants. We get into a bit of a rut. But given I live two blocks from a plethora of restaurants, it’s a real shame I haven’t explored more of them, no matter how much I love Pete’s.
9. Gain access to the Library of Congress. Apparently the LOC allows people to get a card. It won’t let you take books out, but you can request them and then peruse them in the reading room. I want to be one of those people. Because how cool would that be?!?!
10. Go dancing at Glen Echo Ballroom. Sarah mentioned in her list this afternoon that she wanted to dance more, and that reminded me that several friends and I have thrown around this possibility for years now. 2012 is the year to make it up there and swing dance our feet off for the night.

How about you? What are some things you’d like to do in the next 12 months?

It is bitterly disappointing to this Dupont Circle resident to learn that my local record shop, Melody, is closing its doors. I know we’ve largely moved into a digital world musically, but I felt there was still a place for a quality brick-and-mortar music shop. However, dollars talk and when people don’t buy cds or records or videos — or they buy them at a loss on Amazon — we lose local institutions.

Yes, I understand there is an argument to be made for switching away from a resource-intensive physical product. And, yes, I know that everyone’s budget is tight and that in order to make dollars stretch you have to look for deals. However, Melody employed local music lovers, alerted you to upcoming concerts, offered a default location for those who wanted to “talk shop,” and allowed you to browse an extensive and well-rounded collection of current releases. There are still several used music shops around, and I can recommend a few of them quite highly. But Melody was the only local shop in town to get new releases (other than the couple dozen discs stocked at Politics and Prose), and their week-of-release prices were reasonably competitive with online mega-complexes.

This is a blow to music lovers and to the Dupont community and to me. Watch for their space soon to be filled by some national conglomerate. I’m sure what Dupont really needs is a Quiznos or another mobile phone store or a fifth Starbucks.

The problem with not being a fully anonymous blog is that it’s impossible to share private details without the possibility of having them made public. As such, know I have a big resolution for 2012 that I can’t share with you right now, but that I will when I’ve made it happen. It will require me to push boundaries and open myself up to uncomfortable possibilities and, frankly, scares the shit out of me, which probably means it’s exactly the right resolution to make here and now. Except that I can’t share it with you — whom I’m sure would mostly be in support of it.

So I shall make some blog-friendly resolutions as well:

1. Attend more concerts. I like listening to music and I don’t do enough of it. The drunk-fest that was the Mumford and Sons concert at Merriweather Post this summer suggests that smaller, less popular venues will probably make me happier, so maybe this will be the year of the house concert.
2. Actively pursue daylight. I’m bad about getting outside, particularly early, which is what’s required to see the sun at this time of year. But daylight is an important part of keeping your mental health in order, so I’m going to take a lunch break outside a couple times a week and walk/bike to work a couple times a week and not dilly-dally until 3 in the afternoon on weekends before getting out of the house.
3. Review books here on the blog within three days of finishing them. I get behind every year and I get irritated with myself, because I like having a record of what I’ve read. Because I have this tendency to get backlogged (like I am right now), the three-day rule ought to just force me to write whatever crappy review will get it out of my queue and into my online records.