I have decided to commit to drinking more champagne. Yes, that’s right. More champagne. I feel that this promise I have made to myself is important enough that I should announce it here on my very own website. Here’s the thing: I like wine, I really, really do. I like red wine, and white wine, and I really love champagne — but I ike champagne about 40x more than I like other white wine. And why shouldn’t I? It’s bubbly and delicious and like a fancy, black-tie party in your mouth. Champagne is awesome.
So why not drink it all the time? I think there is some commonly held cultural assumption that champagne is for special occasions only — birthdays and job promotions and weddings and such — and is not appropriate for everyday, with dinner, less special drinking. (Not that I’d drink it literally every DAY, but you know what I mean.) Why should that be the case? If I can buy a good bottle of champagne for about the same amount of money as I’d spend on a good bottle of pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc, why shouldn’t I? Expecially if I like it approximately 40x better?
So there you have it. More champagne, less pinot grigio. Boom. Instant quality-of-life improvement.
In Other Important Commitments News, I have decided to re-attempt to learn knitting. Well, I do already know how to knit, sort of. I can cast on and knit and purl and make little rows of stitches and whatnot. I’ve never yet gotten to the point of casting off, however, as I’ve never completed a project. Once I tried to make a Gryffindor scarf, only I got started wrong (fine yarn, skinny needles, and a project that was taking far too long to complete due to the insane number of stitches required to grow it in length at all). I never finished that scarf, and I think it eventually became a casualty of my pre-cross-country-move purge.
Yesterday I started a new project. While I was stuck in the Wal-Mart waiting for my car to be finished, I found myself staring down the wall of yarn and deciding to try again. I found a very thick (“super bulky”) yarn that advertised itself as one that helped “projects come together quickly” and was “easy care.” This time I tried to get larger needles (though I think I could have gone even bigger with the gauge) and I have started once again on a scarf. This time, no ambitious stripes or anything, just solid color, easy peasy. I hope.
![[349/365] Scarf Attempt](https://i0.wp.com/farm8.staticflickr.com/7167/6521865645_f3ee025c16_z.jpg)
If this one works out well enough, though, I may have bigger projects in mind.
We’ll see. If it turns into a huge, frustrating, yarn-based debacle, however, at least I’ll still have my champagne.
Raveling Out 
I like this champagne idea, but I am also attached to very measurable goals. My idea? Keep one fancy bottle and one everyday bottle of champagne in your fridge at all times. That way you are never without yet can class it up to be extra celebratory as needed.
BOOM. 2012 NY Resolution.
Holly, you are so wise! I must get on this ASAP.
I’ve only cast off my knitting a couple times and my mom has always talked me through it. I am about halfway through a scarf right now (after not knitting for months and months… possibly years) and I might turn to youtube for help in casting off. Or wait until my mom is around before I finish up.
I had to use a YouTube video to cast on because I just could not seem to get it right. I’ll probably do that when I’m ready to cast off, too.
So, here is the issue with Champagne. Well, not so much an “issue” as an “element” — I don’t think you can cork and save half a bottle for the next day, do to the de-bubbling. Thought of course I say “I don’t think” because I have never actually had any left over, so, perhaps this is not as big an issue (ELEMENT) as I thought it was
Ooh! I have this little doohickey that you can use to close up the bottle that creates a great seal and keeps it fresh at least into the next day. It’s awesome. Looks like this. I used it after drinking a couple of glasses Monday night and then I reopened the bottle Tuesday before my party and it was still good. It might be slightly less fizzy, but not enough that I could really tell.
Good commitment! I love champagne. If I could only drink one type of alcohol for the rest of my life it would be champagne.
As far as knitting goes, I am all for it. There is something really satisfying about it. I am about to finish my first baby blanket after working on it for about 6 months. I’ve been knitting it for my nephew and I think if it was for anyone else I would have given up a long time ago. I have started and stopped so many projects over the years it’s embarrassing. My new strategy is to pick and follow a pattern (trying to make something up has been my downfall for years), and try to make something for someone else so that in my mind I feel like I am letting them down if I don’t finish. I love the Doctor Who scarf – that looks like fun. Have you checked out purlbee.com? They have great patterns.
Oh man, I have no idea about patterns yet. So far I’m just working the “big rectangle” strategy. I have even managed to bungle that, though. I used stockinette stitch on a scarf and now it’s curling into a long tube. I wish I’d googled that first instead of just jumping in, but now I’m too far along and I’m going to be stuck with a tube scarf. Live and learn!
My theory on the tubular results of the stockinette stitch: Tubes are more insulating, thus make a better scarf. I love knitting, and hope to be back to it soon, even though it does frustrate me. I’m very good at the rectangles, and soon hope to be great at elongated rectangles.
I have had some success with those weird knitting loom thingies. I made my grandmother a pair of wrist warmers and a loop scarf that worked out quite well.
I am with you on champagne. I end up drinking it almost every Tuesday night, mostly because Tuesday nights I usually get in the tub and watch shows where other people are drinking champagne (Gossip Girl or The Bachelor) and in general it’s my random weeknight drink of choice.
Champagne + bath + TV? You, my friend, are a genius. I would like to sign up for your newsletter.
On the bubbly note, I’m a very big fan of Cava and Prosecco. Bubbly on a budget.
Yes! I love trying all the different bubbly versions. I do tend to refer to them all as “champagne,” though, especially when I am in the mood to do my impression of Christopher Walken as “The Continental” on SNL: “OH NO. I SPILLED SHAMPANYA. ALL OVAH YA BOOBS.”