42 again

Twelve months ago on the last day of 2007, I was sitting in the office knitting socks in 42 degree heat. That's 42 degrees Celsius, folks which translates as way too hot to do anything other than sit in an air-conditioned office (107.6 degrees F to be precise).

Well, sometime yesterday it probably hit 42 degrees, but this time Fahrenheit (about 6 degrees C). What a huge difference though between one 42 and another, least of all that we are living on the other side of the world.

Now, what were some of the things that I thought I was going to do in 2008?

• "get really productive on the re-use/refashion front" - hooray, yes, I did this. Out of all the things I made last year, a good half were from recycled materials.
• "keep knitting" - yes, managed that too. The great number of finished objects is mostly due to the fact that I finally completed a number of long-standing projects. I have also instituted a three-project-at-a-time knit regime which is working well for me.
• "participate in a swap" - Secret Pal 12 - hi Shannon!
• "keep reading" - oops, fell off the perch here. I did read a few books in 2008, mostly crime fiction which I didn't make any note of here. Of the four books that I had hoped to read in 2008 though, I only managed to read one - The Careful Use of Compliments. I am about halfway through The Poisonwood Bible and I was loving it, it's just that I put it aside for too long and now don't know whether to pick it up again or go back to the beginning. Either way I can't get back into it until I decide and I can't decide.

So, in 2009 I'll have to make it a priority - read more books. The knitting habit is so ingrained now that I can't imagine ever stopping, as is the re-use/refashion commitment. This year I want to make extra effort though to use the things that I already have in my cupboard. I don't want to see my stash grow, I want to see it diminish as I work through what's there. And sewing, there is so much sewing that I want to do and so many fabrics that I have piled up, just waiting for the dressmaking shears.

I've also learnt some stuff these last twelve months:

• moving to a foreign country is hard work.
• it's really hard to do good knitting, and by this I mean knitting that is handmade but appears to be of commercial quality because that is what I like my finished objects to look like. My hands-down favourite project for 2008 though was the tomten jacket which is actually quite rustic. Perhaps it is something to do with the pattern but I really felt like it turned out looking exactly the way that it should and strongly recommend this project to anyone. Baby bear has started wearing it and she gets so many compliments on it, which in turn of course delights me.
• knitters are the best people in the world - thank you to the lovely Seattle stitchers who have welcomed me into their lives.
• I like to knit lace from charts and cables from written instructions.
  

So here's to a well read, handmade, beautifully finished 2009. Yesterday I embarked on a slipcover for one of our couches, so I've made a good start!