Happy New Year!

Have you had your black-eyed peas today? We did, much good it did. I can't say I'm sad to see the end of 2008. This past year was hard, for a lot of reasons. I reached a lot of goals, both professionally and personally, and I realized some hard truths about my life and my abilities.

On the personal side, I did a lot of traveling--to Australia, most importantly.

On the way back we got to see my brother in Los Angeles.

I also took my first cruise to the Caribbean, with my mother and brother.

I traveled for work too, all over the US and to London.

I went to the wedding of my good friend Salwa.

Stella got very sick and spent four days in the hospital for pancreatitis.

And Spanky and I did register for a civil union license, although we didn't actually go through the ceremony. Sadly, that's still unresolved, but it was still a moving step to take. Finally, my friend Kate moved to the UK, and left a big gaping hole in my work life.

I miss her a lot.

On the professional side, I finally met my goal! I haven't been able to do that for a few years now, but it really made it obvious to me that the stress needed to actually keep going at this pace is just not worth it. I know this is a really bad time to be dissatisfied with your job, but I have to figure something else out.

I don't know if I expect that New Year's resolutions should come true, but I do think it helps focus your mind on what you want to accomplish going forward. This year, I really want to figure out my work situation. I can't keep going the way I have, and I'm not happy. I also want to keep saving money, in case I need it for a down payment on a house, or to move. I want to continue to go to the gym and to try to eat healthier. That's it. I am pretty satisfied with everything else in my life for right now.

As far as knitting goes, I think I did pretty good this year! I finished a lot of outstanding projects, like my niece's intarsia sweater, and Spanky's sweater.

I knit a lot of baby things, and crocheted my first baby sweater.

My rough count for FOs is 26, but I'm sure I'm missing a few small things here and there. The other thing I've noticed from looking back at my FOs is that the complexity of what I'm knitting has definitely increased, and that's great! I've got two more sweaters that I actually wear, and one shrug, a few pairs of socks, and I made a lot of gifts. In 2009, I would like to tackle fair isle, but I also want to work on and from my stash. I want to actually use some of the fantastic yarns that I've collected, instead of always buying, buying, buying. Just looking back through my Flickr stream, I can see a bunch of things I really loved when they came out, and have disappeared from my consciousness. It's time to start matching up projects with stash yarn, and just going for it. I'm not going to set any sort of production goals for myself, because with my job, I just don't have time, but I really hope I can keep going, making things I like knitting and wearing.

Happy New Year, everyone! Here's hoping the future holds delights that have yet to be dreamed of.