It is only a few days before everyone rings in the new year. The year 2011 promises to be many things, but for me I hope 2011 is the beginning of something new and wonderful. As a part of the new year I am reinventing this blog and I hope to make the content accessible to more people.
Part of ringing in a new year is remembering the past year in all its glory and pain. This year has seen many ups and downs in both the world and my personal life. I have had to part ways with a few loved ones and watched a few more struggle to survive. I have also had the pleasure of witnessing the birth of new life, which is always a wonderful blessing.
This year has also been a big year for my knitting and other crafts. I must have lost my mind because I decided this year I would knit almost all of my Christmas gifts and crochet a few others. I knit four scarves for my boyfriend's family, with a special cheerleader pocket scarf for his sister. I also made a wonderful pair of slipper socks for his grandpa. I still need to sew the leather soles on the bottom, but I wasn't able to get the leather tools until a few days ago. For my own family, I knit an afghan for my mom using various shades of purple Homespun yarn and crocheted a pair of matching slippers. I also crocheted a pair of white slippers with hot pink fur interior soles.
This might not seem like a lot, but combined with being a full time student at UC Davis I have been very busy. Plus I made an afghan for my boyfriend on our second year anniversary back in April. This year has def finitely been a very productive year in knitting. I still have several more projects to complete. Such as finishing the right hand on a pair of gloves, baby booties for my cousin's baby, and a baby blanket for an old friend. Not to mention finally putting some more of my ideas into work.
My number one piece of advice for the new year? PLAN!!! I cannot say it enough: PLAN!!! Planning is the best thing a person can do, whether they knit or not, to relieve stress and keep knitting a relaxing experience. I started my Christmas knitting in late June/early July, which eased my stress tremendously until I abandoned my planned pace and waited until a week before Christmas to finish all of my knitting projects. Fortunately I had finished 3 of the scarves during the summer and most of the afghan and slippers. It was not the quantity of work that proved to be stressful, but the emotions of trying to rush to finish.
My biggest regret of Christmas knitting? Not taking pictures of my work. I have been trying to document all of my crafts because I would really like to be able to expand my crafting business. But I was so busy knitting and rushing to finish so I could wrap them up and give them away that I never took the time to stop and take pictures. Live and learn I guess.
I hope next year is the start of my crafting success and proves fruitful in expressing both my recorded ideas and desire to use my knitting for good. I started knitting gloves for the serviceman, but I hope to extend this to include the neonatal unit at my local hospital as well as many others.
Best of luck in the next year! Happy Holidays and Happy Knitting!
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