2008: A Year in FOs...

2008 was the second full year of my knitting obsession, so I thought I'd take a look at what all I accomplished in the world of knit goods this year. I was surprised to find that I amassed a total of 56 finished objects in 2008! That's pretty damn good! Even consider the many small, easy items (hats, afghan squares, etc. - and one catnip mouse), that still works out to over one finished object per week, and that is nothing to sneeze at! (And it also makes those fourteen UFOs still on my WIP list not seem so shameful! LOL)

Pictured in these three mosaics are my 56 finished projects from 2008. You can click through to them on Flickr and read little notes about each, but for actual project details, you'll have to go to my projects page on Ravelry.

And just to satisfy those of you who are crazy like me like statistics, the break down of these 56 items is as follows:

12 hats (including Calorimetry, which is really more of a headband)

11 afghan squares

10 tops (5 cardigans, 3 shrugs, 1 tank top, 1 vest)

8 pairs of socks

5 scarves (including the Athena entrelac neckwarmer)

3 pairs of knitted pasties

2 purses

2 dishcloths

2 baby gifts (1 afghan, 1 sweater)

1 catnip mouse

Of these, at least six were my own designs.

While the year started off slowly with a lot of simple projects, it progressed to more complicated endeavors. As well as succeeding at more difficult patterns in general, I also learned...

...how to knit socks using magic loop.

...how to knit a mitred square.

...how to knit proficiently continental-style (yes! so much faster!).

...how to do entrelac.

...how to hand-sew lining and zippers into knitted garments (I hate doing it, but I learned how nonetheless).

Other learning was a little less specific. I noticed as I was going through and adding notes to the pictures on Flickr is that I was kind of critical about several of the items I made. I was trying not to be negative, so I am instead trying to discern what I can learn from my self-criticisms.

One example would be to try and choose better projects to start out with. Granted, I started a fair few things that got frogged before they got very far. I'm not talking about those things. I'm talking about the things I started and insisted on continuing out of sheer stubbornness. For example, just because I have ten balls of a beautiful, red Sublime Cashmerino Silk Aran, which is enough for a cropped sweater and not a regular-length sweater, does not mean I should knit a cropped sweater for myself out of it because -- really? -- I do not look good in cropped sweaters and no matter how optimistic I am about it as I knit it, it is still going to make me look frumpy and wide when I'm done with it.

That said, I have learned a lot about my particular body shape this year and how to knit for it. Until recently, I've spent a lot of time erring on the side of knitting larger when in fact I didn't really need to...I could have gone for the next size down. I think it is a combination of how I see myself versus what my body really looks like.

This knitting thing...it's always a learning process, which is probably why I love it so. Wonder what I'll learn this year?

2009

I'll have more coherent thoughts to share soon on the subject of the new year, but as I've indulged in two -- yes, count 'em, two -- Yuenglings tonight (watch out, I'm quite the partier, LOL), allow me to simply offer these wishes...

Grace and peace to you all in 2009. May you realize your heart's desires. May you know you are loved and have great value. Know that your life is a gift, to you and to others, maybe even someone you have yet to meet. Blessings to you, dear friends, and Happy New Year!

I ♥ color...srsly...

Just have to share...these colorwheel quilts? Ab. So. Lute. Ly. GORGEOUS.

It's that time again...

...after I've gotten through Christmas and New Year's is approaching, I start to get all introspective and feel the need to reflect on life. I actually enjoy the "looking back" part of the end of the year more than I do the "resolutions" for the new year -- which, in fact, I have forgone for several years...I may make a list of intentions here and there, but I hate the word "resolutions"...semantics? Maybe. Whatever.

Anyway, last January, I came upon this meme that was going around, asking people to reflect on the prior year. While I'm sure another one will come around this year, I thought I'd just recycle this one and think about 2008. Feel free to join and use it on your blog, if you so choose.

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?

Took my kids to their first "big" concert -- Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour this summer. Also, I started taking kickboxing classes in late November. 

2. What are your New Years Resolutions?

I don't make resolutions.

ETA: I don't make resolutions, but at least one of my intentions for 2009 is to continue with some healthy lifestyle changes I made this year...eating healthier; including more locally-grown and/or organic foods in our diet; moving more, sitting less; etc.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth in 2008?
My brother-in-law and his wife had their third child, Makayla. Several church friends also had babies this year.

4. Did anyone close to you die.

Not really, thankfully. My husband's one aunt died in the early part of the year, but I really didn't know her that well. And while he technically died in 2007, I was only informed of my ex-husband's passing earlier this year.

5. What countries did you visit?

Stayed in the states again this year...went to South Carolina in Feb. for our son's Marine Boot Camp graduation, followed by a short trip to Florida with him and his family. Went by myself to Florida for a long weekend over Memorial Day, to spend some quality time with my mom. Went to Gloucester, MA with Amy to visit Denise in September, and then the kids and I went to Florida (again with the Florida, geez!) in early November, and stopped for a short visit with the oldest in NC on our way home.

6 What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

In general, I'd love to see some increased economic stability, but then wouldn't we all? And I'd love to feel more optimistic about the political future and leadership of our country, but I'm not holding my breath. I'd also love a year with less personal drama in the family. Enough already, ok?

7. What date(s) in 2008 will remain etched in your memory and why?
February 22-- Zach's graduation from boot camp.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Becoming more self-confident and content with who I am; taking more risks without caring what other people might think; and just being me regardless of whether other people like it or not.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I don't look at things as failures, but there are certainly various "mom" and "wife" moments I could have handled better throughout the year.

10. Did you suffer any illness or injury?

No, it was a pretty healthy year, thank God. My husband, however, broke his ankle in August, which was no fun for anyone. :(

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?

The best thing I got from anyone was time...time from my family to myself to do the things I enjoy. 

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My middle child, as I've watched him mature and exhibit really positive behaviors, like expressing gratitute to and concern for others, offering unexpected generosity. 

13. Whose behavior appalled and depressed you?

Two people I'm very close to and love but would love to smack upside the head sometimes for their ridiculously toxic and damaging behavior. Grow up already, you know?

14. Where did most of your money go?

Same as last year...bills. Yarn. Gas. Travel.

15. What did you get really, really excited about?

Kickboxing! 

16. What song(s) reminds you of 2008?

Muse - Super Massive Black Hole
Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Kid Rock - All Summer Long

OK Go - Here it Goes Again

The Ramones - Sheena is a Punk Rocker

Kira Willey - Colors

17. Compared to last year are you...

a.) Happier or Sadder? Happier

b.) Thinner or Fatter? Thinner! Yeay!

c.) Richer or Poorer? Financially, about the same; richer in the important things in life.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Been more patient; channeled my crazy creative energies into more productive endeavors; been more organized.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Stressing over things I have no control over; getting frustrated with the kids and husband; spent less money.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

At home, very quietly, just us. In-laws came over for a bit in the afternoon.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008.

Always. :)

22. How many one night stands did you have?

Other than with the occasionally ill-fated knitting project, none. :}

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Fringe, The Mentalist, The Legend of the Seeker, Big Bang Theory, The Office.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't this time last year?

No.

25. What was the best book you read?

Non-fiction: Take This Bread, by Sara Miles and Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller. Fiction: the Twilight series, by Stephenie Meyer.

26. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

I turned 42, and I can't remember what I did. I think we went out to dinner that night, though.

27. What was your best musical discovery?

Carter Burwell's score for the Twilight movie.

28. What did you want and get?

Another tattoo; more yarn; a card reader to use with my MacBook...oh, and the MacBook!

29. What was your favorite film of the year?

Twilight (Theme? Yes? LOL)

30. What did you want and not get?

More bills paid off than did get paid off; a big family vacation to somewhere we haven't been yet.

31. What one thing would've made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Less drama.

32. How would you describe your fashion concept for 2008?

Better fitting! It was a year of learning to like my body, despite it's many flaws, and as such, I quit trying to hide it in big baggy clothes and started wearing more fitted clothes. Also, discovering the most perfect-fitting bras, which helped a lot in the clothes-fitting department. ;)

33. What kept you sane?

Knitting; entertaining myself in my own brain, LOL (it's never a boring place).

34. Which celebrity or public figure did you admire most?

John McCain

35. What political issue stirred you most?

The presidential election; all of the ridiculous government bailouts.

36. Who do you miss?

I'll always miss my dad, but other than that, I'm pretty blessed to have those I love readily accessible, if only by phone or text message.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

I finally got to meet Denise in person, and that was fun. I also got to meet several BKGs...Angry Poodle, MrsRevJohn and Madam. Also, this isn't technically "meeting" people, but it's been fun to reconnect with some people from high school on Facebook.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned.

It's ok to say no to things that don't work for you, to give up traditions or practices that no longer serve you well.

39. Quote a song line that defines your year.

Ok, not a song line, but a quote from a movie, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, instead...

Aragorn: What do you fear, my lady?

Eowyn: A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them, and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire.

Aragorn: You're a daughter of kings, a sheild maiden of Rohan. I do not think that would be your fate.

Lessons I inadvertently learned this Christmas season...

...planning to not knit any Christmas gifts and then knitting a couple anyway is an excellent strategy and creates far less stressful than planning to knit them and not getting them done.  

...planning not to bake any cookies and then following through and not baking any cookies seriously relieved about 48% of the stress I feel every December. Who knew? (And we were gifted with enough candy/cookies/etc. from others that it didn't matter.) 

...putting up the bare minimum of decorations -- the tree and a few other favorites -- makes the house feel just as festive as putting every piece of Christmas crap out that I own, keeping the house from feeling cluttered, thus keeping my stress level down by at least 78 points. And no one missed the other stuff.

...having lots of family around for Christmas is nice, but having just us here for Christmas is pretty nice too. And less chaotic. And it doesn't make me a bad person to admit that.

...finishing most of the Christmas shopping early -- like by the end of November -- is good. I used to know this. I learned it again this year. 

...having the planets align such that the children create perfectly reasonable Christmas wish lists makes Christmas shopping so much easier.

...old traditions are nice but the world doesn't stop if you let them go. Doing new things provides a great sense of freedom.

...ham at Christmastime tastes one hundred times better than ham eaten at any other time of year.

What is this, Florida?

It is 70 degrees F. today. Seventy. Seven-zero. WTF? Seriously???

There is blue sky. There is sunshine. Neither of those things will I complain about because they can be rare in southwestern PA between, oh, November and April. But would it kill Mother Nature to at least offer some seasonal temperatures and perhaps some snow on the ground? Would it?? I submit that it would not! Sheesh.

Adding insult to injury here, I wanted to somehow capture the sunny, blue warmth in a photo (because I can, and because my husband bought me a card reader for Christmas, allowing me to more easily put pictures on the blog when I'm working on the MacBook), but honestly? There is absolutely nothing beautiful outside to take a picture of here at this time of year. The grass is faded and mushy. The trees are bare. There are leftover dead leaves everywhere. And even in the sunlight, there is still a sickly gray pallor over it all...perhaps superimposed by my own mind, who knows. 

On the upside, it was a beautiful day to be outside without a coat on, and I went to the gym and enjoyed both the fact that I could come out when I was done, all hot and sweaty, and not have the sweat freeze on my body and also, curiously, my knees felt far less achy today than they do on most days after the gym. I think my knees are in favor of this weather. I know my husband's formerly broken ankle sure it.

Crazy, fun, relaxing...with pictures!

Christmas is lots of fun when you have little ones in the house, but I've decided I really like how the day goes on Christmas now that the kids are older. It's a little less frenetic, a little more calm and peaceful. A little.

After instructing the kids not to wake us any earlier than 8 a.m., and after having a slight discrepancy over the true definition of what 8 a.m. means (you have to understand that no two clocks in our house read the same time, and our son used this to his advantage this morning by using our bedroom clock -- which is purposely set 15 minutes fast -- as his guide), we got up and enjoyed a lovely, low-key Christmas morning. This is the first year I can remember when the kids weren't trying to rip open gifts at the speed of light and instead took their time, so I got to actually enjoy watching it all.

The award for the most uniquely wrapped gift this year went to this oversized taco with purple handles...


It was really one of those round saucer chairs, which our daughter had requested. It came folded up in a taco shape in a carrying case. It is upholstered in a silky, purple fake fur, so when it is open and she's in it, she looks like she's being eaten by a muppet.

The most sought after gift was this...


...Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit...doesn't every famous rocker jam in their, um, jammies?

There is a rather convoluted story (and long...I'll totally understand if you just skip down to the next photo...but I feel the need to write it down in hopes it will keep me from repeating the craziness at a future time) associated with this gift and the fact that no matter how well controlled I am in my shopping efforts, I lose all sense of sanity about three days before Christmas, thusly making things more complicated for myself than they need to be. In this case, it involved the kids asking for the Wii version of this game (though they both asked for a different version of it, natch), me not being able to FIND the Wii version of this game after an entire month of shopping, finally settling on buying the PlayStation 2 Band Kit version instead. I figured this was better anyway because they'd be able to use it both upstairs and downstairs whereas the Wii one would be pretty much limited to upstairs due to that little sensor bar thing being attached to the TV up there. And then, on Black Friday, I was doing some online shopping and realized I could get the Guitar Hero III for half price (this is the one my dd had asked for), and I thought -- score! two kids, two guitars, no fights! And it was only available in PS2, so I was sure it was a sight from God. I was so happy with myself for working this out.

Then. Then on Monday, I made the ill-fated decision to run into Target because I needed a few more gift bags and lo and behold, as I passed the electronics section, there on the shelf was ONE Wii version GHWT. And it caused me to pause and rethink my whole PS2 rationalization and how I didn't want the kids to be disappointed and how I honestly had NO idea if there was a big functional difference between the two versions or what. So I bought it, figuring I'd return the PS2 version (both of them!) after Christmas -- after unwrapping it, of course, because I was doing so well getting things done ahead of schedule.

So today the kids opened the Wii one this morning and before they could rip open the box, I launched into a "Tell them what's behind door number two!" explanation of how they actually had the choice of the Wii World Tour Band Kit OR the PS2 version Band Kit and GHIII, and the benefits of the PS2 version rather than their requested Wii version. So they conferenced over it and, yes, you guessed it, they chose the PS2 version, which means I bought the #@$! Wii version for no reason other than the fact that I am INSANE.

(And just so you know, my kids are not really spoiled. I don't go routinely dropping this kind of $ in duplicate just to placate their whims...this was just an instance of a lapse in sanity on my part. Honest. Truth is, they'd have been happy with whichever one they'd gotten, and they know they are fortunate to have gotten it at all and have thanked us multiple times today, which is cool because it's a good sign they're growing up and are learning to appreciate these things.)

Ok...whew! Moving on. Despite being fourteen, our son continues to be totally enthralled with Legos and so his sister's gift to him was also a winner...


After the opening was over, the kids played quietly (well as quietly as you can with electronic guitars and drums) and I made a leisurely breakfast of my "special" pancakes -- so named by my son. I make them from scratch using this recipe (without the apples, though today I did add blueberries to mine and my son's because I had some on hand and we like them...and I also add wheat germ to the batter as well as the topping), and I think it is so funny that they love them because they are really healthy and good for them, versus the Bisquick pancakes my husband often makes for them on weekends. :}

My in-laws came over for an informal lunch and we've talked to all our far-away loved ones on the phone. In between taking turns playing the drums (they are seriously fun), I've been knitting, and I finished Athena (a second one, same CPY Taos coloway for both...I made a weird error in the first...entrelac gone awry...not overly noticeable with it on, but since it is for a gift, I wanted it to be right)...


Here's me modeling...please ignore the hair because I let it air dry today and it is just curling and frizzing all over the place...ack...but at least you can see how soft and squishy this neck warmer looks when it is on. I love it! Will likely make one for me at some point. It's a terrific pattern and a great way to learn entrelac. (The yarn colors are truer in the shot above...bad lighting in this shot...bad lighting, bad hair...yikes.)


And then there has been my quest to get a nice shot of my family. What I ended up with was this...


...and this...


...and that, I'm afraid, is as good as it's gonna get today. LOL

Hope you're having some crazy fun and relaxation, too!