Looking back, forging ahead

I've been thinking a lot about the knitting year that was 2007. Far and away my most prolific knitting year ever.

I learned to knit as a child, trying my hand at a few things through high school, but I don't think I ever really finished anything. When I was in university my one of my roommates wanted to knit, taught herself, and when we weren't studying, we knit. I think I did about 3 sweaters for myself. Since then (I graduated in 1996) I've been a sporatic knitter, always with A project on the go that takes awhile to complete because my mojo would ebb and flow. These projects would be knit from the pattern, adding length to the body and sleeves as the only modifications. Not that I'm saying I make more mods now, but I digress. And they would have been made of Patons something or other, acrylic or a blend. I could do cables, I could do colourwork. I was pretty confident in my abilities, I even knit a Philosophers Wool cardigan (~2001) that my mom bought for herself (for me to knit) and steeked it, and I didn't even know that it was called a Steek. Still scared the bejeezus out of me though.

Enter January 2007. I decided I wanted to knit myself a scarf, so I decided I would look on the internet for a pattern. There had to be a pattern on the internet. I found Knitty, and the scarf pattern I wanted to knit. I bought some Patons SWS (which is far to itchy for a scarf, don't do it) and knit myself a scarf.

I also found the Yarn Harlot around the time she was making some Fiber Trends felted clogs. So I bought myself a pattern and have since made 8 pairs of them, and I wear mine (the first pair) every day. From reading that blog, I decided to try knitting socks, what was the big deal anyway? In April, I knit my first pair. Now I get it.

In 2007 I discovered knitting blogland. So many blogs to read, then just look in the side bar of any one of those and find many more blogs to read. I love it. I've kept a blog about my life at livejournal since March 2002, but then I started this one, because I didn't think my friends over there wanted to hear me prattling on about sticks and string. I have learned so much from these blogs. My yarn choices have changed completely, I am a yarn snob now. I have a ball winder. I have a STASH! It's a sock yarn stash, which apparently doesn't count, but it's prolific if not diverse. I still can't buy a sweaters worth of yarn just because it's pretty and not have any reason to use it. That's just not me. I have been inspired by these blogs. I find myself wanting to knit things that I never before would have imagined wanting to knit. Like socks. Like lace, but Anne Hanson, wow, she makes me want to knit lace. And I will, when I finsh what I'm doing.

Then, in July, there was Ravelry. I love Ravelry. I want Ravelry to be around forever. What a great resource it is.

So here I sit in 2008, amazed at what I have accomplished in 2007 and excited about what I want to do in 2008. I knit everyday, I have a little tendonitis in my right wrist, but a tensor helps that, so I can knit everyday. I miss it if I don't.

I still love to decorate cakes, but when it's not your job, it's not really something you can do everyday. Especially since I don't really have a desire to weigh 300 pounds. I do want to get better at making flowers though, so a gumpaste course may be in order. At the end of January I will be starting a photography course at the local college. I love my D50 and want to learn how to use it to full advantage. I'm also (gulp) going to take a Pilates instructor course over a weekend in February, this scares me a little because it could turn into an actual job.

So that's that. I've been thinking about all that, so I wanted to get it out. I'm not much of a writer so please forgive my poor sentence structure and jumbled thoughts. My counter says that I'm 2 visits shy of my 200th visitor! Which, quite frankly surprises me. Do I have any regular readers or are you just popping in from my link on Ravelry? Whoever you are, thanks.

Happy 2008!