Happy Knit Year 2009

Well, here it is; 2009 has arrived. I was expecting a quiet transition into 2009, but instead I had a harrowing entry into the New Year. The NYE anxiety centered on a samoyed I was babysitting named Heidi. Heidi's parents went on ski holiday over Christmas and I agreed (with Hubby in tow) to watch her. Now, Heidi is a very nice dog. She's friendly and playful and generally pretty easy to deal with. Still, as the week wore on it seemed like she was growing progressively more irritated with the fact that is was me or my husband showing up to feed her rather than her real mommy and daddy. So, on a backyard potty sojourn on New Year's Eve at dusk, I turned my back for two minutes and she decided split. Gone. White fluffy greased lightning. I was utterly beside myself. I called my husband. Then I called Heidi's owners. It was New Year's Eve with all the inherent celebrating and I thought "Crap. Midnight. Firecrackers. Freaked dog on the run." (Yes, I was thinking in sentence fragments by this time.) Hubby and I looked both on foot and by car for over an hour. Then we realized me needed bigger guns, so to speak and called the police and filed a lost dog report (which turned out to be a VERY good idea.) So no Heidi. We stayed at the dog place all night hoping she would show up. No soap. I was an utter mess.

Finally about 10:00 the next morning, the police called and put us in touch with someone who had her and called her in. So, all's well that ends well and Heidi went home safe and sound. She had been found about 3 blocks from home very soon after she ran off, and so spent the night at least safe from the bad weather and partyers with fireworks. Bless the folks who took her in for the night and bless the Eureka police department for taking our lost-dog report seriously.

One of my coworkers today said, "Your New Year's Eve should reflect how the rest of the year will be." Man, I hope he is dead wrong. I prefer to think that I have paid up a big debt of bad karma by having one seriously bad, anxious night.

I tell this story by way of explaining why the 'Happy New Year' blog I had planned to write is a bit late as are any list of resolutions I might make. Every year people talk about their New Year's Resolutions. I tend to be an exception these last few years because I don't want to set myself up for failure so early in the year. Still, I have a 'date' with my husband to make resolutions tomorrow night of the "lose weight, exercise more, be more organized" variety.

What I want to talk about here, however is some knitting resolutions.







The picture is of my Modern Quilt Wrap knit in Rowan Kidsilk Haze. The border is my addition to the pattern and I am very pleased with how this turned out. I finished it up in October of 2008.

I am at a bit of a crossroads via my knitting of what I feel I SHOULD do and what I WANT to do. I have spent the last few months (since mid October and the completion of my Modern Quilt Wrap) knitting Christmas presents for people. I did pretty well, finishing all but on gift on time. That unfinished gift --Kinetic by Norah Gauguin-- done as a scarf is at the halfway point.

My dilemma is this: I have several small projects I should do for some first quarter of 2009 birthdays. Then I have the several circling-the-airport projects such as my Zarah, my Grant Avenue vest and my Jiada sweater that I am tired of wading through in my knitting basket. I also have a shawl that is needing tweaking on the edging. Always with the unfinished or not-perfect projects! I want to start something NEW!!

I have a couple of things new in mind. I have a kit for Solveig Hisdal's Peony Sweater from "Poetry in Stitches" that I have had in my stash for about seven years. I am ready for it. I also broke down and bought the yarn for the Da Vinci sweater from Rowan #44 (most of the yarn, actually--Jannette's Rare Yarns was out of Rowan Chestnut Wool Cotton when I ordered.) These are two serious fairisle projects, but I want both done by the end of the year. I am determined (yes, we know how determined I tend to be--NOT!) I also have some hot Kidsilk Haze action that I have decided to use for the New Shell lace pullover from Madeline Weston's "Classic British Knits". There's more, LOTS more, but these represent new yarn, stash yarn, and leftover yarn all three. I will let myself start knitting when Zarah is done, I think. That being said, there will be more posts for the "Fit to Be Tied" saga, and, I HOPE, some resolution, too.

So, speaking of resolutions, here are my fiber resolutions:

1) Zarah
2) Jiada
3) Small first quarter projects (3--maybe 4. 'Nuff said there)
4) Grant Avenue
5) Hisdal Peony
6) Da Vinci
7)New Shell? or some other project?

This is an ambitious list, and will mean me laying off the Snood and Hoyle Yahtzee and KNITTING. We'll see how far I get. This likely means no Christmas prezzies this year, but I can only knit so fast.

So enough blogging and more knitting-- I still have the Kinetic Scarf to finish...!