New Year - Looking Forward & Back

It's only just come to my attention that I never published this posting back in January so guess I might as well do it now.

NEW YEAR 2007 RESOLUTIONS
I've decided that this year I will have at least one Finished Object a month. I also need to sit down and decide what I'll be entering into the Bingley show in August. I know that this may sound somewhat future planning but last year there was one fellow entrant who had a multitude of entries in each class so needles need to start flying and clicking - any ideas?

Well that was my resolution posting for last year. Completing 12 knitted items last year well that just didn't work. I remember finishing 2 knitted items for a friend's bear, 1 shawl, 1 knitted pig toilet roll cover and two lace pattern scarves for a friend and her grandmother and unfortunately little else. I did make a number of false starts on items which ended up being UFOs and are now frogged.

I've entered this year with the following on the needles : one moss stitch scarf (started at NEC in September) (I have now managed to finish this), one Debbie Bliss alphabet blanket that was started in August and am now on the last block of letters (I gave up on this as I lost contact with the person it was for and binned it), and one unbloggable project which is behind schedule (this was the Feed The Children jumper for Mick Aston).

In addition to the above I am intending on getting started and finished a jumper for me (Alice Starmore Aran Jumper utilising Jamieson's aran. This is still in a state of tension square), the field for the knitted picnic, a shawl for some horrible person from Victorian Lace Today. I'm also going to make sure that this is the year I start on the Wedding Ring Shawl. I got some sample yarn for it from Woolly Workshop at Ally Pally in October so once I've finished my unbloggable I can give it a test swatch or two, or four or five ;-)

2008 is also going to see my going abroad for the first time since 1979. I was talking to Sasha Kagan at Ally Pally and she mentioned that both her and Jean Moss are running a five-day workshop in France. I came in to a little money in December so have sent off my cheque and just awaiting confirmation. Further details of it can be found here. I've read the airline's prohibited items and I pity the poor person sat next to me. Its a two hour flight and needles are banned items! I am thinking about stopping off via Paris on the way back. Do you think it is do-able?

This was a grand week and although I did not really learn anything new I met some grand people and am in contact with a number of them and hopefully a few reunions are bound for Ally Pally this year.

Anyway things that happened to me in 2007 include:

• Attending my first KCG meeting after having been a member for over a year (I've now attended two or three this year);

• Being featured in my local paper as a male knitter (they also featured it in a review of 2007 section) (Have since been quoted in Let's Knit in an article that focused on the French Treats workshop. Have also been credited for knitting the Feed the Children Mick Aston breakfast jumper) ;

• Going on SkipNorth for a third time (also ended up going this year for the Sunday);

• Went on training courses and became a certified fire warden and St John's Ambulance First aider;

• Won three 2nd prizes for my shawl at local shows;

• Became an uncle for second time;

• Losing two rats to bad health;

• Gaining two rats because I saw them in the shop just after Ish went for a bigger chunk of cheese;

• Watching Harry Potter 5 in the cinema and then buying Harry Potter 7 a few hours later;

• Being made redundant from my part-time job (Not a great loss but it did hit the yarn engorgement fund);

• Deciding to leave my full-time job in a corporate law firm and move on as I needed a change;

• Getting a full-time job as essentially a paralegal. This is a role which is below a trainee solicitor. I am training up in the field of wills and probate. (A role which came in personally useful in light of recent events.)