Focus for the New Year

I don’t know about all of you, but I had the nicest Christmas holiday and New Year. The best part was a surprise visit to Florida for a week’s vacation with my family, and even better, my ex-husband came with us and it was a wonderful time for everyone. My parents, grandmother and sister were very much surprised which was nice for me since that was my goal as far as they were concerned and since my ex had to unexpectedly take time off between Christmas and New Year I was able to give him a very relaxing and restful vacation after a pretty stressful year and we had the best time together. I am back at work today and all the goodness of vacation is evaporating, but I am trying desperately to hold on to the good feelings I started the new year with.

Knitting remains the constant pleasure and passion in my life and as I enter the new year and contemplate what I want to accomplish in 2009, I come back to the original focus of this blog which was to work through my WIP and Stash. I was not overly successful in 2008 and added too much to the stash column and didn’t really reduce the number of WIP’s, but I have a renewed sense of purpose and I am excited to work through what I already own.

I finished all of the Christmas knitting that I wanted to accomplish and I started a fun project while in the car on our way to and back from Florida. I started knitting Kureyon Log Cabin squares to make a blanket. I already have two done and I have enough yarn in the stash to make three or four more. I also got back to the One Cable Vest while in Florida. I was humming along and then realized I had miscounted my increases and decreases so I had to RIP, but I know what I did wrong and it won’t take me long to get this done now that I know what I am doing. I am also almost done with a stash project – Just Enough Ruffles. I hate how I did the pick up of the wraps on the short rows, but there is no turning back now and this project will be done in the next few nights.

This year I am also going to be focusing on bringing more joy, contentment and happiness into my daily life. I think this theme will also be a part of Great Knitspectations for the upcoming year. Great Knitspectations is all about expecting the best from our knitting as well as expecting the best from life. So you will see me talk about how I am working to bring more joy and happiness into my life and on that note, my first thoughts…

Yesterday ended up being a crazy day at work with the doom and gloom vibe hanging in the air. I went home feeling drained and irritated that this was the way life had turned around in less than 24 hours after my wonderful vacation. So I went home last night and really thought about what I want for my life. I decided that when I walk out the door of my office at night that I will leave my work life behind me, and I will go home every night and do things that make me happy because that is what I want for my life. My home life will not be a reflection of my work life. My home life will be the place where joy, contentment and happiness get the main focus of my attention. Happy New Year and here’s wishing you and yours the very best.