Whoosh!

Did you hear that? That was the sound of 2009. I can't believe the year is almost over. It really hit me at my office's Thanksgiving luncheon- this is the beginning of the end. Tomorrow I will pick up everything for Thanksgiving dinner, which reminds me- quick detour:

I am told (albeit by an unreliable source) that pumpkin crops didn't do too hot this year, and so there might be some sort of shortage during the holidays. I picked up my 2 cans of canned pumpkin already... you might want to hoard yours too, just in case. Back on topic:

Then Friday marks the official beginning of the Christmas season for many people, and from there the rest of the year slips by like a runaway train headed downhill on a greased track. Of course, the commercial world of modern retail has been shoving Christmas down our throats for almost a month now- which is a rant for another day, but- I would like to point out how warped it seems to me to see Christmas displays when it's 70 degrees outside. Stupid South... it makes me want to move to Alaska.

On the bright side, I have completed 12 of 14 knitted Christmas gifts. The last two are on the needles, one of which is about halfway done (I think I can get that one done this week). Mostly I have my job to thank for that feat. It's been incredibly slow, and I think at least a third of all that knitting was done at work. Maybe half. Netflix gets an honorable mention, too- a few projects were turned out while streaming bad horror movies on the laptop.

After Christmas shenanigans have come to an end, we arrive at the New Year. I seem to remember making some sort of resolution last year, regarding yarn consumption and finishing some projects. Well, as far as the unfinished projects go, I think I succeeded. The Clapotis did get frogged, which might be cheating, but everything else got finished so I call that a win. But on the yarn front... that was more of a fail. Maybe even an epic fail. I have accumulated a lot of yarn this year. There was the birthday haul, the Sheep and Wool Festival, a big sale at Eleganza, a big purchase during an exploratory visit to a not-quite-local yarn shop, and several other smaller purchases. To be fair, I do think that I knit more this year than during any other year, which might make up for some of that. But the whole goal was to at least knit down the stash a little, and that did not happen. I still have more yarn than will fit in my stash cabinet. But maybe if I try again... oh, who am I kidding? I'm just going to say "fuck it" and go with the excuse that I'm saving for retirement. It's not like wool has an expiration date.

For next year, I think my resolutions will be project-oriented only. That seemed to work out pretty well, and will help keep the stash manageable. And I'd really like to knit up some of the sweaters I had planned in my head. That's my biggest stash problem- several sweaters' worth of yarn and no sweaters getting made.

On an unrelated note, it seems my fascination with journals has been rekindled by Etsy. There is something about a blank book that just makes me feel all fuzzy inside. Maybe it's the endless possibilities, I don't know. I just love it. I don't even write in a journal of any kind- I don't want to ruin the lovely blank pages. But I like having them. Anyway, these are pretty awesome, and so are these. These are cool too, although some are a little too "Ren Fair" for my taste. I feel a new obsession coming on, better start saving my pennies.

Speaking of saving pennies, let me tell you how I saved approximately $10,950... I quit smoking 5 years ago! Well, about 5 years ago anyway- it was somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So yay me! And that doesn't include the money I saved by not having several sinus infections each year, prolonged colds and the such (and avoiding infections and the antibiotics that come with them saves a lot of money when you're allergic to penicillin and have to take fancy-pants designer antibiotics). While knitting did sort of replace smoking, I'm pretty sure I don't spend anywhere near $2,000 on knitting stuff per year- even if you add in all the extras like needles, books, magazines, Advil, etc. I rewarded myself by buying more yarn.

Well, I better get to work on those last two Christmas gifts. We recently got an Xbox Live Gold account, so now we can stream Netflix to the TV- which is pretty great. Yesterday I knit while watching Ghostbusters for the first time in at least a decade, and let me tell you- it was just as awesome as the first time I saw it in 2nd grade.