2022
My mother died.
2021 We skipped the holidays because we were
packing the Maryland man cave.
2020 COVID Christmas.
2019 Not a bad Christmas, just the end to
the awful change wave year.
2018 Father-in-law was in the hospital. He
died a few days
into the new year.
2017 Was that the one where we almost lost Vincent?
2016
Don't remember.
2015 Don't remember.
2014
Lost a fight
with Concord covered bridge.
Okay. Maybe I'm not being superstitious or paranoid. There's data.
This year, I've been unabashed in my intentions. I bought a 9-foot artificial Christmas tree. I don't think we've had a tree in about a decade? The choice of large tree is based on two factors — the scale is appropriate to the height of the room; and I have many, many ornaments. I'd remembered it takes me a couple days to decorate the tree. I did not remember exactly what that meant.
At this point, the tree is decorated. The last of the holiday cards go out in today's mail. The presents went in the post a week ago. They are already in Pennsylvania, waiting to be opened. The house is filled with snack trays. The bûche de noël has been ordered. There's a bit of food shopping to do. Cuddly Hubby and I like seafood. I still have part of last year's 2-pound box of crab legs in the freezer. There's a sense of picking up where I left off 50 weeks ago.
To that end, looking forward to 2024 —
I've cut back on my spring schedule. Currently, I'm on the schedule for Kanuga. I love Kanuga. The lake is beautiful. The woods and mountains are calming. The knitter-ly camaraderie is rejuvenating. This year I'm running a new class on entrelac. The class includes a pattern to make a hat (pictured). I intend to cover lots of details, including picking up in the stitch versus using vertical lifelines to pick up on the edges. We might even talk about the reversible and three-dimensional approaches I learned from Jay Petersen and Gwen Bortner. I purchased Alastair's online entrelac double-knitting class, but haven't yet found time to watch it. Hopefully, I'll get to that soon!
I'm skipping
South Carolina Knit Inn
in February,
Carolina Fiber Fest
in March, and
Blue Ridge Fiber Fest
in June. I intend to submit proposals for those shows in 2025. Downtime would
not be a bad thing for me now. I have a year's worth of backlog in my own
life. Also, I've noticed my class enrollments are down in the shows I attend
year after year. I want to see what happens when I skip years. Do I get better
enrollment if people know I might not attend next year? I am, however,
teaching for the
Salt Lake Knitting Guild
in March. That's an exciting opportunity to reach a new-to-me group of
knitters. I am very much looking forward to it!
In April I'll be teaching for The Knitting Guild Asssociation's
Next Level Knitting Conference. As I've mentioned before, this online show is possibly the best value in
knitting education. I'm offering two sessions — my very popular "Knit Faster
with Combination Knitting" and the less common monochromatic double-knitting
"One Color, Two Layers." I'm looking forward to taking a few classes, such as
Ladderback Jacquard.
I'm currently planning to attend Maryland Sheep and Wool in May. In late May, I'm teaching a whole week of reversible knitting techniques at John C. Campbell Folk School. The last time I taught a lengthy intensive like this was Fiber Forum 2015, almost a decade ago. That's before I developed versa lace. I've done a lot of experimenting since then! I expect to present things in that class that I have not taught before or have not taught in a long time, since there will be time to deep dive into advanced techniques. If you want to discover new things in knitting, this will be the class!
I have a verbal commitment to teach for one of the Maryland knitting guilds
the last weekend in June. I expect June and July mostly to be about visiting
friends and family and celebrating nephew #2's wedding.
My plan is to refocus in autumn, starting off with Pittsburgh Creative Arts Festival and a return to Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair, assuming my proposals are accepted. I've already thrown in a proposal to a new-to-me show. All this to say, if you want to take a class with me, the choices in the first part of 2024 will be limited.
I spent much of 2023 putting the house in Pennsylvania in order. My intention for 2024 is to give my own home the same attention. There's plenty of editing to be done. I like to think a generous donation to Scraplanta is in my near future. There are several long-delayed home repair and improvement projects. In 2023 I saw what I accomplish. The answer — more than I thought. We shall see if 2024 can match.
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| Ramses and Ozymandias sleeping on the quilt I hand-stitched for my mother more than 30 years ago. You can see this quilt folded and peeking through the car window in my June 2023 post. |
Wishing you a beautiful holiday sharing joy with those you treasure!
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