Good afternoon. It's a sparkling-clean new year, yes? Good riddance to much of the old one. In fact, good riddance to most of the old one.
Or... maybe not. 2012 was tough. I had issues. Mother Nature had issues. I had issues with Mother Nature. (Who can forget Hurricane Sandy? Not this bird, after 13 days without electricity. Not many of my friends, who lost unimaginable amounts of things, both tangible and not-so-tangible.)
But - here it is, 2013, a new number to remember to write on checks, a new calendar, a new opportunity to focus on things that matter. Like, some of the things that I gained in 2012.
* Deep and deeper friendships, for example, including up-close friends who I was able to help through some bad times, and who were able to get me through my own stuff, and faraway friends who proved, yet again, that true friendship disregards both time and geography.
* A slow and astounding realization that I can do some things better than I ever thought I would. Spin. Survive black-hole-gobsmackingly-horrible emotional whacks. Overcome a terror or two.
* A whole new bunch of music to love - Amanda Palmer comes to mind, and the awesome collaboration of Hilary Hahn and Hauschka for the CD "Silfra," a dual meditation by a master of the prepared piano and a violin virtuoso on the spirit of Iceland.
* A new musical instrument to learn and love - my ukulele.
Thirteen things I'd like to do, and/or do more:
* write here: it's fun and I forget that it's fun when I don't do it
* write my novels, poetry, journal, letters, for the pure joy of using pretty ink
* pluck a few chords and sing a few notes in the company of others
* explore new music and share it
* knit with my pretty, handspun yarn
* pick some things from
The Knitter's Life List to try - stranded colorwork, for example.
* read more, and more widely, in unlikely areas
* learn to cook a few things that involve more than boiling water
* mentor more new knitters and spinners
* see my friends
* use the tools I have (spindles, looms, knitting needles), and release those I don't, or can't use
* start knitting or spinning projects if I feel like it, and abandon them if I feel like it
* be grateful and mindful
Why thirteen? Because my friend,
Amy, of Impossible is a typo, listed 13 things she wants to do for shits and giggle (not resolutions - not judgmental "shoulds") - and it looked like fun.
Let me share my last finished object of 2012: the black hole of
Wingspan, a shawlette that took much more time than it would have, had I chosen yarn I could actually, you know, SEE? Unfolded, it looks like every other Wingspan. Here it is, origami form. You can decide what shape I folded.