Happy New Year!

Happy to New Year to all of you! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season, and that Santa brought you lots of knitting goodies!

We had a wonderful Christmas. We celebrated at home and with the in-laws, and then spent a week in Buffalo with my family. The kids are all happy with their new toys (and little girl is particularly thrilled to have all kinds of crafty things to do). Baby girl very nicely bought me some pink lace yarn from knitpicks (who knew she could use a credit card?), the hubby bought me Elizabeth Zimmerman's Almanac, and my mom got me blocking wires and yarn. Oh, and my mother-in-law gave me cash, which I promptly used to buy enough yarn to knit myself a sweater. I love knitterly gifts!

Like many of you, I like to set knitting goals for the year. These are mine for 2010:

1. Knit more for myself. I own shockingly few knitted items for the amount of knitting that I do. This year, that's going to change. I started already by knitting a mitten on the drive home yesterday. I used some malabrigo worsted that's been hanging out in the stash for a while (and was designated originally for mittens) and the Fetchingly Cute pattern. (After knitting three pairs of Fetching Fingerless gloves as last minute gifts, I've got the pattern down.)

2. Knit 4 baby sweaters for Fourth Trimester. (I'm a little embarrassed by this goal, since Joan is planning on knitting one a month. I can't keep up with that. I'll add 4 hats or small baby items to the goal to make me feel better.)

3. Knit more lace. Specifically, I'd like to finish the Celtic Knot Stole and knit something for myself out of the pink lace I got for Christmas.

4. Knit 3 Squares for the Great American Afghan. I'm not saying I'm going to assemble the squares as an afghan, but I'm sure I can find something to do with them. I think it's a great way to learn some new techniques.

5. Assemble Lovefest Squares. A truly remarkable set of women knit and exchanged cashmere lace squares. They all sent me a square despite my inability to commit to knitting them squares in return. I plan on making a scarf with them, and I want to have it done to wear by next Christmas.

I have personal goals as well -

1. Read my Bible more

2. Exercise regularly

3. Take more "time-outs" for myself

4. Be a better friend - more phone calls, more cards, more effort into building and maintaining my friendships.

5. Be more organized

2009 was wonderful, but stressful (new baby, Big boy living with us full time, new school for him, later nights for me, etc, etc.). I'm excited for 2010, and optimistic that it will be a more peaceful year for our household.

I'm sure I won't be updated too many pictures of last minute knits on the blog, but you can see them all on my projects page on Ravelry.

Happy knitting!