That time again...

Whew. Well, I survived binge knitting those hats for my two friends, but only just! I swear - one more hour of beavering away at fair isle on tiny yarn and my eyeballs would have started to bleed... It nearly killed me. Never again will I attempt something like that in such a small amount of time. Actually, who am I kidding; I'll always be a terminal procrastinator, until the day I die. Or the day that I intend to die, but don't quite get around to it.

There's the culprit behind my eyestrain, at any rate (being modelled by yours truly and her scraggly hair). Also, you can see the reason why I don't wear berets - I think that they look stupid, or they do on my head anyway (how are you supposed to keep the things on?). Thankfully they look very cute on my dear friend Zia. I was tearing my hair out on this one, trying to find a style and colour that she would like, because her tastes and mine are pretty much mutually exclusive. It's not that I think she has bad taste, it's just that we don't like any of the same things. So blue and purple-ish pink (shudder) is not normally in my repertoire. Still, despite all of the angst, she seemed happy enough with it. Which is good. Oh, and since this is my knitting blog and all, here are details: this is the Selbu Modern hat (free pdf on Ravelry), made with Grignasco Bambi (a 4ply merino wool), on a 2.75mm circular needle (did I tell you all that I discovered the wonders of magic loop while I was in Europe?).

I actually finished Nick's hat (a Jacques Cousteau hat - great easy pattern, by the way - made with Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed) while I was sitting and drinking wine with them on the verandah (and apparently getting mauled by mosquitos too, the bathroom mirror informed me this morning). Had planned to get it done earlier of course, but I hadn't counted on the other one taking quite so long. It turned out well too, at any rate. I was warned by everyone that Nick had an enormous head (or more to the point, somewhat indominatable hair), so I made the large size, and was freaking out at how big it was. Though all was well in the end: it came off the needles fitting fine (and I should know, because I rammed it on his head to check before I'd even woven the ends in). Poor long suffering friends. At least they're long suffering friends with handknitted hats...

Anyway, it's New Years Day, so I should probably say something pretentiously reflective about that. 2008 was, well, frankly the worst and most difficult year I've had the pleasure of living through. For the obvious reasons (you know, the sleep deprivation and the anxiety attacks and the living below the poverty line and the my-counsellor-tells-me-not-as-borderline-as-I-think abusive relationship and its subsequent breakdown, and all of those other fun things...). Frankly, the less said about these things the better. 2008: well, I'll remember what I learned from it, because that's all I can do. It's all anyone can ever really do.

That said, the last third of 2008, when I finally began to leave these things behind, was awesome in about a million different kinds of ways. Incredibly hard at times, yes, but awesome nonetheless. And even the really rotten parts showed me that I can be as tough as I need to be, when push comes to shove, and that is reassuring indeed. Anyway, I have a good feeling about 2009. So bring it on! (and yes, I remain, despite everything, the most relentlessly optimistic cynical person in the universe)

Fair Denizens of the Internet: Happy New Year from Anna and her immense pile of yarn!!!