Old year's night

well what a year 2008 has been:

knitting- I've made my first adult garments, I've knitted 3 pairs of socks, I've tried bamboo, soya and cotton. I've made Christmas deccies which have been sent around the world (and received some gorgeous ones back) and washcloths for the kitchen (which are fantastic, really, no really). I've practised intarsia and my first "lace" patterned piece some socks for J2.

I've joined Ravelry, which is just brilliant, I'm in a Doctor Who swap and a Pratchgan-along. I've taken up crochet too.
I've been to a knitting show in Glasgow and saw the awesome knitted gingerbread house and have committed to make pieces for the next project, a fundraiser for the RNLI.

It's not all positive though: my yarn substitute for the advent tree was not a success (and is destined to become another scarf for J2) and my drop spindle languishes in the cupboard, untried and untested.

I've listened to some fabulous podcasts while I've knitted: Betty in the Sky with a Suitcase, Cast-On, Craftlit, Escapepod, Faery-knitting, Podcastle, Starship sofa, Sticks and String to name but a few. My mp3 player is a year old and is well used!

Football- we survived the PL last season, started this season well, lost our manager and are still surviving. I sometimes think that football is too stressful a sport and I should watch something less emotionally exhausting, like carpet bowls or shove ha'penny . D and J1 are going through the same with their team, so little consolation there.

Sport -I was entranced by the Olympics and by the tennis this year (cricket and rugby have not been so good) and am looking forward to 2012.

Learning -I have kept up with Spanish, learning 2 new tenses this year,but still struggle to remember my vocab.
I tried to learn some Arabic, but found it very hard. I was drained of energy after the summer.
I tried to learn some html programming, but was totally confused. Oh well.

.....and most importantly I have kept a blog since Feb. This is so enjoyable: I like reading other people's blogs from around the world, I love seeing other's amazing knitting projects, I've even won some posh yarn! I've found that it's helped shape my thinking processes, and given me back a bit of structure.
My concentration is so bad sometimes with ME that its hard to get into a good routine to improve my health, but in an odd way blogging is helping. I don't want to write about the condition as such as I find that very boring, but blogging about other stuff (politics, books, films, sports, travel etc) can be energising.

Well, it's been interesting, some new stuff, some good stuff, some old stuff & some cool stuff ........
so, here's to the Old Year, fare thee well, 2008 my friend, and 2009 beckons.....( To be fair it's already started in New Zealand and Australia!)