I hope that you have a wonderful year in 2004

Confession time. I didn't get around to doing Christmas cards this year. I'm not the only one though - we get fewer of them each year. Not that I don't appreciate the cards we did get, from my grandmother and my sister and a couple of aunts, etc. Although I've gotten out of the habit of writing letters with actual pen and paper and sending them in the mail, I really should do just that and respond. Even though they do all have internet access.

It's great to hear about how everyone's year has been. As my grandmother said in her Christmas letter, "Maybe we should have another Christmas in June so we could stay in touch more often, but do you really think we would do that?" Actually, I do consider myself to be doing that through my blog. It's an open letter to anyone who would like to know what I am up to, in more detail than I would fit into a Christmas card letter, and with more pictures. So I honestly don't feel guilty about not keeping in contact with people - it's all right here. Problem is, though, I'm never sure who is keeping up with me through my blog. There are a few that I know are (like my brother and also a couple of my Norwegian relatives) because they leave messages and they mention things that I have posted here when we talk or correspond. They pass along anything important to the rest of the family too. Thanks! I appreciate it.

Those of you who read my blog and aren't my relatives are also most welcome here too. You are all part of my 'blog family.' Maybe since having the internet some of us have gotten a little lazy about using other methods of correspondence, but I know I have gained more than I have lost. I have friends all over the world and they are just as close as the nearest computer.

The Old Year

My blog is just about a year old, which means that 2003 is well represented here. It has been an eventful year. Starting my weblog is just one of the important events of 2003. Like I said above, it's been a good way to communicate with my family and the world. Having a knitting blog has also encouraged me to do more knitting, since I want to have something to report and show here. Just like writing a journal, it is also an opportunity to organize my thoughts and record them so that I can look back at them later. I actually print out my blog archives and save them like a journal. Although I trust the web server more than I trust my own hard disk lately (and have been looking for ways to rely on the web to store data - for example, I plan to add a links page here and use that rather than the favorites file on my web browser), I know that the web isn't infallable either.

Probably the biggest event of the past year was my decision to go back to school.

I don't tend to write a lot about my family here, do I? Yet they are a very important part of my life. The kids change so fast, yet I miss it because I see them every day. Ashley is almost as tall as I am now. Carol has matured so much too and is becoming quite the socialite since going back to public school this Fall (Ashley and Jonathan have continued homeschooling this year). And Jonathan is no longer a baby or even a pre-schooler. He's well into the stage where little boys spend most of their time out playing with the other little boys up and down the street. Ashley has been corresponding (by snail mail) with a Norwegian cousin. Carol is showing some aptitude for languages, and picks up the Norwegian words and phrases I have been using from time to time. All the kids are learning a few basics like how to tell time in Norwegian. Mark has had an eventful year also, with many achievements at work and in his personal life. He has started new hobbies like geocaching and renewed interest in some old ones such as scuba diving.

The New Year

A lot of what happens in the year to come will depend on if and where I get accepted to graduate school. There could be big changes in store. It looks like it will be another eventful year, but then, aren't they all when you think about it?

Fiber Content

I've been taking pictures even though I still haven't tried uploading any yet. The shawl pictures are still on my camera, as are pictures of several skeins of yarn I have been spinning. I just finished another skein last night, which brought the total to 11 skeins I had not gotten around to washing yet. For those of you who don't know, yarn needs to be washed after it is spun and before it is knitted or woven, to set the twist among other reasons. Those skeins were washed today and are drying now.

Carol did decide to try knitting a shawl with her yarn she got for Christmas, and is surprised how fast it is coming along. Ashley remains undecided. So many possibilities!

A web pointer

Among the collection of links over to the right, there is one to HJS Fiber Studio. In case you haven't checked that one out, you may want to. It's not a blog, but is updated more often than some blogs I've seen, and has lots of great tips and patterns that are a great resource for knitters and other fiber artists. Holly has just added a few new pages including a basic sock pattern and an addition pertaining to knee socks, information on spinning sock yarn, and a pattern for a bottle holder.