Chapter 5: Embracing the New Year

For so many people, the start of a new year is a time when they look forward and fill up the future with their expectations.  They make new rules, set new goals, and build up all kinds of ideas surrounding where that year is going to take them.  For others, the new year has the opposite effect.  Those may look backward at the year that just passed and think of all that was accomplished, and all that remains to be done.  Still others sail through the new year without skipping a beat, not really marking it one way or the other.  

When I was a teenager and still living with my folks, my New Year’s Eve generally entailed a late night out with my family, and the following day was spent culling my closet of everything from clothes to books to mementos.  I don't know where I picked this habit up, but every January first you could find me and my best friend, listening to music (Hello, late 90's alt rock), and trying on clothes amid exclamations of "you HAVE to keep that" or "what was I thinking?!"  It was a great way to literally clear out the old and make way for the new, and I really loved that.  

For one reason or another, this habit fell by the wayside for me, and I went through a stretch where I focused only on what I hadn't accomplished the year before.  I would promise myself the next year would be my year except it never was, because instead of focusing on my accomplishments I honed in on my shortcomings, especially surrounding resolutions. 

The last couple of years I have very purposefully not made any grand and specific resolutions, but instead set out some general intentions for how I wanted to approach the year.  More happiness.  Less fear.  More laughter.  Less pressure.  More acceptance.  Less negativity.  Reminders for me about the type of life I wanted to lead, both personally and professionally.  So it comes as a bit of a surprise to me now, to realize that at some point that change in the setting of my goals has actually, finally, helped me to be able to recognize my accomplishments. 

As I sit here facing 2019, I’m not focused on the delays I faced with opening the shop, or on the fact that I came in one short on my Ravelry project challenge.  I’m not stuck on how little I spun this year, or that the needle-felted dragon I began for my husband is not yet completed.  Instead I see the shop developing at my fingertips; a growing community of followers with whom I love sharing and chatting; new skills developing from this adventure; new coping mechanisms for my anxiety and depression; 13 projects completed last year, with 2 WIPs still on the needles, one WIP on my spindle and one on my wheel; memories made with family and friends – and for all of that I am profoundly grateful and proud. 

Going into this year, I’m not going to try to outdo myself or others.  I just plan to keep on trying to grow, develop and learn.  I’m looking forward, of course, to more knitting, crochet, fiber blending, spinning and needle felting, but I also intend to learn cross-stitch and weaving because – new year, new hobby, right?  But most of all, I look forward to meeting some of you at the shows and markets we have lined up and getting to know others still further on our social media channels.  So, stay tuned: it’s going to be awesome.