Happy New Year!

The year 2015 has been filled with lots of love, tears (both of happiness as well as pain and tiredness), personal growth and leaving working life for the time being to be a mother. This year has been mostly about the baby, first expecting him and then getting to know him and growing to love him more than anything in this world. 

There were also sad moments: we had to say good-bye to one of our family members by rehoming our cat Milla and receiving news about our eldest cat Otto's incurable dementia. This year we have faced the hard times of the life with a new-born baby: the constant tiredness, sleepless  nights, a few visits to the children's hospital and the hopelessness you feel when you have absolutely no idea what to do when your baby is sick. But looking back, the good times totally out-weight the bad times, and 2015 will definitely be a year that will stay in my memories.

I haven't had much time for knitting after Theo's birth, mostly I've been finishing stuff I started while I was still pregnant. But now I'm finally casting on for new stuff so it feels good. This year I've been focusing on working towards a handmade wardrobe and knitting pieces that are timeless and that I will love to wear. I've been mostly knitting in shades of gray but luckily the baby has been a perfect excuse to use colorful yarns. I have about one third of the amount of clothes I owned at the beginning of the year and I've been constantly trying to get rid off clothes that I don't use anymore (mostly by donating them to friends or the Red Cross). I'm still trying to minimise my wardrobe so it's an ongoing project. 

I also made a "new year's resolution" to knit more cardigans and less sweaters, and that I have actually done. Mostly because my pregnant belly wouldn't have fit into the sweaters. I used to prefer pullover-knitting to cardigan-knitting because the latter is much more time consuming with collars and buttons and not being able to knit in a round (unless you do a steek, which still frightens me even though I've done them a few times already), but after this year I've really gotten into both knitting and wearing cardigans, and I love how versatile they are to wear and accessorise compared to pullovers. 

Next year I will try to venture more out of my comfort zone in my knitting by embracing new techniques. I will also want to try new yarns and try my best to support indie yarn dyers and spinners (if you have recommendations for me to try I'd be glad to hear!). And one last thing: I want to learn how to crochet granny-squares! I'm dreaming about making a blanket with them, but I think it will be a project for the year 2017.

With these words I want to thank you all for following my blog and wish you all a Happy New Year!

P.S. A little update about Milla: she is doing fine, everybody loves her at the senior center and they are really happy to have her there. She has learned to go outside - something she couldn't do here in the city - and has even caught the first mice of her life. She seems to be in her element as the only cat and the queen of the house (we were told that she has her own armchair and and the grannies are queuing for their turn to pet her). Most of all she seems to love that she has company all day round and likes to hang out with the night nurses and accompany them on their morning rounds from room to room. We are sad that we can't have her here at home with us but at the same time I feel this was the right decision for her as she seems to be much more content now than before.