This is my favourite photo of 2008.
I shot it in early August when we went to Sweden for a day. The weather was incredibly hot (although not particularly sunny) and all these tanned, long-limbed Swedish teenagers were hurling themselves into the Øresund from various cliffs and balconies. I don't know who this boy was, but I am very happy that I decided to take an impromptu photo of him.
I have frequently said that 2008 was an annus horribilis. Looking back, there were some good bits.
The Obama win.
Our trip to Denmark and Sweden was a great success.
I rediscovered my creative side and did so many strange, wonderful things that my head is slightly reeling.
I met some fantastic people: Ellie, Kathleen, Kippen, Anna (who has the best blog title evah), Paula, Angela, SoCherry, Lilith and Kirsty (and the rest do not have easily accessible online profiles) to name but a few.
My Alasdair Gray fangirl-ness reached a new height.
And I managed to remain alive with all my bits and pieces intact which is a bit of a triumph all things considered.
I don't really do New Year's resolutions because I know I will fail horribly if I set myself goals like "I need to lose ten kilos" or "I will watch Kieslowski's Dekalog without falling asleep." However, knitterly resolutions feel different.
I have signed up for a "Twelve Projects in Twelve Months" challenge and I would like to get back to doing stranded knitting (which I did when I was a teenager). I want to use more local wool instead of tricking myself into thinking that US brands are way superior. I want to knit down some of my laceweight stash. And I want to knit a Faroese-ish shawl with my Faroese laceweight to celebrate that I’m partly Faroese on an obscure side of my family.
And I'd quite like to read a bit more too and watch some of the DVDs that we have amassed recently (in particular Brief Encounter, In Bruges and Juno).
Happy new year to you all. As we say in Scotland - Happy Hogmanay! - and in Denmark - Godt nytår!