Belated Happy New Year

Last year, I speculated as to what disaster might strike the 2009 holiday season (assuming that they do, in fact, come in threes). Answer: ongoing problems with my ISP. And the mother of all reading slumps - I've scarcely read anything in two months. (And that six-hour debacle involving a borrowed sewing machine without an instruction manual, and a tiered dress evidently designed for an amazon which was an absolute bitch to shorten. But which looks fantastic on me now that it's 18 centimetres shorter.)

On the up side, this leaves me with time on my hands for New Years Resolution #1: Finish my NaNoWriMo novel. As in, first draft, second draft, third draft, all the way to something another person might actually want to read. With or without the co-operation of my characters. (Fabian, I can invent a past for you far worse than anything you could reveal to me if you don't start talking soon.)

And being in the midst of unravelling an old sweater into its component colours, and with two projects already started, there's going to be a lot of knitting in my immediate future. (I had intended to do some before-and-after shots, but such was my enthusiasm for the destruction stage of the proceedings I completely forgot. Perhaps I've been watching too many episodes of Mythbusters...) There's also that gorgeous blue merino I can't find a pattern for, which leads me to New Year's Resolution #2: Try my hand at DIY knitwear design. Given my utter incompetence when I tried drafting sewing patterns, and my lack of talent for mathematics, this is going to be ... interesting.

Reviews, mini-reviews, and progress reports soon.