A start to the new year...

As far back as I can remember growing up, my family's New Year's day meal consisted of black eyed peas, cabbage and carrots, and granny always made pone. For many years, while raising my own family, I put this tradition aside because I just knew my kids wouldn't eat it. It's very much a southern tradition, which some will argue began in Virginia during the Civil War, while others like my dad, would assure you it's roots were in Alabama, where he was from. One year, I decided to go ahead and try it out on my family, and to my surprise, they ate it! From then on, my youngest daughter made it one of her favorite meals to request I cook. I always made cornbread (from scratch!), and this year, I added onions and kielbasa sausage to it. There wasn't a drop left in the big pot of it I made yesterday!! Much to my delight, even my grandchildren requested seconds, and that made my heart smile! May we all have a prosperous and healthy 2015!!!

 

So have you chosen any goals you would like to reach for 2015? Mine aren't unreasonable and I'm looking forward to them very much. I have accumulated a fiber stash that needs to be spun, so a minimum of 15 minutes per day will be spent sitting at my wheel. I did accomplish a 2014 goal I had set, which was to stay on a yarn diet for a year. The only allowance was if new yarn had to be purchased, it was going on the needles immediately, because more than likely, it was a project for a gift. Since there were very few of those, I'm calling it a success! I managed to use up quite a bit of my stash, and I can already tell you I won't be on a yarn diet this year. I took brief stock of my stash yesterday, and learned I'm lacking in sock yarn. I made a mad dash over to my LYS, and purchased some new to me sock weight yarn, along with some DPNs. One of the skeins, the aqua, I will be using for Kirsten Kapur's mystery knit a long in a couple of weeks. The aqua and the gray yarns are from Baah! yarns, and the two burgundy skeins are from Happy Feet yarns. I have used HF before, and it makes a lovely fabric! The DPNs are from Knitter's Pride in a 2.5 mm, or US size 1.5. I can never have enough of those...either I lose them, or I snap the bamboo ones in half. So, this is my first stash enhancement for the new year!

 





 

I have several finished objects that I will be sharing over the next few days with you, but I will leave you with just one of them for now..my local knitting guild issues us a monthly challenge, which I enjoy participating in. For the month of January, it was to knit a dishcloth and we are to tell the reason we chose the pattern we knit, what it means to us. These are just two of the ones I have knit for it, and I chose these designs just because they are my favorite go-to ones to knit. I plan on doing several more because another one of my goals is to have some knitted gifts already on hand.

 

 

I'm also going to try to be more consistent with blogging, so in the coming days, I'll tell you of some more plans I have in mind for 2015. May God bless you all with good health, happiness, and peace in the new year!!