2012

My goodness, it is actually 2012. I was glad to see that the first part of The Hobbit is schedule to be shown on December 14 a week before the end of the Mayan calendar. Although I am sure that if the Mayan culture that created the calendar still existed craftsmen would be busy all year carving new calendars to start the next cycle.

I started this blog several years ago to follow a year in the life of the farm. Every year on the first of January I find myself wondering what I am going to write this year. Things don't normally change a lot and the sort of things that excite in my daily life don't always make for great reading. I tend to start watching the ground under the birch tree for the first shoots of the snowdrops, for example. Not earth shaking stuff.

But there is a rhythm to my year and the first of a new year finds me planning what I am going to weave and knit for this upcoming season. I want to figure out some new things but also need to fill up the stock of the dependable standbys such as potholders, placemats, rag rugs, hats, etc. So I am tying a new warp onto an old placemat warp to start a new batch

of hats. I knit up a lot of them and wait to do the felting until spring when I am about to start selling them as it takes up a lot less room to store them in this shape. I am about to put in an order for my favorite yarn from Webs filling the gaps in colors in the hats I have left from last year. And I need to order more rug warp for making rag rugs, placemats, and potholders.

And, of course, there are the seed catalogues. I actually filled in a couple of blanks on an order form this morning. But there is a lot of work to be done inventorying the leftovers from last year and combing each and every catalogue for something new and exciting as well as the best price on the old standbys. A new year is opening up. I love it.