This was a pretty big year for me.  Despite lots of non-knitting things going on to keep me occupied, I managed to finish nine projects this year:

The first, my Soumak shawl, is probaby my favorite.  I then knit five sweaters – all of them for me!  You can find blog posts about them here (and here, here, here, and here).  On the bottom row are three Christmas gifts – the golden mitts I knit for Leah, and two more which I haven’t yet posted about (but will do next week, so you’ll have to pop back to find out the details).

The big news for me this year was on the career front.  I went back to academics this year, accepting a job as a lecturer at the business school where I did my MBA.  Some of you may know that I worked as a lecturer 25 years ago after completing my PhD.  Now, two and a half decades wiser, with loads of work experience and an exec MBA to boot, I am a Lecturer again.  Apparently many people earn an MBA in order to advance their career!   Who knew?  (It’s too early to say definitively, but so far, I am loving it.)

This career move was a really big change, not only for obvious reasons, but also because for the past eight years my husband and I have worked together to run a research neuroscience centre – Doug as Director and me as Manager.  Doug and I always knew we worked together really well, but we had not realised the extent to which we functioned so seamlessly as a unit until I left to pursue another role.  I will miss that (and will also miss being able to knit on the way to work while Doug did the driving).

This was also the year in which I survived my older daughter, Emma, taking a backpacking trip around Eastern Europe by herself.  Fouteen cities in nine countries in five weeks and three near-coronaries for her mom!  It is also the year in which my younger daughter, Leah, turned 21 – how can that have happened?  My children are adults!

And finally, this is the year in which many fabulous readers of this blog kept on reading despite my posting less and knitting less.  Thank you to everyone who commented on the blog or sent me messages on Ravelry, and also to those who quietly follow along.  Happy New Year to everyone!  I wish you all health and happiness and lots of knitting!