Tomorrow is my birthday.

I’ve always liked how neatly the years of my life line up with the years on the calendar; there’s something very tidy about being the same age for an entire calendar year. I also haven’t had to throw myself a birthday party for years – I get to celebrate with the whole world, welcoming a new year, without the focus being on me (which is kind of the best of both worlds). After 2014, I find myself at a little bit of a crossroads, trying to figure out where I want my future to take me. I’ve had a very good year, and it’s been a great year for Paper Tiger, but in a very different way than 2013 was. At this juncture, I am especially grateful to all of you who make what I do possible. Your support means the world to me. It’s such a joy to see your projects, to listen to your suggestions, to think of new ways to tackle your questions. I feel like I have learned so much and grown so much as a knitter and a designer. So thank you for that.

Inspired by Karen’s post about her knitting year in review, I started to assemble a folder of finished knits for the year, and it’s insane to realize how absurd my output has gotten. Excluding things I’ve knit that are for patterns that are still under wraps, there’s 27 finished objects. Adding in things I can’t share yet bumps the total up to about 32 items, I think.

One of my goals for this year was to do more personal non-work knitting. I think I succeeded with flying colors. Next year’s goal is to take it easy a little bit. 

This leaves out current WIPs entirely, but if you’re super curious, you can always check out my Ravelry project page. I managed to finish some long-suffering WIPs this year, but I still have too many things on the needles. I’d like to get that down to a sane, manageable number.

I’m looking forward to working on more patterns in 2015 (I only released four proper patterns this year) and I’m looking forward to more teaching – the Nordic Knitting Conference and my workshop at Knit Purl were definitely highlights this year. I’m also looking forward to my future becoming a little more certain; I’ve applied to go back to school, and while I await decisions from schools I’m trying to decide what my next move will be if any of the programs offer me a place.

As for this space, you can look forward to more patterns and more blogging – I have a series of tutorial posts I’m starting to put together, based on the most common questions I get about patterns. I’m looking forward to getting some of that up. Thank you again for your continued support, and I wish you all a very happy new year!