It seems obligatory to mark the new year, and what a year it was, for me and everyone else: pandemic, quarantine, changing jobs, new hobbies, totally different routines. The backdrop of the pandemic makes looking back (and forward!) so weird, and I find myself asking: will the things that changed in my life still be true when there's less quarantine? did the things that happen in 2020 happen because of the pandemic or would they have happened anyway? The certainty that most (but not all!) of 2021 will, in practical terms, look a lot like 2020 is intense and makes this whole "obligatory new years" thing a bit harder. Instead of doing something like "resolutions"/"goals"--which are always fraught--or some kind of lofty synthetic review of the last year, I think I'd like to muse on features of 2020 that I hope and expect to continue in 2021

  • Knitting: I took a lot of time off of knitting, but I found that I'd been missing it, and I think there are ways that it fits well into my life quarantine or no. It's also been quite fun to write about knitting and knitting projects, and become more engaged with other knitters, and I look forward to knitting things for friends and family. I have list in my head of some nifty ideas for sweaters and some other things to knit, so I expect this to stay.
  • Blogging: I've been writing blog posts for years and while I've always found it rewarding, but everything else related to blogging has been hard. During the summer, while I was interviewing for jobs, I wrote blog posts most days, and sort of fell down on posting them, and still have 25 (or so) in the draft folder. Writing is the easy part, it's editing (or letting go!) promotion, and remembering to move things out of draft. I've spruced up the blog and done some work to automate regular publishing, and it seems like I might be able to make this work! I definitely want to.
  • Pickling: I've really enjoyed pickling things, and if anything I expect that I'll enjoy doing this more after quarnainte when it's easier to share these things. Right now I have some cranberries on the go, and a lot of sauerkraut in the fridge that I'm slowly eating. It'll be fun to have more people to share it with! I'm excited to explore radishes as well as nappa cabbage.
  • Coffee: I started drinking coffee in 2014 and have mostly had coffee made by other people: tech jobs in NYC have pretty great office coffee, and the process was something of a mystery to me at the beginning. While I had a Chemex and made coffee for myself sometimes, it was definitely a special occasion sort of thing and not part of my regular routine. Now making a pot of coffee is part of my morning routine, and I find it pretty satisfying, and while I definitely look forward to drinking coffee that other people make more often in the future, I really like getting up making a pot of coffee and sitting down to write nearly every morning.