Would you just look at that! We made it all the way to 2009! I remember when I was a kid, I did the math to see how old I would be when we finally hit the year 2000. And, now look at us. We're all the way to 2009. Here's to an exciting, wonderful and prosperous new year to everyone!

Did you make black-eyed peas today? I know that it's traditional to make black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. I forgot to buy some this year. But, I did make some white northern beans which will have to do.

Yesterday, I cooked up a ham in the crock pot. It wasn't a really huge ham, by any sense of the word. But, it turned out to be a really good buy. I added some cut-up ham to the beans. The rest was put in the food processor for ham salad. As it turned out, I put half of the processed up ham in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer for later. So, we'll have ham salad for now and, the next time we want ham salad, there will already be some ham in the freezer.

And, let me tell you, we love ham salad around here! Brianna and I can't seem to get enough of it. I've discovered that there is a key to terrific ham salad and it starts with the ham. I've made ham salad with sweet ham, boiled ham and smoked ham. By far, the smoked ham is really the way to go. No doubt about it.

My ham salad is really very simple. Ham that's been run through the food processor/chopper, mayonnaise, finely chopped dill pickle, finely chopped boiled eggs and a bit of pepper. (You don't need any salt because of the pickle and smoked ham.) It's so easy, but oh so tasty.

I plan on spending today weaving in ends of my latest project. I had planned to do it yesterday or the day before. I think I got caught up in the holiday. I so rarely take any time off. It was a little strange, but I really didn't find myself doing any kind of crocheting yesterday.

I didn't completely take off work, though. In the last two days, I spent a LOT of time doing some Ravelry editing. A lot of the sooper editors and other volunteer editors pooled together and we did some massive editing. It was fun because Casey, the owner of Ravelry, helped us out and let us know about some fun new things that will soon be available on Ravelry to make our lives easier. I can hardly wait to see these new upgrades.

Also, on Ravelry, I started a discussion about sizing I'd like to provide in my future patterns for my website. For those of you able to access Ravelry, you can see the topic here.

For those not on Ravelry, (oh, please sign up for Ravelry...You'll love it!) this discussion is about my available options when providing sizing in my patterns.

Scenario 1: For magazine and book publication, it's necessary that I follow a format of 6 sizes: Small, Medium, Large, 1X, 2X and 3X. This gives me a broader range of sizes, but it's necessary for the crocheter/knitter to tweak the pattern for sizes in between since a size Small is about a size 4/6, Medium is about an 8/10, etc. With there being a possibility of two different sizes in there, it will certainly mean some tweaking of the pattern for those who have a pattern closer to an 8 when they're a 10. However, it would be easier to tweak a pattern between these sizes than try to, say, tweak a pattern that's only written up to size 16 when they really want a 2X.

Scenario 2: Since I plan on self-publishing, I have the opportunity to provide different sizing, if I like. So, it would be possible for me to provide sizing that is more closely aligned to actual ready-to-wear. So, if I still stick to providing 6 sizes, that would mean sizes 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16. You see the problem immediately with this scenario. The plus sizes are excluded because of my need to stick to 6 sizes.

After reading the responses in the group, I'm really leaning toward Scenario 1. I truly want to provide the plus sizes. So, I would rather have that range and sometimes the individual crocheter/knitter will have to tweak the sizes in between a little. For me, I think that is the way to go.

Other very important requests, which I already provide were:

• provide the suggested ease amount
• provide schematics of the finished garment, with measurements

These are very important and I already provide this information. Nothing will change in that regard for 2009.

Something else came up in the discussion and that is of the photography of the finished model. My impression was that a lot of people would like to see the finished garments modeled on someone other than an ultra-thin model. And, I was given some very good advice in the group: If I design something that I feel would specifically flatter my ultra-thin skinny mini of a daughter, make it in the size for her. If I design something specifically to flatter myself, make it in my size and model it myself. It's so simple and was staring me right in the face! And, it makes perfect sense. Thank you, Deb!

I hope that people will continue discussions for awhile on this topic because I've really been learning a lot and it's making me excited to get started on my New Year plans!

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