My 2019

I decided to make a collage of all my makes this year and share it that way. I had no idea I created to little and all of them (pretty much) are socks. How dull. I did go through long spells of not knitting at all which made these photo’s harder to find among all the cat photos. Speaking of the cat. I started the year by finishing a crochet blanket using scraps of sock yarn. It was for her tree which I got her last Christmas. It’s the only item of crochet I have done this year. I really should make her some more. The second photo is my favourite socks this year. The patter in called Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush (one of my favourite sock designers). The yarn is by Mermaids Purse. It has a donegal base which is also my favourite. I need to knit these again as I gave this pair away to our ward Clark after she told me she loved knitted socks. It’;s always nice to find a new recipient. The only other one I will mention is the stocking which I loved knitting. I’ve already posted about that though.

The bulk of my knitting was done in a very short period of time and was for charity. Again, I have already posted about this. Since I did seven pairs of socks out of 400g of yarn and in less than 2 months I felt it only right that it should be hosted here too.

Lastly here are four pairs of socks all done in my Zig-Zag lace design. I have plans to publish this pattern via revelry by the end of January. That’s the hope anyway. I just need to knit one more pair in a solid sock yarn and I also want to get some sock blockers for the photograph. 

This year I also discovered podcasts. That is knitting podcasts. Why has it taken me so long to do so? They are so inspiring. As a result of watching these podcasts I have a few challenges for the New Year. That will be for my next post but I am hoping that  the result will be a less boring post when I show off 2020.

I hope all of you had a more interesting year and I can’t wait to see what everyone plans for 2020.

My Crafting 2015

Let's face it 2015 has been a rubbish year for my family. I'm not going to focus on that though. Instead I am looking back at my crafts of 2015. This is after all a craft blog. I gathered all my photo's of my crafts over the last year and put them into their own folder. Unsurprisingly there weren't that many of them. I am sure it would beat 2014 though as I was trying to finish my degree back then.

What surprised me this year was how many pairs of socks I did manage to get finished. There were 8 of them. A whole 8. I was sure there would be far fewer. I give myself a pat on the back for that one. Especially since only 2 of those pairs was done in the basic sock pattern. Only 3 out of the 8 were not made with Lisa's yarn. I'm not sure I can pick a favourite. The last pair in the collage was the last pair I made for my mum so they have a soft spot. It's also one of my favourite patterns which I have used over and over again. You can see the socks more clearly here. The ones that really pop is the yellow and green which was a pair that I did for my gran. Sadly it doesn't looked like I blogged about those socks and I have no idea what pattern I used. I didn't document it anywhere (this is where those organisational posts will come in handy).

As for crochet, I think this has mainly been a year for it. I managed to crochet two blankets. One for a baby shower and another for my mum (funnily enough it's the red one). I also crocheted a couple of squares which contributed to a blanket being given to someone as a leaving gift. There are another three blankets in that montage all of which are unfinished. The first image shows a blanket I started for myself. It's for when I buy my new home (next year people). It's almost finished but I haven't touched it in a long time. As you know the brown and beige squares were originally going to become a blanket for my gran. I am now donating it to someone else who is in the same situation my gran would have been in had she still been with us. The last, is of course the blanket club. I have loved taking part in that. Since my mum worked on some of those squares too it feels like it's a project we have done together, which was why we originally joined up.  The other good thing about this blanket is that I have learned a lot of crochet skills from it and so felt comfortable enough to sign up for the Acer crochet along. I thoroughly enjoyed that and hope to take part in others.

The end of the year has been when I have been at my most productive. I got quite a few things finished and as a result both my sister and I ended up with a set of winter woollies. I quite enjoyed working on this. I plan on doing a set for my sister each year. I want to use different patterns so will have to get searching for next year. The hat will have to have a pom pom though as my sister will insist on it.

Sadly, I have done very little in the way of sewing. I embroidered a bag for Lisa's little boy which was a gift from my mum and I. I stitched a few magazine freebies. I started a clock. And I started a hexie cushion. That's it. I have dozens of other unfinished sewing projects from previous years. I don't think I should start any more until at least one or two are finished.

It doesn't seem like I have had a particularly productive year. I spent most of my focus during the spring and summer on my mum's garden. Most of the work was hers though and I can't take the credit for it. I very much enjoyed photographing the results though.

I was busy with the blog itself. It's had the most traffic this year than any other and I have been trying to evolve the blog into something that people can use as a tool whether it's to try a new idea or to get some inspiration from others. My favourite post is probably the most boring which is the one with tips on blogging. I hope that other people will find it useful and I hope that it will also encourage some of you talented lot to get writing. I've added pages to the top of my blog which I hope that people will find useful and that I hope to continue to add to.

So that's pretty much my 2015. Looking forward to 2016. Please look out for my post at the end of the week. I hope to post about my plans for next year. Oh, and remember, if you would like to be a guest blogger next year let me know.