New in March

A quick reminder of the monthly challenge:

• Read a new author, or just a book I’ve been meaning to for years
• Try a new ingredient/food/recipe
• Explore a new place
• Something knittingly new

So in March I:

• Read some of the Mrs Bradley books by Gladys Mitchell - nearly three of them in fact. Having enjoyed the tv adaptation, I moved on to try the books and found them totally different. I'm glad I didn't go from the books to the tv adaptation because that would have driven me crazy. Even though the tv version had Diana Rigg, which can never be a bad thing!
• New recipe was too cook a ham. I have never cooked a ham before but my husband and I were given a frozen ham for Christmas and Easter with my family seemed the appropriate time to use it. My sister provided me with instructions along the lines of these are your ingredients, dump them all in the saucepan, bring to the boil and then simmer for 2.5 hours. It turned out to be very nice indeed.
• I don't think I explored anywhere new in March, but I did note down somewhere new to explore in April.
• I'm not sure I attained new knittingness either. Unless knitting myself a jumper in just under 4 days counts?

Challenge - Four UFOs in 4 days

Knitting in progress (photo from February)

As I soaked in a bubble bath last night with a 4-day weekend stretching out in front of me, the thought popped into my head - can I finish four UFOs in 4 days?

There's only one way to find out!

Shrinking yarn stash

Back in November last year, I challenged myself to reduce my yarn stash. At the time, it looked like this:

Over the year, I knitted, I bought yarn, I gave yarn away, I was given yarn.

Now my stash looks like this (please excuse the messy floor in the background):

Not a huge reduction, but there's definitely less there. I'm also pleased to say I have plans for a large proportion of it. I have my eye on a large basket that I'm hoping to move it into, so I have it in one place. I'm not sure if this will need more reduction or not. I'll have to try and see.

As time goes by

I have started thinking about next year. I think this is probably because the other day we made a diary booking for January - to have our bathroom ripped out and redone - so next year seems a lot closer. And October is nearly over which mean the end of the year will be here very soon - and Christmas even sooner - yay!

I had plans to learn/try various different crafts this year, but have not got very far with them - although I did at least get my sewing machine out and now know how to thread it and sew two pieces of fabric together.

So I'm open to suggestions - what craft do you love and suggest I try to learn/develop my abilities in next year?

This year was also the year I was going to get the house sorted, cleaned, decluttered and organised - the less said about progress with that the better!