A year of makes - week 1

Sunday

I finished a hat  

and made myself some flapjack. I used the recipe from Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights but doubled it and added a handful of chopped nuts and some dried cranberries. It was totally delicious. Slightly sticky on the bottom, not too sweet and very effective at dealing with those mid-afternoon hunger pangs (or any other time of day hunger pangs, to be honest).

Monday

I made some black-eyed bean and roasted cherry tomato hummus, and finished a pair of thick socks.

Tuesday

I had a go at making some earrings - one set following this tutorial,

one set adapted from a bracelet pattern in this magazine, which I seem to have neglected to photograph, and a simple pair.

I also knitted some of this pink thing

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

I didn't do much in the creative line, but did knit some more of the pink thing.

Saturday

I finished sewing up this top

This was my August project, and has been lurking around ages just waiting for the sewing up to be finished. I shall now have to wait until next summer to wear it! I also finished and sewed up this top for a 1-year-old.

I cheated slightly and made it with short sleeves instead of the long ones in the pattern, as although it's a small project it was all garter stitch with no shaping apart from the neck, and I was a bit bored with it by the time I got onto the sleeves.

If anyone's keeping track of my knitting projects so far, that's completed: 4, cast on: 0.

Happy New Year!

I have tried in the past to not make New Year resolutions, but it doesn't seem to work. My brain seems to make them anyway even if I say I'm not doing it. So if I'm going to have resolutions and try to do things, I want them to be worthwhile. Naturally, there are a zillion and one things I want to do and include in them.

I have had a few ideas floating around in my head for a while now. One is to phone my parents more often – I am guilty of taking my parents for granted and assuming they will always be there. But that is not the case, and I don't want a day to come when I regret that I didn't speak to them often enough. Another is to write more letters/cards/notes to friends – texts, facebook and twitter are all very well for keeping in touch, but most people I know still love to get 'proper' post.

Then there are things to do with buying and living ethically, being less wasteful, making good use of what I have and being responsible with my finances. Maybe this year will be the year I actually get around to planting and growing some vegetables in my garden.

You may also remember, that I talked a while back about learning new, or developing existing craft skills and I'd like to incorporate that somehow.

Finally, there are things to do with taking better care of myself – not letting myself get too tired out, making sure I'm eating a healthy diet and, if possible, getting some exercise, giving myself occasional treats, and things to do with making our home a nicer place to live – less cluttered, cleaner and tidier.

So rather than make a zillion and one specific resolutions, it occurred to me last week that they could all be encompassed by one thing. And so my resolution for 2012 is summed up in two words:

Live lovingly

This gives me the freedom to do those things I've listed, but without setting myself goals for the year that at some point I will not meet and therefore 'fail'. I'm sure there are times when it's going to be a pretty hard resolution to keep, and I don't for one moment suppose I shall manage to keep it for every hour of every day, but that is my aim for the year. To love what I do, to put love into the things I do for others, and to love and care for myself and my home.

Happy New Year! May 2012 be filled with splendid things and bring you all joy and peace.

On my needles

The other day, a friend catalogued her yarn stash. I started to do mine yesterday but petered out at the point where I had to move to go and find more yarn to catalogue. Today I intended to continue, but got distracted by tidying my knitting basket and instead made a list of my WiPs. It appears I have 39 of them - one technically may not count as it's been ripped back and not yet cast on again, but for the purposes of this update I am including it as a WiP. I know I had a bad attack of startitis a little while ago - I didn't realise quite how bad it had got.

So what am I knitting. Well it appears just over one-quarter of my knitting is cardigans/shrugs/waistcoats etc., followed by jumpers and socks.

However, not all of it is for me.

Obviously, I have plenty to be getting on with.

So feel free to place your guesses - how many items will I finish by the end of January 2012 and how many new items will I have cast on in that time. I'll give a mystery prize (not of great value- don't get your hopes up excessively) to the person with the closest guess (please only guess once for finished and once for new; guesses must be made in the comments to this post by 23:59 GMT on 7 January to prevent people from having any advantage from things I might say about my knitting over the next month).

Books, glorious books

Here are a few of the books I got for Christmas that may help me make things in the future:

I have seen this book recommended on a few blogs I read and I'm looking forward to reading it.

I really enjoy Kirstie's Homemade Home/Christmas. I'd watch any episode again, but I think the first series, when she was making over the house at Meadowgate was the best. It has given me certain ideas for my own home, although they have not yet come to fruition.

I can't wait to get stuck into this and see what sort of projects it comes up with. There's plenty of junk in the world, so I'm hoping this will give me plenty of ideas.

I loved Milly Molly Mandy as a child. For some reason, we used to get Milly Molly Mandy stories read to us sometimes as part of the children's talk during a church service. I can't remember why, but I guess there were some parallels or moral points drawn from the stories.

I'm planning on making more gifts this year - and returning to making Christmas gifts after my year off. I'm hoping this will provide me with lots of inspiration.

Aren't those sleeves amazing! I wouldn't wear them myself, I'd be forever catching loops on door handles and other things and pulling threads, but I love the look of them. I've flicked through this book and already spotted several patterns I'd like to knit.

I love the Yarn Harlot's blog. A book by her has to be just brilliant - well certainly the first one I read (At Knit's End) was - as was the bit of this I read as soon as I opened it.

So I'm all set for my crafty reading for a while. What are your current/awaiting craft reads?

Sad

I have just had a Christmas present returned to me. You may remember I mentioned a shawl I was knitting (for which I broke my decision not to make presents this year). It was in alpaca and was lovely and warm and snuggly - a gift made with love for an amazing lady (my grandma-in-law's best friend) who was diagnosed this autumn with motor neurone disease. I wanted the shawl to be something of a comfort for her as she was able to move about less and less. My father-in-law took it up to Yorkshire on Saturday to deliver (along with Christmas presents for other relatives in the area). Sadly, she passed away on Saturday evening and the shawl, still in its wrapping, came back to me today.

I do not know what I will do with it other than not keep it for myself. I think I shall put it carefully aside and make that decision when the loss is less raw.

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.

An alphabet of thankfulness

An A-Z, variable importance, non-exhaustive list:

A - alpaca yarn
B - books
C - chocolate!
D - doctors
E - eyesight
F - family and friends
G - God
H - home
I - idiosyncrasies
J - job
K -knitting
L - love
M - music
N - neighbours
O - onomatopoeia
P - purple shoes
Q - quilts
R - rainbows
S - socks and scarves
T - telephones
U - underwear
V - views across the countryside
W - water (specifically clean drinking water)
X - X chromosomes
Y - you people who read this
Z - zephyrs