Closing a stitched and hooked 2018

No recap on what I've done during the year - promise!  I'm not a great one for new year and new beginnings but it is good to finish the year on a finished project.

Full of mistakes, but I learnt a lot from my first corner to corner project. It's supposed to be square but it's not. I should have had no yarn left but I have. There are gaps where there shouldn't be and crochet where there should be gaps, but's it's warm and bright and I love it!  Made from Red Heart Boutique Unforgettable in Colourway Flowerfield.  The reason it has lots of mistakes is because it is almost impossible to frog back.  The fluffy nature of the yarn locks the stitches together.

Not content with one fluffy yarn I have started a hat pattern with another fluffy yarn although I can confirm that this yarn will frog back (twice). Trying to start a hat on a circular needle with a magic loop is not to be recommended.  Eventually the hat started out on double pointed needles and was transferred to a circular needle (still too long/short) because I don't have 4.5mm DPNs or a 4.5mm with a 40cm wire.

I don't knit enough to warrant a set of interchangeable circular needles so I'm making do with what I've got although I have to say I will buy a shorter length (or a longer length to accommodate the magic loop) if I'm going to knit another hat like this. I really don't like the fiddling about with a magic loop though.

Crochet doesn't have the same equipment problems! One hook, some yarn and a pair of scissors is all you need.

Three rounds of simple crochet has produced a 4¼" square and there is enough to do at least one more and probably two from each little 15g ball. This will be my 15 minute daily project. I'll probably spend a lot more than 15 minutes a day but I'll spend at least 15 minutes per day on this. However this is a 'process' not a 'product' project.  This was brought home to me last week when a friend asked why I didn't just stick a piece of fabric on a button I had painted.

She is relatively new to crafting and still sees it as an end product. When Steph was stitching her grandma's quilt last week she said she could just feel the stress melt away. You just live in the moment, whether it's on your own in a little bubble of peace or sharing that moment with like minded people. There is something very spiritual about this kind of sharing.

When I first started serial stitching (with cross stitching pictures) I ran out of walls quickly.  It gets a bit boring having the same craft all over the house! Much of the stuff I make now is given away.  This is another element of making things - giving someone something that has taken time to make - letting them know they are special enough for the giver to invest time, money, care and thought in them.

Having said that I'll probably keep the hat I'm knitting as it has to be hand washed and I don't think it's fair to burden someone with that when they weren't expecting it.

When I downloaded the pattern (Dustland Hat by Stephen West) this yarn, (Debbie Bliss Andes, Baby Alpaca and Mulberry Silk) was the only one in my stash with the same yardage count (classed as Worsted Weight).  It's too soft and dark to show the pattern to it's best advantage but, when the mood take you.....

I love the pattern so much that I'll almost certainly make one for Will who spends most of the day outside, but I'll make it in a much more practical yarn for him. I might make one for John as he likes to go out walking with Ben. Actually Alex and Will walk a lot too - perhaps Alex might like this purple one although I expect she would like to knit one for herself.  I have to say my sudden return to knitting has been fuelled binge watching knitting podcasts over the Christmas break.

Incidentally we are going to a yarn dyeing workshop on Saturday at a local wool shop. So excited. I bought some yarn to dye when I was at Yarndale this year and am just plucking up the courage to start that so I was delighted to find this two hour course to whet the appetite.  Alex loves doing things like this too. We are planning to make some hand lotion bars soon.  Gosh I'm so lucky my daughter in laws like crafting and don't think I'm some made old bat with more fabric than sense. (or do they????)

When Will was looking for something in the cupboard under the stairs (the black hole in my house) he came across some fabric squares I had cut to make a 'boy' quilt.  So that's where they went! So I have pieces already cut and ready to be my first quilt of 2019. It will be alternating dark and light grey squares with padded 'buttons' and I think, shock, horror, I might machine quilt it.

I believe there are half a dozen or so with the circles already appliquéd.

So the hat is Number 1, the quilt Number 2 and the crochet squares Number 3 of the planned projects. At Number 4, the pink shawl is high up on the list for early 2019, as are some more project bags to hold all these things.  I'm rather in love with project bags, although the first on the list will definitely be a multi-zippered affair for which a pattern has been lurking near the top of the pile for longer than it should have, considering I bought the zippers and chose the fabric some months ago.

The pattern is from Sew Demented, inspired by the one which lovely Karen made  -  she says it is not as complicated as it looks. (She's an extremely neat worker and has a really good eye for detail).  I really just need to get on and do it - Number 5 on the list although the order will change and mingle as the mood takes.

So, on this last day of 2018 I send my very best wishes to you all for a wonderful and fulfilling 2019 and leave you with my favourite picture of the festive season. A little boy, proud to be grown up enough to lose both front teeth but practical enough to wonder how he is going to bite into his food. Happy Chrithmeth Ben!