Tag Archives: 2019 year in review

Dec28

2019 – what else?

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Having just written the post about my knitting and crochet exploits this year, I then looked at the awesome round up of 2018 I did at the beginning of 2019, and thought I’d take a quick look through my blog posts of this year to see what the highlights were.

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Well, it was a good year for travelling. In September, Tai Chi Man and I travelled to the UK, where we stayed in London, Ilkley and Jersey. London was a brief whirlwind of catching up with cousins, and touring the city. Ilkley is in Yorkshire and was our base for visiting YARNDALE! And Jersey is where most of our family members live (in case you haven’t heard of it before, it’s a tiny island in the English Channel, closer to France than England). And of course in December we revisited Maui for a week of fun in the sun.

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It was also a good year for sewing. I made pyjamas, an apron, fleece neckwarmers, infinity scarves, fleece armwarmers, a snowman quilt, a crazy hippie wonky log cabin quilt, napkins, bags (totes, knitting project bags, upcycled denim bags), tops, a cartwheel skirt for my great-niece…altogether a very satisfying collection of creations.

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I was also approached by a yarn company to feature one of my free patterns on their website. It’s my Frond cellphone cosy and they created a pdf of it to include on their site. They sent me a link. However I can’t find the email they sent me so I shall have to hope they get in touch again so that I can let you know where to find the pdf.

I am going to have a giveaway very soon. I shall let you know what it is and how you can be in for a chance to win in the next few days. It will be open worldwide.

For now, Happy New Year to you all.

Dec27

Ravelry review

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One of my favourite makes this year

I love to look back at my year’s knitting and crochet projects on Ravelry every December. Even when I don’t think it’s been a very productive year, I am usually surprised at how many Finished Objects I made.

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One of my few yarn purchases

This year was a good year for using stash. I signed up with the British Banter group on Ravelry to join their Bash the Stash 2019 challenge. The plan was not to go Cold Turkey and buy no yarn at all. My goal was more Lukewarm Sheep. Curb the acquisition of 100% synthetic yarn. Allow myself to mindfully purchase yarn which had at least some plant fibre content.

And, you know, I did pretty well. In January, I bought that pack of Scheepjes Stonewashed and Riverwashed mini skeins. It’s so pretty and I still haven’t found the perfect project for it. But it is on display in my sewing room and I know I will really enjoy using those amazing colours some time in the future. An LYS was going out of business in a nearby town and I bought some cotton yarns from them too. And then…nothing until November, when I went into Michaels and fell for some clearance yarn.

My totals at the end of the year, as posted in the British Banter group, are;

Total out this year: 8115 grams (knitted or crocheted into finished objects or given away)
Total in this year: 3700 grams (purchases and a few gifts)
Net output: 4415 grams (stash reduction)

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I love the finished item even though the garter stitch got tiresome!

Ravelry tells me I made 56 projects this year, but in fact some project pages include more than one item, so it was more like 77.

The summary:

18 hats, 16 dishcloths, 13 decorations/ornaments, 7 cowls/scarves, 7 bags, 6 shawls/wraps, 4 blankets/loveys, 3 toys, 2 headbands, 1 pr socks

and a partridge in a pear tree!!

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My favourite blanket of the year

I have four Works in Progress right now. The pink and grey sparkly shawl which I started in Maui. The Moe of Change blanket which I started in October and then neglected because it requires careful attention to the pattern. The scrap blanket that I’m knitting in the round on a huge number of stitches, which I think will get more attention now that the granny blanket is done. And finally, the cardigan, which was being made from a Secret Yarnery YouTube tutorial and which I had high hopes for. But even though I still like the colourway of the yarn (Lion Brand Mandala Baby in Echo Caves) and even though I actually ordered more yarn to get this cardigan finished, I think it’s going to be frogged. I can’t see myself wearing it and being happy in it. So officially that leaves me with three WIPs to carry me into 2020.

Considering my enthusiasm for sewing right now, three yarn WIPs is plenty. (Perhaps we should talk about my fabric purchases….or maybe not!) I really need to keep a good notebook for my sewing projects the way I do on Ravelry for yarn projects. Past notes tend to be scattered throughout various small notebooks and loose bits of paper, which means that if I want to make another version of a bag, for example, and want to know what size pieces I had to cut, it can be challenging to remember or remind myself what I did.

So that’s my year. What are your crafty highlights of 2019? Did you knit or crochet or sew something you were particularly proud of? Let me know in the comments.