Out with the old and in with the new

 

It's New Year's Eve, so time to take a look back at 2012. Let's start off with some of my favourite  projects from the past year.

 

I don't think that I have completed as many projects this year, partly because we have been rather preoccupied with our house move, but I am pleased that several of this year's projects have been knit using my own handspun yarn.

 

So what knitting resolutions did I make at the start of 2012? How many of them have I managed to stick to?

1. To knit from stash as much as possible! Looking through my stash, pretty much all of this year's acquisitions have come through swaps or gifts. I have hardly bought any yarn myself, the main exceptions being the Shilasdair yarn bought on Skye in October, and the three skeins of yarn bought back in June for my Color Affection shawl. I am not going to set myself a target number of balls/skeins to knit in 2013, as yet again I have got nowhere near my target of 100 balls. I shall just try hard to knit from stash, and only buy yarn if I have a specific project in mind and no suitable yarn in my stash.

2. To continue to learn new knitting skills. Another year has passed by with no colourwork! However I did spin yarn to knit a Sheep Heid hat during this year's Tour de Fleece, so with any luck, I will get this knitted up in 2013.

 

3. To carry on spinning. I have been really pleased with my spinning this year. I managed to spin most days during the Tour de Fleece, tried a number of new fibres and had my work mentioned in Hand Spinning News on a couple of occasions. I am also thrilled that Marianne over at Fluff-n-Stuff asked me to test spin some new fibres for her. Here are some of the yarns I spun this year.

 

 

4. To have a go at designing. I didn't manage to design anything this year, my creative juices obviously weren't flowing. Maybe next year?!

 

So now it's time to set myself some yarny goals for 2013. I think they are going to be pretty similar to last year's (and the year before, come to that!!) Here goes!

 

1. To knit from stash as much as possible.

2. To try some colourwork.

3. To carry on spinning.

4. To have a go at designing something.

5. To do some knitting/crocheting for charity.

6. To knit a blanket.

 

So that's me done for 2012. I hope you all have a wonderful 2013, filled with happy times, peace and good health, and a great helping of squishiness too! See you next year! xxx