As I'm sure you've guessed, my body decided that I needed rather more rest than I'd given it, especially after I drove up to Newcastle and back for my step-dad's birthday, and collecting the last few items from dad's house before we put it on the market. I can't honestly say how I feel right now, because my mood changes on an hourly basis, influenced heavily by pain and fatigue. Suffice to say though, I'm currently quite delicate and fragile. Hoping desperately that 2020 is better than the last 6 months have been, but with Brexit looming, that hope is slim at best. I'm genuinely struggling to summon any lasting enthusiasm for anything, but I am trying.
I really do apologise for my inability to infuse much joy into this update, but I feel I need to get it done, regardless of my state of mind.
This is the first update of a new year, so as well as all of the regular stuff, I'll also take a look at my goals from last year, and my new goals for this year.
WIP's
I have no finished objects, as the only things I've been working on since Christmas day have been quite large projects. Mostly, I've been working on a sweater:
Not bad progress I think, all considered. I've made a few adjustments to the pattern as it's written, but nothing too dramatic I think. I prefer a longer sweater, I've never liked the appearance on my body shape of sweaters that stop at the waist, they're not terribly flattering on my figure, and they do tend to create a clothing gap that results in a chilly midriff. So having found that I had more yarn left than I expected when I reached the point at which the pattern instructed a change between the first colourway and the second, I chose to knit a few more rows, then alternate colourways for a few rows to create more of a fade effect. I worked the stated 5 inches of the second colourway after this fade section, before starting to fade in the third colourway. I should have plenty of yarn left for the sleeves, especially as I'm not a fan of long sleeves, so I'll probably aim for 3 quarter length. I haven't decided yet if I'll work a condensed version of the full fade for the sleeves, or simply stop when I reach the length I want, regardless of which colourway I'm currently using.
The yarns are all by HeyJay Yarns, and came as a pack of 4 different colourways that would work well as a fade, none of those colourways have a name. The pattern is Ground Pepper by Suvi Simola.
Not a lot of progress has been made on my mitred squares blanket, but I have added a couple of squares.
Stash Acquisition
I'm putting the remaining mini-skeins from my Homespun Wonders 12 days of Christmas box in this section.
Days 4 - 8.
Days 9 - 12.
I've actually already shown you all of these, but I thought you might like a better view. These are the yarns that were inside various Christmas Baubles. The first 2 on the left are both by Made by Penguins, and the remaining 3 smaller mini-skeins are by For the Love of Yarn. The stitch markers were also attached to the baubles.
These are the skeins from the 3rd month of the 4 month long Dark Crystal Club by Beehive Yarns. This month's theme was "Brea".
This arrived this morning. It's the first Homespun Wonders subscription box of 2020. This year they are using Exotic Birds and Butterflies as the inspiration for their monthly colourways. The inspiration for this month is the Amathea Butterfly.
Finn
Mostly the weather has been far too wet and miserable for long and interesting walks with Finn, but for a few precious hours on Saturday there was sunshine, so we took him to Rother Valley Park, where he enjoyed a lot of interesting sniffs, chasing his ball, and playing with other dogs, mostly other spaniels to be fair, including an adorable 4 month old cocker spaniel.
Rother Valley Park has a little central area with a small cafe, and a few independent craft shops, including a Doggy Bakery!
Penguins!
The last few Christmas presents that I received included chocolate, gin, and penguins :) This beautiful trinket box was a gift off Kelly's mum. I love that it's made from recycled materials.
These sweet little cards by Penguin Ink were a gift off Kelly and Liz. I can't decide which one is my favourite!
Hopes, Dreams, Aims, and Goals
My goals for 2019 were:
* Sort out my budget.
I think I sort of managed this, partly because I did finally get my PIP sorted, but also because I made an effort to keep a track of what I was spending. However, what I've learned for certain during 2019 is that no matter what I know is a sensible budget, if I'm stressed and/or miserable, I won't stick to it.
* Do my physio every day that I'm supposed to, instead of one time in 3, then maybe my wrists won't be in agony after knitting half a dozen rows.
I was doing well with this for the first few months of 2019, then following my Knee surgery in June, and the loss of my dad in July, all thoughts of Physiotherapy were relegated to low priority.
* Get back to working on reducing my number of WIPs and UFOs, with the aim of being in single figures by next new year.
Nope! I spent the summer knitting socks, because I couldn't concentrate enough for anything more. Ancient WIP's very much took a back seat. I'm ending the year with exactly the same number of WIP's that I started it.
* Do more spinning! Including trying to make it to more of the Travelling Spinners meet ups.
I did make it to a Travelling Spinners meet up in the first half of the year, and I did do a little bit of spinning. Not as much as I'd have liked, but then not only was there the disruption of knee surgery and losing dad, the Travelling Spinners group also dissolved over the summer.
* Knit more garments.
I did finish one sweater, and cast on a second. That's probably more garments than I usually make, although not as many as I'd hoped.
My goals for 2020 are:
* Create my own craft room.
This will involve clearing out the one remaining junk room, moving our bedroom, and moving Stephen's office, as well as bringing my remaining Stash from Kelly's, and fully moving in with Stephen.
* Reorganise stash and update Ravelry.
This will be necessary after moving everything into the new Craft room, but it's also a good opportunity to make sure that everything on Ravelry is correct.
* Reduce number of long-term WIP's.
I still hope to get down to single figures at some point!
* Buy less yarn on Impulse.
Knowing that stress-induced impulse purchases are a weakness for me, I'm going to consciously try to succumb to them less frequently.
* Work on my Mitred Squares Blanket all year, instead of just December and January!
I've got a lot of mini-skeins to use up, so I'm going to keep on using them.
So, that's it. Goals set, and up to date.
Take care my dears, I'll be back soon.
