Happy New Year! v2023.0

Happy New Year my darlings, I hope that you all had a very lovely Christmas, or other midwinter celebration of your choice.  I hope that you've all had a chance to recover from said celebrations by now too!

As usual, I failed to provide my final update of the year on time.  I decided that I would enjoy our little New Year celebration this year, instead of spending the whole time writing a blog post!  Then January happened!

Fortunately, nothing of especial note happened this year.  At least, not on the scale of last year!  I was supposed to be in hospital for a procedure last week, but they've found something new and exciting wrong with me now that meant they couldn't do that procedure after all (I would have preferred if they'd discovered this BEFORE the horrific prep procedure that I forced myself to endure!) So I'm off for more investigations.  So far what they seem to have revealed is that I'm mostly dead, as 2 nurses couldn't find my pulse, even with a stethoscope!  Perhaps I'm a vampire?  This would explain my nocturnal tendencies!

Anyway, let's start with the final update from my 2022 Advent Adventure:

Advent 2022

December 24th

Emmaus charity

Advent of Change:  My Christmas Eve donation went to Emmaus.  "Today you have helped provide a warm, safe place to call home for someone experiencing homelessness this Christmas."

Advent Contents, December 24th 2022

Lindt:  Milk chocolate Santa Claus

English Tea Co.:  Spicy Pumpkin tea

Northern Waxes:  Snow Fairy wax melt

Mint and Mustard Dice:  Transparent, sparkly percentile die, with pink and yellow splashes, and gold numbers

Cuddlebums yarn:  Grey and purple striped yarn with rainbow pops

Is treato time daddy?

Lily's Kitchen:  I have no idea what the treats for Finn were on Christmas Eve, but I'm sure he enjoyed them, whatever they were!

Golden Book:  We really enjoyed the escape room calendar that we did, but I feel like it would spoil the adventure for anyone who chooses to do the same one in the future if I were to tell you where the Golden Book went, and who was responsible for taking it!  I think we will definitely be doing another one of these for Advent 2023.

Mint and Mustard Dice

Dice from the dice advent

Most advent calendars count down to Christmas Eve, and only have 24 doors to open, but this one had a giant door for Christmas Day.  Behind that door was a giant red D20.

I would be more annoyed that I got 2 pearl white D6's, and no matching D8, if I didn't already have a hoard of all kinds of dice that most TTRPG players would be proud of, plus the capability to make more for myself.  As it is, it offends my little Neuro-divergent brain to not have the full matching set, but not so much that I'm willing to actually talk to a stranger to correct it!

Cuddlebums Yarn

All of the advent yarns in use

Usually I would take a photo of all of my new advent mini-skeins laid out together after I'd opened the final door, but this time I wound them, and started knitting with them straight away!  I used each one to knit a single mitred square in my king-size mitred squares blanket, then began using what was left to create a 10-stitch spiral.  These were only 5g micro-skeins to begin with, so it's easy to use them up entirely quite quickly.  I forgot to take a photo of all the little balls of yarn together until I'd already knitted up the remains of the first one.

If you place them all in order, they create a fade that would loop back around on itself, so theoretically you could start at any point.  You'll see this better later on.

2022 Goals:

How did I do with meeting my goals from last year?

1) Learn to grade

Nope!

Mostly due to Eye-mageddon, this very challenging goal had to be abandoned.  I anticipate that it will take me several months to learn this skill, and that I'll have to pay several hundred pounds at least to someone to teach me.  I had neither the time, nor the money to do this last year.

2) Publish Advent Jumper pattern.

Nope!

Publishing this pattern will require me learning to grade first!  Then it'll need to be test knitted, and tech edited.  Things that take time and money I don't have, and didn't have.

3) Sort house out.

Yes!

Not technically a knitting related goal, although sorting things out has made locating knitting materials easier, has uncovered things I'd forgotten I had, and most importantly makes me feel more relaxed in my own home.

There are still a few boxes that need to be gone through with an especially brutal approach, but we're now at the stage where every room in the house is identifiable by its primary purpose, and useable for its primary purpose!  This is immense progress!

4) Knit more than I acquire.

No :(

Soooo close, but not quite.  At the end of the year, including the yarn from my 2022 advent calendar, and the yarn that Stephen bought me for Christmas, I came out with a net gain of approximately 1340m

Numbers can't be exact, as it's very difficult to work out how many metres have been used each year for things like the Mitred Squares Blanket, but I'm still pretty sure more came in than got used.  I'm going to blame the discovery of Foundry Works for this!

5) Make progress on the Mitred Squares Blanket.

Yep!

Again, it's hard to tell, but going by when the last lot of advent yarns appear in the blanket, I would say that I've added 10 rows of squares since Christmas 2021.  That's about half a metre on the overall length of the blanket.

2023 Goals:

Here's what I'm hoping to achieve this year:

1) Sort Stash - Get it all checked, properly organised, and update my records.

2) Cold(ish) Sheep - I'm not operating a total ban on yarn entering my house, but I am taking it a step further than last year.  Knit from stash, don't buy anything that I don't need, and limit my yarn festival visits to just 1. I'll admit that his has been made significantly easier by the recent announcement that Wool Monty won't be happening this year.

3) Sort, and slimline DVD and CD collections - Not knitting related, but definitely sanity related!  We have insufficient space for books in this house, despite having bookshelves in nearly every room.  Part of the reason for this is that we have hundreds of DVDs and CDs, and of course we rarely watch or listen to anything from solid state media anymore.

4) Finish at least one lace shawl - I currently have 2 complex lace shawls, 1 complex lace stole, and a lace scarf on the needles.  I want to finish at least one of these, preferably 2 or 3, before Christmas this year.

5) Spin something significant - I have so much fluff, I really should spin it up.  The only spinning I've done in the last year though has been spindle spinning, which is very slow, so I've barely used up any of that fluff.

6) Weave something - I have several plans for weaving projects in my head, but warping the loom is so labour intensive that I struggle to get started on them.  I really want to get a couple of those projects done this year.

The Regulars

FO's

Hand knitted socks

This pair of socks is my only finished object so far this year.  They were made for Stephen, and originally I'd intended them to be a Christmas present.  However, most of my sock knitting happens either when I'm out visiting people, in waiting rooms for medical appointments, or during our game nights.  Recently though I've taken over the role of primary note taker in our game.  I don't mind at all, and it's only fair - after all, Jo has been taking notes for us all for the last 4 and a half years! - but while I'm busy taking notes, I can't be knitting at the same time, so I've been a lot less productive with my sock knitting these last few months.

These are to my usual un-documented sock pattern, and the yarn is Crazy Zauberball in the colourway "Herbstwind".

WIPs

Partially completed king-size mitred squares blanket

It's difficult to show progress on this blanket.  For a start it's so huge that it's hard to photograph, even when I can manage to spread it out without a certain excitable cocker spaniel trying to steal it!

I reckon I'm almost half way through now.  I'll keep on working on it until the weather warms up, and having all that woolly fabric on my lap gets uncomfortable.

The pattern is Mitred Squares Blanket, by Lu-Ann Krug, and the yarns are just about any kind of wool-based 4-ply you can imagine.

Temperature blanket, 2023

Speaking of the temperature, this is one that I'll be knitting all through the year, regardless of the temperature.  That's because it's a knitted record of the daily high, and low temperature in the village where I live, according to the Met Office.  

There's a different colour of yarn assigned in 5ºC increments, to the possible temperatures that we're likely to experience here in Yorkshire, UK.  If I'd prepared for this project in previous years, I probably would have started with fewer colours, as our temperatures rarely drop below -5ºC, and even more rarely get up above 35ºC.  However, in July last year the UK had temperatures over 41ºC, and in December we had temperatures here in the village down to -8ºC.  I know that people who knitted similar projects last year had to hastily find a couple of extra colours in the summer, so I made sure I had that covered already, just in case.  Hopefully I won't need to use the bright pink!

Temperature and colour key

This is my key, so I know which colour to use according to the days temperatures.  All the way from less than -5ºC, in a greyish blue shade, through green, yellow, oranges, and reds, up to bright pink for temperatures of 41ºC and above.

I added a little extra element to my version of this project too, and that is to record the number of daylight hours as well as both the daily high, and low temperatures.  To do this, I knit one stitch for every 5 minutes of the day, with daylight being recorded in the colour of the daily high temperature, and night time being recorded in the colour of the daily low temperature, joining the 2 colours using intarsia techniques.

During January, our lowest temperature was -2ºC, and our highest temperature was 12ºC, so I've only had to use 4 colours so far.  They have been Poly Unicorn, by Countess Ablaze, Peacock, by Yorkshire Dale Yarns, Rum and Lavabread, by Triskelion, and Enchanted Garden, also by Yorkshire Dale Yarns.  

Note - I've only linked Triskelion, as the other dyers are no longer dying yarn.  I do apologise for sharing yarns that you can't buy any more, but I'm afraid this is likely to be a common side effect of my efforts to knit from stash instead of shopping.

10-stitch spiral

I'm using up the leftovers from my advent yarns to make this 10-stitch spiral.  My intention is to turn it into a snail, which I will then appliqué onto a knitted cushion cover.  I'm loving the way the colours all just run nicely into each other in this rainbow fade.

The pattern is Ten stitch Twist, by Frankie Brown.

Just started socks

Finally, I've cast on another pair of socks, because I cast off the last pair right before I went into hospital for the procedure that never happened.  I had expected time in a waiting room to knit.  I had time in waiting rooms, but I was far too sick to be able to knit.  I think I managed 2 rows in the 2 hours that I was there.  These will serve their purpose when I'm not taking notes on game nights, or when I'm visiting my lovely Heather.

The yarn for these is Opal Regenwald 4-fach, in the colourway "Die Dampfnudeldiebe".

Stash Acquisition

You've already seen the full contents of the Advent calendar by Cuddlebums, so I won't show you that again.  The only other yarn I've acquired since before Christmas is this:

3 random mini-skeins

These were among my stocking filler presents off Stephen on Christmas day.  I know that he bought them at Ewe Felty Thing in Wales, because I advised him while we were there that buying mystery mini-s would be a great way to get something for me that he's confident I'll like, but also counts as a surprise for me!

These particular mystery mini's turned out to be a lovely blend of purples, by Truly Hooked,  beautiful muted autumnal browns by The Woolly Tangle, and an unlabelled mini in pale yellows and blush pinks, with a big splodge of wine red thrown in too, that I have to assume was dyed by the owner of Ewe Felty Thing herself.

I counted the meterage of these in last year's total, as I was given them on Christmas day.  So this year, one month in, I have not bought, nor been gifted, nor acquired by any other means, a single skein of yarn!

Knitting Adjacent

Short tip interchangeable knitting needles

These were my main Christmas present off Stephen.  I know I have lots of knitting needles already, but I also have a lot of projects on those needles!  I've also found that for many projects I prefer to use short tips.  Particularly for smaller in-the-round things, like sleeves, and hats, short tips are just easier.  So I've been looking at sets of short tip interchangeables for a while, but so many of them still have big fat 7, and 8mm tips, but none of the .25 or .75 smaller sizes.  Since I knit primarily with 4-ply, it's the smaller sizes that I use a lot of, and having the option to go up or down by just a quarter of a millimetre can make or break the gauge on a garment.

These are by Lykke, and they start at 3.25mm, and go up to 6.5mm.  They are perfect!

Resin progress keepers

You may recall that in my much delayed first update of 2022 I mentioned that Stephen had gifted me things to do resin craft with, and I think I showed you a photo of a few buttons I'd made with resin.  My latest resin creations have included buttons, but also these sweet little progress keepers.  Of course I have far too many of them now, but they're such a brilliant little instant (ish - it actually takes 24 hours for the resin to set) gratification project!

Emma Ball notebook and notions pouch

A couple of weeks ago I met up with Krissy and her eldest (My eldest God-child, who is now 17!!!) in our local little town centre, and it was the first time I've been there since lockdown.  I confess that I'd been a little bit afraid to go there, just in case my favourite cafe, and trusty little LYS hadn't survived the pandemic.  I'm very pleased to report that both of them have survived, and seemed to be doing well.

Even though I'm severely limiting my yarn purchases this year, I felt it would be rude to visit and not buy anything.  Also, I've been unable to find a couple of my notions pouches for a while now, so I figure it's time to give up searching, and just get a new one.  It's the best way to guarantee that I'll find the old ones within a fortnight anyway!  So I picked up this cute little sheep zip-up pouch by Emma Ball, some tiny scissors, and a project design notebook that has squares on the left hand page, and is lined on the right hand page, plus has some handy little knitters notes in the front, like needle size conversions, and the order of stitches for Kitchener grafting.

Finn

Cute pupper is still super cute!  It's almost exactly 4 years now since we adopted him, and he'll be 12 later this year, but he'll always be a puppy to us.

Finn opening his Christmas presents

This dog is nothing if not predictable. He started opening his presents, got as far as the giant meaty chew stick, and decided that he wasn't all that interested in the rest of the presents after all!

Finn look after sad, poorly mummy, yes?

As I prepared for the medical procedure that never happened, I was feeling pretty rotten, and very sorry for myself.  My baby boy came and gave me the best cuddles, and told me he loves me with his big, soft eyes and gorgeous soft snoot.  He's just the best <3

Penguins!

There's quite a lot of these...

Christmas cards

I don't do Christmas cards.  It's a whole lot of wasted rainforest, effort, and expense, for something that will be in the recycling bin in January.  However, I still have a few friends and family who are less curmudgeonly than I am, and when I do get sent a card, it's a fair bet that it'll have a penguin on it!

Fancy chocolate penguin

I don't do many Christmas presents either.  I give to Stephen and Finn, and unless I see anything that begs to belong to a particular friend, I don't buy for anyone else.  I give that money to charity instead, to people who actually need it.

However, I have friends and family who will insist on buying me Christmas presents anyway!

This was off Kelly and Liz.  It was probably super expensive, and I've still not been able to bring myself to bite into it!  I think this needs an indulgent night in, or more likely several, as it's quite a large chocolate penguin!

Penguin ribbon

Chocolate penguin came tied up with this adorable penguin ribbon too!

Pink penguin needle protectors

These were a gift off Becky, and they're painfully cute!  Tiny little penguins with holes in them to shove over the tips of knitting needles, helping to prevent your knitting from sliding off the needles during transportation (or theft by a cocker spaniel).

Light up penguin chicks

From my sister and nieces, Christmas lawn ornaments that light up.  I've always wanted some of these.  Many of the people in our village go a bit all out with their Christmas lights, there's giant snowmen, giant Santa Clauses, a T-rex in a Santa hat, carrying a present, all sizes of reindeer, a giant robin... I feel a bit like I'm letting the street down, as all I have is a string in the window, and a few wrapped around the tree next to our front door!  Next Christmas though, I shall also have these!

Penguin ice mould

Krissy's kids always try to find me something penguin themed for Christmas.  This year I got a silicone mould intended for making ice, though I might try making a resin penguin with it...

Portly Penguin chocolates

Another traditional gift from Krissy and her family.  They're like posh giant chocolate buttons, decorated to look like really fat penguins!  I love them!

Water Beastie Sticky notes

These arrived addressed to Stephen a few days ago.  He assumes that he ordered them as a stocking filler for me, and they just took so long to arrive that he forgot about them!  I often use this sort of sticky note to mark the chapters in TTRPG rule books that I have to refer to most often.  The GURPS Magic book is crammed full of them right now!

Easter Egg

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Easter!!!

Yep, because that's how Capitalism works kids, as soon as one festival of consumerism is over, it's time to start selling stuff for the next!

Easter eggs have appeared in our local supermarket, but at least some of them have penguins on them.

No, I didn't buy an Easter egg in January just because it had a penguin on it, you did!

Stickers

I've mentioned a few times recently that I've started keeping a journal.  I put stickers in this journal.  Sometimes they have some relevance to things I've done that day, or the weather, or the season.  Sometimes they're purely for decoration.  Often, they are penguins.  I bought this cheap booklet of random stickers, and it turned out to have some penguins in it.  And Polar bears.  And Llamas.

That my dears, is everything!  Well, it's not really, there is another penguin that I bought yesterday, but I can't be bothered to photograph him right now (why are most of my penguins male?  I don't know :/ ) You will get to see him in my next update, which hopefully won't be too many months from now!

Sweet dreams my darlings.