Another year closes and everyone starts their new year resolutions. Mine are more or less the same as last, to reduce my fabric and yarn stash. To make more memories with the grandchildren and enjoy life. I would also like to be tidier- but don’t tell any one.

Last year I managed to donate/sell/gift over half of my yarn stash. I also donated/gifted 50 metres of fabric so that is going well. In 2017 I managed to knit 22 items which equated to 7543 metres of yarn, Thats 7 hats, 6 shawls/scarves, 3 items of clothing and a few cowls.

Stephen West has been knitted a lot the latter half of the year with the  Disastrous Bandwidth Hat that will teach me to check my tension.  the gorgeous Mudmilk hat of which I ended up making 2. In the same Rowan Felted Tweed Chunky I knitted Modish Cowl a really nice quickish easy knit.

The other designer I knitted more than one item from this year was Jo Storie. I finally finished my Cove Cardigan which if I was to make again I would make a little shorter. I also knitted a Cove Snood and another Suffolk Hat making this the third one.  I need to knit another Cove Snood in the same yarn as my cardigan and I may knit the hat this year too.

As usual the year has been one of ups and downs, I prefer to focus on the ups as all in all it’s been a great 2017.  I was lucky enough to spend lots of time and days out with Harry and Evalyn and 2018 I plan to do the same again.

Happy New year everyone, remember, Every Cloud has a Silver Lining

This week has been very productive. I have decreased my WIPs/UFOs. Now there are only blankets still needed to be finished. All are Debbie Abrahams, 2 are from her books and 3 are Mystery blankets. I finished the gorgeous cove tonight and picked up MB2015 to finish a square and have really got the knitting bug back.

Still destashing and am being more ruthless wth what I am getting rid of. Next year I need to work on destashing the fabric  more

As usual life has got in the way of  an update, and crafting. Why do I always leave it to the last minute to knit gifts for christmas and winter birthdays? I do it every year, in January I may knit a hat or a set of mittens with the intention of knitting one item every month to prep for the festive season. Of course it doesn’t happen.

These last few months I have crammed knitting into every spare minute and have managed to knit 2 scarves, 1 shawl, 1 pair of mittens and  3 hats. I am still in the knit zone so want to continue until I lose my knitting mojo.

One of the hats I knitted was Stephen Wests Mudmilk design. I used Rowan Felted Tweed Chunky from stash, this was to be for my appreciative son in law , this was until I tried it on and liked it. This is now mine and I need to knit another one the same for him.

This has been the season for continuing to knit from stash and it has been a successful quarter. I continue to donate oddments and those yarns and fabrics I will not be using to a local school. For projects since October I have used from stash:

• Rowan Alpaca Chunky x 1 for some last minute much needed mittens
• Rowan Alpaca Chunky x 4 for the Decemberist shawl (will be knitting another one of these)
• Rowan Felted Tweed Chunky x 6 for Mudmilk hat
• Knitting Academy Gemstone x 1 for Maddie hat
• WI chunky for a unicorn hat scarf 
• Mirasol Nuna x 3 for a slip stitch scarf