Category: General

2019 Good Intentions and Plans/2018 Review

I am not attempting any grand goals or setting many resolutions for 2019. 2018 was a bit of a hectic year, what with buying my first house and moving into it. But I do like to review and contemplate, so a brief look back at the year that was and a look forward into the year we’re edging into.

When I restarted this blog, I had quite a few WiPs skulking about. I am very pleased to say that they are all FOs now, partially helped by the house move as I was galvanised into finishing so that I wouldn’t have to pack them.

So, in 2018, I made: [* denoting where a WiP was completed]

I also completed two small embroideries and started a few more WiPs! Mostly relating to English Paper Piercing.

So, that was a whistle-stop tour of 2018.

What does 2019 hold? Certainly a fair amount of DIY (some of which may appear on the blog; I have yet to decide on that, some of which is going to be boring home-ownership related, like replacing parts of roofs and adding more insulation.) and a focus on stash usage across my crafty pursuits ( which should be easier now that all my craft crap can live in a room of its own), so I can afford such exciting things as…more insulation and a roof that isn’t likely to leak unexpectedly.

Handily, Louise from Knit British has brought the Good Intentions Club back again (Rav thread with 2019’s dates), which focuses on matching the patterns in your library with the stash you have, so I’ll be drawing on that as my main inspiration for 2019. So far, I have only picked two Good Intentions and they are for Quarter 1, Oliver’s Hat, for which I have the yarn bought specifically for it in the stash and Quarter 2 will be a Carbeth Cardigan, the yarn for which I got as birthday present.

And on the crochet side of things, I got the yarn pack for the latest Attic24 CAL, the Sweetpea blanket for Christmas, so while I am not going to be racing to keep up with the CAL, I am going to be doing a gentle CAL with my knitting workmate J over 2019.

I’m also test knitting for fellow OUaSer Kat – yarn from the stash is ready to go! – over the next few weeks as well as doing very well with my current sock WiP of the Beaufort Socks, which I bought as a kit and so had in the stash. (5-ply yarn on 2.5mm needles is whizzy!). There will continue to be sock projects that are as of yet undecided because I am not short of sock yarn in the stash.

Related to my stashbusting; I am not going on a yarn ban but I am going to try not buy skeins that I don’t need. I have a couple gift vouchers that can come into play (one of them is tentatively earmarked for a project that may turn up later in the year.) but really, I have enough to be getting on with and enough other WiPs to complete that 2019 should be going along fine.

Got any grand plans for 2019?

Oops!

I missed Once Upon a Sock due to various things but as I hadn’t made any further sock progress at the time, it’s probably better deferred to next time.

I haven’t really managed a huge amount of anything, really. This heat, while lovely on paper, is sapping my will to live. I am much better suited to a dry heat and a country that has built for heat (I was born and mostly raised in Gauteng – formerly part of the Transvaal province – in South Africa) – than I am for a humid heat in a country where buildings are designed to retain heat (my office in particular – it’s 28c in here right now, with three fans on and all the blinds shut.).

What limited brainpower I have is also currently occupied with terrifying/exciting (I windmill between the two emotions) legal paperwork and solicitors as t’hb and I are hopefully buying a house! It has been a plan for years but it all seems to have kicked off in the last month with our offer on a house being accepted. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahh! Fingers crossed that searches and surveys etc. all go smoothly.

IMG_3297I have managed to do a bit more sock and on one of the crochet blankets and I am embarking on a online English Paper Piercing class with my old flat/blogmate, TJ, which we are using as a way to recreate our previous crafty life together/hangout despite living in different cities now.

I have done EPP before and find it quite soothing, so although I am only one motif in, it has been nice to have something very small and quick to do when brain is awake/not wrangling legal stuff/herding solicitors (as an ex-law librarian, I am very skilled in that latter part.) and that isn’t too hot.

As for the crochet shawl for my brother’s wedding? Not happening. A combination of miscounting and a really sticky yarn means it is hiding in the naughty corner. It was a nice to have and I will probably rescue the yarn or pick it up again when I am less bear of little brain/less deadline driven.