Hello! I can’t believe how bad I’ve been at updating this blog this year. But looking around, I’m not the only one. Lots of the craft blogs I used to follow seem to have stopped, and lots have migrated to Instagram. Much easier to share a quick snap of work in progress than it is to write a blog post about it – which is a shame actually. I like crafty blogs and they’ve taught me a lot. (Apologies, it’ll be a miracle if you ever learn anything from this one: sadly, I’m not very skilled!) Anyway. Two things I’ve made in the last week:

I made a little duckling (a Claire Garland pattern), and a little christmas hat and scarf to go with it. I was quite pleased with the hat, actually – just knitted 30 stitches and then decreased gradually. The scarf is a 4 stitch icord. And the wee duckling is very cute, even if I do say so myself. That said, I made one right before this one, which was also nice but.. just a bit small. I think I didn’t give him enough stuffing. He needs more than you’d think.

I also made a loaf of sourdough bread. To be fair, this isn’t big news as I usually bake one a week, however, they’re unpredictable, which means making them for other people is always a risk (for me). This one was for my parents and seemed to go ok. I have another loaf on the go right now for friends. The starter is just coming up to speed, and I’ll begin the loaf later this afternoon and bake it tomorrow morning. It is a faff. But usually a useful, tasty, preservative-free faff, so that’s something.

Aside from that, I’ve been bashing out socks as my go-to pickup/putdown project. They look like socks, which no one is ever that excited about so I haven’t bothered writing about them. I need another shawl-type project. Something that’ll keep me going through the year. Despite the fact they usually drive me a little bit nuts, I do like it when they’re over (!) and I miss them when they’re gone.

Some of the oldest socks I’ve made are almost beyond repairing now… Although I’ll think about patching over the patches (maybe this exhibition would have some ideas?) Ideally, it feels like there must be a neat way to detach the foot from the ankle, as the ankles are always fine. That said, it’s not like I have a sock shortage.

I also need to knit three more bunnies or bears: three friends have babies on the way. I’ll make two small ones, I think, and one big one. The big one is for a baby brother to a child I’ve already made a big bunny for. Seems a bit rude to give the younger brother a smaller one. We’ll see.

Plans for the new year? Not sure. But I should make more things, if I can. We’ll see.
Anyway: here’s to 2025, I hope you have a happy, healthy, peaceful new year. x