Reading and Resolutions

Back in 2015 I set myself a challenge to read a book a week, and exceeded my target, reading 53 books over the course of the year.  I had planned to try and do the same in 2016, but for one reason and another I was unable to read at all for many months of the year. I still kept a record of the books that I read though, and have catalogued them on Goodreads as before.  Although there were only nine of them, I did a graph of my reading patterns over the year:

This year I also included four children's books, as 2016 was the year that I introduced my son to Harry Potter, by reading them to him at bedtime.  In a year we managed to get through the first four books, but we are now having a break from them, as the fourth book was quite scary and even induced a few nightmares for the 9yo.  He absolutely loves the series, and is now Harry Potter obsessed, but agreed quite willingly to have a break, so I think he realises how scary they are for him.

Of the five books that I read myself, the one that had the most impact on me was Marie Kondo's The Magical Art of Tidying.  I have wanted to declutter for years, and had a good go a couple of years ago, but it wasn't until I read this book that I was finally able to get rid of a whole load of unnecessary stuff.  My books have now been reduced from an amount that filled two Ikea Billy bookcases, several shelves and many piles on the floor to a much more manageable number that all fit on one Billy bookcase, with space for DVDs and CDs as well.  I can now fit all of my clothes into 2 drawers and half a wardrobe, and I have even managed to reduce my photos to one shelf of albums and some picture frames.  I can't say that I live in a minimalist home, but with three children in the house under the age of 10 that isn't really going to be possible.  I have reached a point however where tidying only takes a few minutes, and feel much better about the space I live in.

As it's the New Year, I have also made two resolutions.  I'm keeping it simple this year, with a plan to read just 24 books over the year, and to finish (or discard) my various crochet and knitting projects.  I have really enjoyed learning to crochet over the last few years, and even managed to design my own crochet bunting back in 2014, but I have ended up with four projects actively on the go and one as-yet-unstarted knitted scarf promised to the 9yo. I have resolved that I will not embark on any more woolly projects until I have either finished or discarded all of these.

Resolutions

Last year I pretty much had one New Year's Resolution - to learn to crochet, and to my surprise I did. I'm a long way off being good at it, but I have managed to complete several mini projects, and am a long way towards finishing a scarf for myself and a blanket for the 5yo.

This year I plan to continue on the same theme. I want to finish the scarf and the blanket but I have been spurred on by a most welcome Christmas present of an Attic24 Yarn Pack. The pack in question is the one which will make a Raindrops Cushion, and I am very excited about it.

Now all I need to do is find the time to sit down and start the project.

Happy New Year to you all.

Mini Crochet Bunting

I've always been a sucker for a magazine, and since taking up knitting last year and crochet this year I have bought more than my fair share of crafty/yarny publications. I usually buy editions that come with free yarn and/or needles and then spend ages looking at the patterns to see if I think I can manage any of them.

I had an early success last year with this knitted cardigan for Rabbit. This was made using a magazine pattern and some wool I already had. The then 5yo was delighted with it.

Then in January this year I used some of the leftover yarn from a magazine to practice granny squares and turned them into a blanket for Rapunzel. The 4yo loved it and tucks Rapunzel into bed with it most nights.

In April I made some more granny triangles, in two different patterns:

My eventual aim is to make some rainbow-flag inspired bunting for summer but I haven't yet got exactly the right shade of purple. One is too dark and the other is too light. So frustrating.

While the rainbow bunting is on hold I found myself browsing the magazines in my local shop again, and ended up buying issue 62 of Let's Get Crafting magazine, which had some rather lovely bright yarn in it. None of the suggested projects grabbed me though, so I decided to experiment with some different styles of granny bunting triangles.

Of the 4 different styles shown, my favourite is the bottom left (with blue on the outside) and I'm proud to say it is all my own design. I can't really believe that I only learnt to crochet in January this year and already I can design patterns. Only in simple treble crochet stitch, but still, to me it seems amazing.  I was enjoying myself so much that within a week I had used up all 4 bright colours and had 16 mini triangles:

I steam blocked them, then used one of the remaining colours from my pack to join them together with a simple double crochet chain. This is the finished product hanging up in my brother's conservatory:

It didn't stay there long though - I brought it home and now it is safely packed away in the Easter box in the loft, ready to be decorative again next year for our annual Easter Egg hunt.

Crochet for Rapunzel

My crochet skills are improving on an almost daily basis. In fact, I am even mid-way through crocheting myself a scarf. However, I keep being delayed in finishing this project by small people asking for various yarn items for themselves or their toys. This one being a case in point. I had bought some yarn in a variety of rainbow hues to make some rainbow bunting for the summer, and was looking at them when the 4yo said "could you use the red, pink and purple to make a scarf for Rapunzel?". It seemed a pretty reasonable request to me, so I made a few teeny squares in those colours:


When I showed them to her for her approval she said: "where's the lellow?". On pointing out that she had not initially asked for yellow she said: "yes I did". There was no arguing with her, so that evening I made some slightly different yellow squares to add into the mix:


These did meet with approval, but apparently the red edging was not good enough, so the finished item had to have an extra yellow edging too. I think it's turned out pretty well myself:


Of course, said scarf is now adorning a radiator and not the intended doll, but the colour scheme was much admired by the 4yo, and I was quite pleased by how neat it looks. Not bad given that I only started learning to crochet this January.

Crochet and other things

I have made New Year's Resolutions in the past, and they have all had two things in common - almost have all related to eating less, exercising more or both and I have failed with almost all of them within a few days or weeks.  So this year it's going to be different.  I have resolved re-start my blog, and to learn to crochet.  And I'm pleased to say that on only day two I am doing pretty well.  I started with a (slightly wonky) small granny square, following a pattern from one of my many knitting magazines:

I was pretty pleased with it, especially because before yesterday I had only ever once used a crochet hook, and that was to put a simple border on a knitted blanket. It was hard to get my head around all the stitches using just 1 colour though, so I abandoned that to work on my first ever granny triangle:

To make it I followed the absolutely excellent instructions on the Attic 24 blog.  I am hoping to move on to producing a whole line of bunting.  I've got lots of remnants of wool leftover from the many knitting magazines I have bought this year, and it would be great to use them up in a practical (and pretty) way.

I've now finished my first triangle, but have yet to block it.  It's a bit wonky, and I haven't darned the ends in yet, but I like it:

I couldn't be more delighted with how quickly I was able to make something with my new skill.  Knitting took a lot longer to get started with.  I haven't given up on knitting though, and in amongst my crochet posts and baking writing I'm sure some knitting will follow.

I only discovered Lucy's blog at Christmas this year, and have been reading it avidly for the last few days - it is very inspiring and I really love her use of colour.  I can thoroughly recommend it - the home page is here.

I just showed this post to my partner who said "but you're called baking doctor and this seems to be about crochet".  This is a fair point, but I felt it would be odd to start a separate blog, so am keeping the same name.  I'll see how I get one with it, but plan to intersperse crochet with baking, knitting and book reviews over the next few months.