Plans

I can remember way back in my teens writing serious lists of new year resolutions. What a laugh they were. More than likely most involved making more of an effort to keep my bedroom tidy and going for long runs. I was always very sporty, hockey, netball, athletics, golf, squash and badminton. Some of those activities required lots of hours of dedication per week and I must have been extremely fit. Yet somehow I always felt that I wasn’t fit at all due to the simple fact that I’m a lousy long distance runner. I competed in 100m and 200m sprint races but never 1500m. I once even roped my brother in to try and build up my ability to jog round the neighbourhood but that didn’t work either.

Many years later and my resolutions, or rather thoughts, for the coming year don’t involve running but I am hoping that my knee will cooperate with longer walks. Before tearing the cartilage in my knee I felt I had a good balance between walking and the more sedentary activity of crochet. I need to restore that balance, both are good for the soul!

Last year I spent a little time putting together a mood board to keep me focussed on the kind of woolly projects I really wanted to make. It’s so easy to get distracted by what is popular online. A fair amount of distraction did happen and there a a few wips to finish off but on the whole it was a productive year. I’ve given away or otherwise used up a lot of the yarn that only served to introduce me to the basics of knitting, I’ve also donated yarn that I will never get round to using and I’ve become really quite discerning about buying new supplies. My stash is pretty much under control at long last! I think I’ve been writing about that for at least two years.

In fact I almost reached for the remaining dk stylecraft in tasteful natural shades to make a crochet animal when I remembered that I had some nicer Drops dk in 100% wool. This will bring me greater pleasure to work with and look at. Of course I will still be seduced by all kinds of yarns when it comes to variegated colours but they also have projects they are ideal for and also bring joy! My little plastic noses were due to arrive yesterday and didn’t. I’ve checked the dog beds because Riley has a sneaky habit of stealing small packages and burying them under his blankets! He paraded round the kitchen this afternoon with an amazon package containing a phone screen saver, luckily the contents were undamaged.

So my crochet plans are only half baked thoughts at the moment but I do know I’ll be giving projects serious thought before jumping in. This year has taught me that blankets are not really my thing. I still have the Scheepjes patchwork blanket to sew together and a ripple blanket half finished. I enjoy hats, mittens and wristwarmers. I enjoy making characters. I’ve got some yarn waiting to be made into cushions, but I’m happy to go with the flow and see where it takes me.

I’m trying very hard to like Instagram at the moment, because that’s where everyone seems to be. I’m not succeeding. I’m happier with the pace of blogging for now. It is useful to look back and see what we did and what I made, especially as I lost a load of photographs this year by filling up my cloud allowance and not bothering to do anything about it and then changing iPads, doh!  (I’m registered under simplenaturalhandmade72 but I’m not posting very often.)