Another New Year

Well, here we are - another new year - and I don't normally make resolutions but this year I did. One of them was to spend more time learning other crafts and not to spend so much time knitting. Don't get me wrong, I love knitting but one can have too much of a good thing and I feel that I'm missing out on other stuff.

Christmas was quietish but fun - relatives on Xmas day and Boxing Day and friends on the 27th. I didn't bother with a real tree but just used our fibre optic one which gives instant effect without any of the bother. I did, however, add some lovely decorations that I had received in swaps to the tree later on so some effort was made.


DS bought me lovely Xmas roses so they graced our hall table and were a welcome sight to all entering.


I finished all of my Xmas crafting in time. Luckily, the recipient of this New York hat and scarf didn't visit until 27th so it didn't matter that the last bits of finishing got done on Boxing Day.


Here's a pic of a washcloth I made along with some handmade soaps which I bought from eBay.


These have now been gifted so I'm adding blog pics.

A final beaded Snow Queen dotee was made which I was going to gift but, in the end, I decided to keep her.


I thought, after all that beading, I deserved to keep at least one. That's not so bad, is it?

To start the year the way I mean to carry on, I learned two new techniques yesterday. The first was cathedral windows. For those who haven't tried this, it's very fiddly, measurements need to be absolutely precise as it involves corners folding in to the centre a couple of times and it's a bit like origami.


I also had a go at making braid from 7 different strands of leftover yarn.




This was the complete opposite of the cathedral windows - easy-peasy! I think I'm now ready to have a go at some more complicated braidmaking using the Hamanaka Kumihimo Disk Kit that I bought at Ally Pally.