Friday 24 January 2020

The Rest of the 2020 Plan

I mentioned in my 2020 Plan post that I'd broken my projects into 3 groups, I shared the first group, the started projects in that post, now I'll own up to the other two groups.

Ready To Go
1 Highland cushions
2 Colourwork stocking
3 Scheepjes hat
4 Scheepjes shrug
5 Hitofude
6 Blythes Spirit 
7 Lottie and Albert Blanket 
8 WM quilt
9 Bird quilt 
10 Xmas mini
11 Socks
12 Cross stitch bookmark

The list above are projects for which I have the pattern and all the materials ready to start whenever I need a new project. 

Require Refinement 
1 Cat quilt
2 Freya dress
3 Xmas lucy's terrace
4 Advent socks

5 Joni dress
6 Rainbow quilt
7 Purl soho cowl

And this list are projects that still need some elements purchasing for them. There is a chance that enthusiastic buying will cause one or two of these to change lists quickly!

So I have plenty to keep me entertained for the year and that's before any side track projects come along! And just a reminder that I have no target to finish a certain number of these projects, this is purely for interest (a reminder for myself). 

And just in case you think I'm being over optimistic I have made progress on three on my WIPs this week:


The third quarter of the Hue Shift Afghan is complete. 


And a little sewing has been achieved on the Alice cushion and the Xmas Stars quilt. 

Wednesday 22 January 2020

Making Cakes

I have always enjoying baking, making cakes and biscuits. But, I haven't done it so much recently for two reasons, firstly there's only two of us and we don't snack much so a batch of cake or biscuits would be wasted (in theory, practice has shown this isn't the case!), secondly recently my bakes have been hit and miss, the hits are definitely becoming the norm but there is still the odd issue (I blame a dodgy oven, too much bake off causing overthink and occasional miscalculation). Anyway we had some baking ingredients that were starting to get near the end of their life and work colleagues who like cake so I decided to do some baking. I also wanted to try out my mini victoria sponge tin, I've had it 3 years and never used it!


The tin looks like a muffin tin but it has vertical sides and loose bottoms. My biggest concern was the cakes sticking but none of them did. 


Filled with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam, they turned out very nicely if I do say so myself (of course I tried one). The work colleagues have asked what's next on the list, I'm thinking mini carrot cakes.

I tried an alternative but of cake making this week too. 


With a recent increase in yarn buying I've treated myself to a swift and winder, not being sure if I'd get on with it I only bought a cheap winder with a view to upgrading if it was useful. 



Well I'm not sure if it's an upgrade that is required of just some practice but this cake doesn't look as good as the edible ones. Having said that it's usable and ended up like tv his quicker than if would have with hand winding. Think I'll look up some yarn winding hints and tips. 

Saturday 18 January 2020

First FNSI of the Decade - Results

I only had a couple of hours to dedicate to sewing this Friday but I think I made the most of it. 

I decided to work on my Mini Pumpkins Quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew; she was also the designer of the Slam Dunk Quilt. There's a lot of 1 inch and 1.5 inch pieces so I was nervous that it would be very fiddly.


Not the case at all. 


The pieces flew together and even lent themselves to chain piecing. 


This was the results after two hours of sewing (and snooker watching) - 8 leaves, 8 big pumpkin bodies and 4 stripey blocks destined to become pumpkin bodies. 

I'm really enjoying this pattern, which is lucky as I'm already hoarding orange scraps for a second!

I also managed some rows on my Floozy cardigan after dinner. 


Hope everyone else had an enjoyable FNSI. 

Wednesday 8 January 2020

The 2020 Plan

After some consideration I've decided on a plan for this year. I'm not going to set resolutions or target a number of projects to finish, I'm just going to work through my WIPs and see what I achieve and if I get distracted there's no pressure.

Luckily I have quite a lot of WIPs in various states of progress and across all my crafts so I shouldn't get bored!

I've broken my projects into 3 groups (there is a fourth but this is more of a wishlist of ideas so won't be featuring).

The first group is UFOs - projects already started, the second is the ready to go's - projects that are ready to be started whenever, the third is requires refinement - projects that need some extra bits, in at least one case a pattern, before they can be begun. 

The UFOs are as follows:

1 Hue Shift Afghan 
2 Floozy 
3 Sparkle Punch Quilt 
4 Alice cushion 
5 Aran squares
6 Pumpkin mini
7 Xmas stars
8 Wedding quilt
9 Opal socks
10 Jessa shorts

All things which have appeared previously on this blog and some items on which good progress is being made and to prove this here's the progress on the Hue Shift Afghan in the last three evenings...


I think I'll save the other two lists for later in the month. At least I'm not trying to complete any of them, in fact I'm expecting to add to them! 

Saturday 4 January 2020

12 Things in 2019 - End of Year Summary

At the beginning of the year I joined in a challenge to complete 12 craft projects in 2019.

My list of projects was as follows:

1. Highland cushions (sewing)
2. Xmas quilt 1 (sewing)
3. Xmas quilt 2 (sewing)
4. Hue Shift Afghan (knitting)
5. Colourwork stocking (knitting) 
6. CBTL (crochet)
7. Floozy cardigan (knitting)
8. Keep It Simple Shawl (knitting)
9. Hat (knitting)
10. Cat quilt (sewing)
11. Scheepjes Shrug (crochet)

12. Sparkle Punch Quilt (sewing)

It turns out it was quite an optimistic list. 
I completed 4 of the projects:

The Keep It Simple Shawl 

CBTL 

And Xmas quilts 1 and 2.

I also made progress on three other projects:



The Floozy cardigan, the Sparkle Punch Quilt and the Hue Shift Afghan (photo is my progress on the third quarter). 

Looking back to create this summary it's become clear that I didn't focus solely on the 12 Things. I've also finished a baby quilt, another CBTL, the Slam Dunk Quilt and a pair of socks this year and fiddled about with two EPP projects and made some tentative steps in clothes sewing. 

Do I have a favourite Thing? Nope, I'm the kind of person that my favourite thing is my current WIP or latest finish, often both. Having said that I'm enjoying the Hue Shift Afghan more than I expected to when I first received the kit. 

I've kind of enjoyed having a set list to work from, but I've also found myself feeling a bit pressured to complete more (12 Things feel like you should finish a project a month) . I think I will challenge myself to get things done next year, but not set myself a fixed number, more of that in another post.