January crafty progress

January has been as it always is, a busy month.  Britain has been slammed with snow which has, in an unusual turn of events, almost completely missed my part of Scotland.  I am very pleased about that as whilst snow is fairly common here, the public transport doesn't cope well with it.

Knitting progress has continued this month with two finishes so far.

Baker Street mittens in Old maiden aunt BFL aran in Royal



Karise in Wollmeise sock yarn Fritzi frizzante



Both of these designs are by the very talented Karina aka Kariebookish and you can see more of her designs on her blog -  http://www.fourth-edition.co.uk/knitting-crochet-patterns/ and also on Ravelry.

I've also been stitching a little and made some progress on a couple of projects.  Today I even finished this little needlepoint kit.



I've also been making a little jewellery - these are for the bridesmaids of a colleague who is getting married in a few weeks.



The other positive thing is that I passed the 2nd module of the MSc I am working on which means I can move on to module 3 next week.

2013 plans and themes

This year, I'm hoping to stitch a lot more. I am going to join with Heather's theme-a-licious themes again. Again the graphic for this year really swung it for me - how could I resist the lovely David Tennant as the Doctor.



Stitching wise, I hope to finish Autumn Queen and Japanese Octagon box, which are both long term WIPs and I think this is pretty realistic. Anything else is a bonus.

Knitting wise, I think it might be a year of cardigans and socks. Some of my previously knit socks are a little worn and I have a lot of sock yarn so that seems like a perfect match. I've worn the Stevie cardigan I knitted last year a lot and my wardrobe really needs more cardigans for the somewhat variable temperatures at work. I also want to get more comfortable with colour work this year.

Life goals for the coming year are fairly simple - continue with the MSc and the job and have more fun. I'm hoping that my Internet dating journey results in finding someone special and I'm currently working on that.

2012 progress report

Well 2012 is finally over so it's time to look back at the year, both from a craft and life perspective. It was a very challenging year for me.


Stitching wasn't something that happened a lot this year. My stitching slump has continued somewhat although I am seeing signs of it ending.. I made quite a bit of progress on Autumn Queen and I'm hoping to finish it in the next month or so.

Here's what she looks like now



Another big finish was Elizabeth's stocking by Shepherds bush which I also turned into a stocking, along with 2 previous Shepherds Bush stockings. One for me and the others for my sister and her husband - they loved them.








Knitting continued to take up a lot of my time and I finished quite a few things, most of which you can see here.




I haven't been so good at updating photographs and sharing progress however. My computer began to slowly die earlier this year and finally gave up the ghost in September but it has now been replaced with a shiny new iMac so I'm gradually trying to catch up.

Life has remained very busy. I've now finished the second module of my MSc and am anxiously waiting my results. Work has remained very challenging as I've started working towards promotion but it continues to go well.

September brought my 40th birthday and a lovely trip to Ireland. Being 40 has turned out to be much less scary that I would have ever thought and in a lot of ways, I feel like it has freed me from a lot of things. I had said I want to try a lot of new things before my birthday, time meant a lot of that didn't happen but I have tried a few new things. Having been very single for a long time, I've been trying Internet dating, it's been scary, sometimes frustrating and upsetting but ultimately fun so far. More about that later though.

Sadly the situation regarding my uncle's death has turned out to be more devastating that we hoped. He was murdered and the police are currently looking for a suspect. This site explains the situation and who they are looking for - www.michaelpoldingmurder.co.uk . It has made 2012 a very difficult year indeed.