Some people write New Year’s resolutions, others choose a word for the year, and most people don’t do either! I was feeling particularly philosophical on New Year’s Day this year, and decided that I would try to “set the tone” for the year.
I spent the day doing a little of a few things that I hoped I would do more of through the year. I tried to create a tasting platter for the year to come, if you will!
I sowed broad bean seeds in our greenhouse. We didn’t manage to grow any vegetables in our garden last year. It was one of the things we let go in order to focus our energy where it was most needed. It was completely necessary, but I missed the rhythm of growing our own as well as the delight of eating produce straight from the garden. I know for certain I want to pick the garden back up this year, so the first thing I did on New Year’s Day was to go out and plant some broad bean seeds.
Having washed up, I then moved on to a different kind of sewing. I have been sewing fairly consistently for the last three years or so (a positive pandemic side effect). I love making my own clothes, and nothing pleases me more than a fully me-made outfit (underwear excepted). I am planning to make jeans for the first time this year, so I started the year with a warm-up project of a quilt for a new extended family member. I didn’t work on the quilt for too long. I just spent an hour or so starting to piece the 4-patches. Since then I’ve nearly finished the quilt, which you can see above has a pretty “hidden star” motif. The pattern is from this book of designs for pre-cut fabrics, and I am using a very old Moda layer cake for the fabric.
Next up was some crochet! I fell for Jane Crowfoot’s beautiful Magic Circles Scarf (Jane’s website, Ravelry link) at Yarndale 2021 and I’ve been waiting for the right moment to give it a go. Over Christmas, Jane was sharing blanket photos on her instagram feed, and all of the examples of the Magic Circles Blanket were absolutely stunning!
Now I am definitely not competent enough at crochet (yet!) to tackle a blanket, but the scarf looks manageable, so I sat down and hooked a few circles to get a feel for it. I am hoping that I will manage to make this shawl and in the process that I will improve my, currently very limited, crochet skills. I’m using a bag of leftovers of Rowan Felted Tweed, which is hooking up beautifully.
And finally, of course, I knitted.
This is a tank top (US vest) that I’m making for Jim. It is loosely based on the Silwick Vest by Sandra Manson (J&S link, Ravelry link). I have switched out the colours, and also the Fair Isle pattern on the lighter background. I didn’t have enough shades of the naturals that would show up against the Katmollet I was using for the lighter background. So rather than hunting around for more yarn, I swapped out the large OXO motif for a smaller peerie motif and just used the two darker shades (Shetland Black and Moorit) that I already had on hand. I’m really pleased with how it is looking.
So those are my intentions for the year: more gardening, more sewing, more crochet and more knitting. No pressure, just the things that I’d like to do.
What I failed to do on the 1st January, which I really should have done, was to write a blog post! It is definitely my intention this year to get back into the habit of blogging, but I didn’t quite get around to it on my setting the tone day, and as you can see, it has taken me a few weeks to rectify that. Hopefully my omission isn’t a sign that I won’t get around to blogging all year!!