2013

This is a bit late, but Happy New Year!  While not quite back to my usual tornado of energy, I'm getting there!

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to focus on in the coming year .....  Last year, I finally learned to knit decently - and spent the rest of the year making dishcloths.  Which we are thoroughly enjoying, however ... it's time to move on!  I've been thinking about knitting and crochet more as a means of making cloth that is then used for another purpose - like making a sweater from or using for a doily ... or dishcloth!  That might seem weird, but it's helping me to look at how I'm knitting/crocheting.  How do I blend yarns/stitches/colors?  It's opening up some interesting ideas for me. 

When I was in Portland over Christmas, I got a wonderful gift certificate to my current favorite yarn store - Yarn Garden.  I'm still caught up on emerald green, so I spent it all emerald green themed yarns!  One skein of each.  So what do you do with that besides enjoy looking at them?  There was a beautiful knit afghan in the store that gave me an idea - how about  knitting a cloth that I will use for a blanket?  Just a little lap blanket.  So I'm having a lot of fun playing with that!  I'm using size 10 circular needles and just doing straight knitting.  And as I knit away on it, I can feel my mind changing more and more to viewing what I'm doing as creating cloth with yarn.

I want to do more quilting this year ... I played around last year with quilted leaves and am continuing with some small quilted art.  You'll see the first one this Wednesday!  I've also started sketching plans for some art quilts and if I meet a self-made deadline, you should be seeing the first one of those in February.

And .... more spinning.  My poor spinning wheel got put away last May when little c came to visit - and it never came out again.  It's back in the living room now, ready to spin up the piles of roving I've gathered since then!

And continue with my embroidery, fabric surface design, and felt projects!  Wow - it's going to be a great year!

Happy Creating!  Deborah