I haven’t forgotten the blog entirely, but have been a terribly slack blogger in the past year. I don’t foresee any great improvement on that front either unfortunately . I often don’t have the energy to write a post or the content to write about!

The thought of losing the blog entirely though is sad. I like to look back over the past years and see what I’ve produced, and the progress I’ve made with my crafting skills. One of my favourite blog things to write about is the re-cap of my knitting over the past year and list my goals for the year to come. I didn’t do it last January, and was sad when I couldn’t tick off any of my goals because I hadn’t written them down.

So here we go:

2011 Retrospective

Socks - 8 pairs, focusing on texture in the first half of the year and colour in the last half.

shawls - 3, all towards the last part of the year and focusing on geometric blocks of colour

cardigans - 3

vest - 1

toys - 4 - fussy fiddly, multi-piece adorable toys.

blankets - 1 - my gorgeous noro blanket I blogged about in June.

hats - heaps - I knit many hats for gifts and didn’t keep track.

baby stuff - a couple of cardigans and a couple pair of booties.

Sadly it seems my knitting output was quite low in 2011. I focused on using bright colours in combinations I wouldn’t normally chose, but didn’t really learn any new techniques.

So for 2012 I have some big goals:

* knit true lace - patterned on both sides.

* design something and write down the pattern

* learn to double knit.

* knit a full size mens aran jumper (for my average sized Dad, not my humungous husband)

* more fairisle and steeking

I’m already working on the fairisle and steeking, with the fabulous pattern Rams & Yowes.

I hope to have this finished in the next month or two! I’ll make sure to report back then, or with luck, maybe even sooner!