Best Nine 2018

And just like that it’s the end of the year!!!

Does anyone else feel the 2nd half of the year went in a flash? What happened to October, I blinked and it was gone!

But that said, I did make rather a lot this year and so this post is all about my favourites and whoa was it hard to choose.  It was not at all the journey I had planned but, well, isn’t that the fun of life?

So I started this year full of ideas about Brambly Wood and plans for creating the wonderful characters my eldest son and I created a couple of years ago.  My head was bursting with lovely wee stories of their adventures, that sadly didn’t get written.  My son has lost his interest in these wee characters you see, no longer excited to make up little stories and draw their pictures.  I fear he is lost to the dark-side … the evil force of  X-box has well and truly got him in it’s clutches … but I know the spark is still there if only we can ignite it again … I do have a cunning plan … and two budding little successors who’s little imaginations are almost ready!

But for now back to what I did actually do this year …

This year was most definitely about recycling and it’s a journey that’s going to continue for as long as I’m able to create.

It started with straws, how to re-use them because they really are a scourge on this beautiful planet.  So I stopped throwing my sons drinks straws (from his packed lunch cartons of fruit juice) in the bin and made them into beautiful flower stems instead.  It started with a little bluebell then other people gave me their straws and I moved on to creating larger flowers using recycled cotton for truly eco creations.  All 3 of my sons teachers were gifted pretty thank you flowers and I had an order for these beautiful white Narcissi, aren’t they just stunning?

Continuing on the recycling path was the realisation that bread bags can not only be recycled with carrier bags (who knew!!!) but make pretty blooming gorgeous colourful “Plarn” too.  So I set to work on saving our own bags and asked friends to keep theirs for me too.  I was overwhelmed by the response and support from local people and one awesome fellow creative who collects them from her school for me and posts them!  This meant I was able to finished my awesome bread bag (& cotton) bag before the summer holidays! It went everywhere with us, the shops, the beach, swimming pool, on holiday.  It’s my absolute favouritist (that is a word, really it is, it was on Bing!) bag ever!

There’s 70 bread bags used here and 6 bagel bags, pretty cool huh?

That’s an achievement I will be shouting a lot about in 2019, I didn’t shout enough this year.  But I was overjoyed to get to clone my bag when I got an order.  And now I have 3 more orders, 2 in purple tones and 1 in green, so yes I still want your bags please.  I’m keeping an approx. running total on how many bags have been reused to date, so far we’re at approx 157 for completed projects and I’ve used a further 40 so far in a current bag in progress.

I did a couple of blogposts about recycling and plarn if you fancy a read or having a go at making your own plarn:  Recycle or Plarn it  and Bread Bag Plarn.

Surprisingly I did do some ‘normal’ crochet with actual yarn too.  I joined in on the fabulous Seaside Stashbusting Blanket CAL (crochet-along) hosted by Coastal Crochet … it was amazing, both the design and to be part of something HUUUUUUGE, what an awesome community to be part of. I made so many new friends, my instagram feed is now full of beautiful crochet from talented crafties all over the world, all thanks to the wonderful Eleanora at Coastal Crochet.  Go check out her blog she’s on WordPress too here.  Although the CAL is now finished, you can still do it, all the posts are there from wk 1 to the very end and she won’t be taking them down, I’m sure plenty will be starting in January, it really is a beautiful blanket.  Lots, like myself, haven’t quite finished yet, but I’m very close, just a few rows left and then the border! Early in the new year I hope and I’ll do a post all about it.  Below is my fav pic of the blanket so far.

Little Berry here must get a mention, isn’t she just adorable?  I finally published her pattern after far too long and I even managed to do a blog post for her, go me!  She’s so cute and much easier to make than she looks.  Her tested pattern is available to purchase on Ravelry.  Here’s the post : New Pattern now out – Berry

My Christmas Fairies kept me busy in November. I had a few orders to get through and it was such a delight to make them.  All that curly hair, I so love doing curly locks, it’s soooo pretty, don’t you think? It’s easy to do too.  I do plan popping a tutorial on here at some point. I took the pics in readiness while I was making all the sparkly orders so I just need to write it up.  The pattern for the Fairy is free on this blog, if you fancy making one next year, click here to go to that post.

More little mini people “Selfie” dollies were made this year, they are just so cute to make.  All are completely unique made from photos of the people they are mini versions of. These 2 were ordered as Christmas presents for adult children and they were both a challenge in their own way.  The son with his tuxedo and bow tie required me to design patterns to fit as there was nothing at all similar out there in pattern-land.  But yay, I wrote the bow tie down and posted the free pattern on Instagram/Facebook and I will add a post on the blog here too.

The gorgeous girlie, oh that beautiful hair, it had to be perfect. I think I did a good job.  Using embroidery cotton instead of yarn transforms hair from ‘dolly’ to very pretty and lifelike, with a glossy sheen to boot.  Oh and her belt, it was a last minute addition that I spotted when I zoomed in on the photo her mum sent.  Crocheted in cotton thread to get the sizing right, it took a whole evening but hey I’m a stickler for detail and I can’t unsee a detail like this once I’ve seen it.  I’m so glad I spotted it and asked her mum about it as it’s her favourite favouritist belt 🙂

My last pic of the 9 is part of a larger order from a wonderful returning customer.  She wanted snuggly cabled cushion covers and we came up with a pattern by Schachenmayr, the Popcorn and Twists Afghan and Pillow.

Minor adaptations were needed to account for different yarn thickness and they turned out so beautiful. I could easily have kept these for myself haha. My lovely customer then asked me to make a throw, similar but not quite the same, so I adapted the pattern quite a bit to achieve the look she wanted.  These beautiful commissions were a big part of my summer and early autumn.

The yarn, the fabulous anti-pilling Studio DK by Deramores is really lovely to work with, it’s soft to touch, not at all itchy and has beautiful stitch definition.  Its very reasonably priced too.  It’s absolutely my go to acrylic yarn for garments and furnishings.  Check out the lovely range here and there’s really great discounts on just now too as I discovered when making this link! Please note this is an affliate link where I get paid a wee commission on your order total, but it costs you nothing extra and helps me keep my blog running.

So there we have it, I could go on and on but I’m sure you’re rather exhausted enough.  I have lots of ideas for 2019, but not plans, for me plans never ever go to plan! I’m gonna just go with the flow.

Wishing you all a year filled with love and happiness in abundance.

With much love, see you next year!

x💜x