New Year, Same Crafts

First off, Happy New Year! I hope everyone’s holidays were amazing. We had a really quiet but fun Christmas and an most excellent new year’s eve featuring the best decision I made in 2022: acquiring a karaoke machine.

I still haven’t finished unpacking. The quest to get all our furniture has not been the most fruitful and resulted in last night’s trip to Ikea. We tried, but we need to stop living in chaos and I desperately need to unpack my sewing machine because I miss it terribly.

That isn’t to say I haven’t been crafting… or that I haven’t started something sort of completely new…

Just a heads up, this post contains affiliate links. For more information on what affiliate links are and how I use them, check out my Affiliate Link and Sponsorship Disclaimer.

I found out that I’m going to be an Aunt again! I knew I wanted to make something extremely cute, and when I found this Bear Necessities Set I couldn’t get it out of my head. The pattern contains a blanket, hat, sweater, a little varsity jacket, and a crocheted bear. I decided to do the blanket, hat, and sweater. This is hands down the hardest thing I’ve ever knit. It’s got bobbles, it’s got mock cables, it’s got cables, a little bit of colourwork, and there'll be embroidery on the whole thing at the end. Not to mention weaving in all those little ends from the colourwork portion.

But man, it’s just so cute.

The pattern is really well written and now that I’ve got the pattern down pat it’s going quite smoothly. I won’t lie, after the whole blanket and now the sweater it’s feeling a bit tedious but it’s worth it because again, look at it. The entire thing is so adorable.

This is also the first time I’ve ever knit with the yarn suggested by the pattern. It’s Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. It’s a merino/acrylic/cashmere blend. I chose it for a few reasons- the colour of the sample is perfect, and my brother is a bit of a fancy guy and will appreciate cashmere. Most of all while I know he and his wife would take the utmost care of something I made for them and would handwash it and do everything, baby stuff should be machine washable. It’s just fair. They’re very outdoorsy though so I might make a set with some super warm 100% wool for when they go winter hiking.

Honestly, I love baby stuff but I’ve been doing so much of it for so long that I’m ready for a break. I haven’t done any work on my sweater- it’s currently on a lifeline because I needed the needle cord for the baby blanket and I’m just ready to make something for myself. I can’t wait to get back to turning off my mind with miles and miles of stockinette.

I was searching for craft stuff on my magazine app and came across a pattern for a crochet AND knit blanket in 100 Days of Crafts Magazine. Basically, each square has the same patterns but one is knit and one crocheted. I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility of a blanket that combined the two. I don’t know why I found it so incredibly wild but I knew what I had to do. I bought this cotton yarn ages ago for… something. I can’t for the life of me remember, but I’m happy I did. I’m concerned about how some of these are fitting together but we’ll see how it ends up.

I’m intrigued by the idea of the magazine. I obviously do a lot of different crafts so when something comes out that might have a chance of applying lots of different techniques and skills to a single project I get really excited.

I’m using Schachenmayr Catania. It’s a sport weight 100% cotton. It’s not super splitty, it’s quite dense, but I think it’ll be a good summer evening blanket.

I also started a temperature blanket. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept you pick colours, assign them to temperatures and use the daily high to add the next row to a blanket. By the end of the year, you have a gorgeous, warm blanket. I’m using the Temperature Blanket pattern by WoolnHook. There’s a lot of great stuff in this pattern. First off, it’s not just a standard one-row of this one-stitch blanket. Secondly, she gives some ideas for colour packs. I chose her winter one for this year. I didn’t want to use acrylic so I approximated the colours best I could with Drops Karisma. So far I’m loving this project. I haven’t had to repeat a colour yet, but looking outside I think I need to check if today might be the day.

On the embroidery front, I’ve finished my Kiriki Press Summer Sampler. I’m not 100% in love with my woven picot petals, but for a first shot I’m quite proud of myself. I also am really happy with how my satin stitch is coming along.

I hooped up the Moth Sampler next. I’m not going to lie, I hate long and short stitch but I love how it looks. I’m hoping if I practice it lots maybe I’ll learn to love it.

I have no idea where my embroidery pencil case with the threads for this one has gone, so unfortunately this guy’s on pause until I find it. I do miss embroidery so hopefully that’ll be soon.

I mean, after I finish the embroidery on the baby blanket.

As I’m writing this I’m starting to feel like maybe I do too many crafts but I also think it’s not possible to do too much of something you love. Apparently crafting is healthy?

I’m going to run with the health thing. So, for the sake of my mental health, I decided to learn something new… ish. In my younger days beading was my primary craft. I used to sit on the floor in the guest room listening to tapes and would just be there for hours. It got to the point where my family called it the bead room. Despite being seriously into it I never actually learned any of the stitches. Now that I’m in a city with a really good bead shop I decided to give it a go. I found a class on Craftsy- Essential Seed Bead Techniques and have started on the first lesson- even count peyote.

I think the biggest challenge with beaded jewellery is that it can be very aging and can look very cheap. I’m trying to pick my colours carefully so I can have more of an opulent look that’s young and fun.

My biggest criticism of the class so far is it doesn’t teach you how to change threads. I attempted to just guess but I don’t think it looks very good. Luckily, I found my big craft book and it shows it in there. I’m going to pull apart this bracelet and redo it. I’m liking the colour combination and can’t wait to wear it. I’m honestly surprised how easy the peyote is. I’ve always though bead stitches were some wild thing I could never do and I’m glad to see I was wrong.

I haven’t been gardening at all lately, aside from the basic work of keeping houseplants alive. I’m hoping to find some planters for the balcony and I’ve put in an application for an allotment so hopefully I’ll get on a waitlist somewhere. I’m unsure as to whether I should just go ahead and start some seeds. I know I want the main windowsill in my flat to be just 100% herb plants. Once I can get some soil and clear the space off I can definitely start that any time of the year.

I’m not sure what my handmade 2023 life is going to look like. I’m trying to buy less because, well, packing and unpacking are enough to make me consider a minimalist lifestyle. (Note: I will never be able to maintain a minimalist lifestyle) I want to get out of the feeling that I need to make a project once a week. The concept of it to please some sort of algorithm or to keep up with the craft Joneses is starting to feel very fast fashion-y to me. Now that I’ve kind of discerned what I want my wardrobe to look like I think I can finally start spending time making really amazing pieces and making them super high quality so I’ll love them forever. I don’t need a new piece of clothing every week, it’s not like I’m running around naked. I want to make quality pieces ideally using supplies I already own.

And honestly, I really want to finish this layette.

I made a video to go with this post! Give it a watch to see everything in it’s full moving glory!