2020: A Year In Crochet

I like doing these end of year round ups. It helps me to remember just what and how much I’ve done in the previous year. The last six months have been non-stop with work and I feel like I haven’t had a lot of time to crochet, but the three months before that I was furloughed, and all I did was crochet. I tried to use my period of furlough to FINISH THINGS and SORT THINGS OUT. It mostly worked.

So, what did I make in 2020? I keep a list on my phone – I’d never remember otherwise. In 2020 I:

·       Finished the battenberg granny square blanket

·       Made a solid colour square blanket for my father in law

·       Started and finished Sophies Universe blanket

·       Made a fluffy baby blanket for my cousins new babe

·       Made a new thick wool neck warmer, but I haven’t worn it yet

·       Finished the mandala square into a giant cushion cover

·       Made two new his n hers bobble hats for D and I

·       Did 4 little birds – an angry wren, a goldfinch, a coal tit, and a great tit

·       Made my first ever pair of handmade woollen socks.

 

I blocked the jute twine bunting that I made in 2019, but I still haven’t sewn it together. I also haven’t finished the miners vest thing that I started in 2019. I sort of want to, but sort of don’t like how it’s working out. Maybe I just need to crack on and get it done, and then it’ll be done, and then I’ll love it? It’s basically a body warmer slip on vest thing. Looks well cosy on Pinterest.

I am running out of furniture to make more blankets – I have nowhere to drape any more blankets!! So maybe for now I shall hold off blanket making. Or will I? I do fancy make a ripple stitch blanket, possibly for momma in law to have on her lap when she’s on her toot toot scooter, razzin’ around Bilston. I also keep fancying making cushion covers but again, we don’t have enough furniture for cushions, we don’t have them on the sofa, and I don’t see the point of them on a bed. I haven’t done amigurumi for a while. I stopped making toys for my nieces and nephews as my sister said they had too many, and they were my main outlet for soft toys. I also used to make hats for premature babies (I have made over 400) but don’t do that any more either.

I had planned to make a crochet bird of every bird that came into the garden during lockdown but the patterns are quite fiddly with a lot of colour changes, so I quickly disbanded that idea. Maybe in 2021 I shall make the rest and get a full set.

 

Patterns:

·       Little birds

·       Handmade socks (free pattern at the bottom)

·       Sophies Universe

·       Granny square

·       Miners vest (not the pattern I’m making up, but I shall make sure I wear mine with something underneath it)

Lockdown Diaries: Day 27

Last day! Wahooooooo! Not that it’ll really make any difference to anyone. D and I will be continuing much the same as we have been.

Yesterday I FINISHED SOPHIES UNIVERSE! All 113 rounds! Done! However, I had already decided to do extra rounds to make her bigger as I like my blankets to comfortably fit on the bed, and she doesn’t yet. So a few more rounds to go before she gets washed and softened. She looks good though. It’s been fun, stressful, complicated and confusing, but I’ve wanted to make a Sophie for YEARS. Maybe five or six years. And now I have.

Today I was up at 5:45 after having a super shit sleep, and I was on site for 7:50am. We built raised bed planters today in the winter sunshine so it’s been a good day, but fuck me I am tired.

We have done the tree!! Spiky spiky but it’s done. The lights aren’t quite long enough so there’s a high chance that I’ll be buying more and swapping them…

My winter spinach seeds are coming up, we still have roses in flower out the front, the bulbs are all coming up nearly everywhere, and the amaryllis is reaching for the skies with three (!) flower buds.

Tomorrow at work we shall be having a fire and making wreaths!