2022 - A Year In Crochet

I’ve been crocheting for 10 whole years!! Ish. Maybe technically eleven. I dropped out of university in January 2012 and during my year off, I taught myself to crochet. I only started keeping a log of what I’d made in 2015, and only started blogging it in 2018. Wahey! So perhaps 11 years of crochet. I’ve made lots of things in those maybe 11 years. Over 500 hats, multiple blankets (most double bed sized), absolutely loads of amigurumi toys, and a couple of uteruses. Why not.

I still need to get better at sock making; I have made 7 socks so far and only one of them has never been worn, mainly because I still can’t bring myself to make the second one for the pair. Two other socks are so beyond repair it’s not worth bothering and at this point I should just make a new pair. Or the second sock. Maybe 2023 will be the year of the sock? I hope so. Socks, pet blankets, and maybe a Persian Tiles blanket big enough for a double bed.

You can read the previous years posts here (click the numbers): 2021 / 2020 / 2019 / 2018

You can read about my varying blankets here (click) 

And if you’re on Ravelry, you can follow me (is that the thing?) and see my projects here (click) 

 

So, 2022! Last year I said that I feel a good making year coming on, and now I’m not sure if I have done. Yeh I’ve made stuff, but not as much as I’d planned or wanted. I did change jobs in 2022, and I have also started a monthly crafting social group. So maybe next year will be the good making year? Who knows. I say that every year.

 

Patterns are linked below the item name if I used one

 

1.       Pink hat for Uanita (for her granddaughter actually)

 Pattern – my own, but I alternated DC and Tr stitches to get a nice texture.

Flower – I think I used a sunflower pattern but changed the colours 

2.       14 mini covids, following on from the 4 big covids I did in 2021. These were chucked around at the annual Lickey Hills Wassail and much hilarity ensued! Everyone knows that St George died of being bombarded by squishy yarn covids.

 Pattern – my own, just a ball with bits on 

3.       Ripple blanket. The huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge blanket!! So big it covers the entire bed and hangs over the sides. So heavy. So comfy. Defo will never fit in the washing machine.

 Pattern – a google step by step for ripplestitch  

4.       Springtime gonk, complete with flowers and stuff. I made the flower in the pot freehand and I’m very proud of it!!

 Pattern - Gonk Shop 

5.       Freddie Mercury, for a cousins cousins cousin. Not really, but I think there is a cousin somewhere along the way. Definitely went to a family member!!

 Pattern - Freddie 

6.       Cushion cover foot rest for the trunk. It was made as a huge flat lay rectangle and then I cut some foam padding to fit. Stitched up one end and put press studs on the other end so I can remove the cover to clean it. No pattern, but I alternated DC and Tr stitch for texture. It is over my legs in this pic 

7.       Big pigs in blankets. Because why not? I love them. Most have been gifted.

 Pattern – A Good Right Hook  

8.       Mini pigs in blankets

9.       A tiny pig, sans blanket. The plan was to make teeny pigs in blanket earrings but it was such hard work to make one that I just can’t bring myself to make the second. 

 

10.   Bluey & Bingo. Quite a fun make! I like making lots of component parts and then seeing the whole thing come together

 Pattern - Bluey & Bingo pattern 

11.   Dragonscale stitch cowl. LOVE THIS. Easily the best thing I’ve made all year. Made from super squishy soft Alpaca wool from the Isle of Wight – the same stuff I used to make our socks and D’s fingerless gloves in 2019. SO SOFT. I wanted it to look autumnal like leaf litter, and it really does. Well pleased with this.

 Pattern – google dragonscale stitch.  Made as a flat lay then folded round and stitched together, after I had undone a lot of it because I made it too wide. Super fiddly and time consuming to make but worth it. 

12.   Cleaning cloths. I make these every year as they are an easy make. 100% cotton and machine washable, great to have around the home. Perfect for cleaning root veg. £10 for a pack of 7 if anyone is interested…

 Pattern – none, just freehand 

13.   Woollen Hats. All 100% wool.

 Pattern – none, I am very well practiced at making hats nowadays.

 I made this one to match a jumper I was asked to repair, using the leftover wool 

I made this one for David in the West Mercia Search & Rescue colours, and then I made him another one with a brim because he stole my old hat for the day and it spoilt him, so he wanted a luxury hat, and he has now gifted the other one

 I made this one for me!   

      

14.   Shell stitch cowl, for me! It was meant to be a cowl but I didn’t make it wide enough, so I just kept making it longer and longer, then decided I could turn it on its side, fold it, stitch it, then have a snug cowl which is double thickness and won’t flop open or down – which means it’s safe to wear when I’m chainsawing awwwwww yis!

Pattern – google shell stitch tutorial  

 15.   Screenwash hats. A moment of madness from me, but I am going to remake them slightly smaller. The idea was to put them over the screenwash nozzles on my car to prevent them freezing. It didn’t work, but that was because the overnight temperature dropped to -8c and ain’t no little woollen nipple covers gonna help in that weather.

Pattern – nowt 

16.   Jumper repairs. A geology friend from Twitter via Scotland asked me to repair his jumper, so I spent a merry two weeks patching up holes. Very pleased with myself. Some holes were darned and some were patched. 

17.   A woollen blankie for Sir Pippington the First, Esquire of Bonemill (‘Pip’ to his mates)

Pattern – just a granny square  

I have also darned socks (repeatedly) and am currently working on a few other things that I can’t say what until they’ve been finished and posted.

I am starting a new venture called Salopian Crafts, to sell some of the things I make. This is very much a pocket money venture rather than a life changing career move, and I’ll take commissions – just give me plenty of notice!! October is too late for christmas presents, just sayin’. You can find me here on Instagram. 

 

And a final late entry, made in two days after christmas, whilst watching Wednesday on Netflix (again)

18.   Bed socks for Poppa Beardy

No pattern, because I freehanded them and I’m well pleased with myself! Just dc stitch with some increases here n there. 

I have started my 2023 to make wish list, so I’ve got a busy crafty year coming up!

You Gotta Nourish to Flourish

I just want you to know that I am writing this with a pile of Roses chocolates next to me.

I recently had a wee mental breakdown (wahoo!) and was signed off work for five weeks. I’m fairly sure it was the last three years catching up with me, and my body, mind, soul, brain, whatever is now in a different place, one where it all felt safe enough to collapse and come to a grinding brain foggy black dog themed halt.

I am feeling a lot better now, but my recovery this time was helped by a) private health insurance through work, and b) the NHS. I was told that the NHS waiting time would be MONTHS, if not closer to two YEARS, but as luck would have it, there was a CBT course starting in October and I was more than welcome to join. A wait time of about 5 weeks! Hurrah!

So in August, September, October and November, I did two lots of CBT therapy back to back, 12 weeks in total. I wrote notes, I enjoyed pouring my heart out to the private lady (the NHS one was group therapy so I hardly said anything), and I think it did actually help. Any CBT I’ve done previously most certainly did not help, so this was a relief.

One of the things I took away from it all is this statement – “You’ve got to nourish to flourish”.

You can’t give give give give if you don’t look after your own reserves. You can only give so much before the tank needs replenishing.

So my motto for this festive holiday, and for 2023 will be exactly this. I am going nourish, I am going to feed myself, I am going to look after myself, I am going to nurture, I am going to CARE. Self care. May be selfish, may be proactive, may be a good thing. It starts with small steps like eating an entire tub of Roses chocolates to myself, but it also involves bigger things like being more active, going for a walk, stepping out of my comfort zone and setting up a social crafting group, making more things and more blankets even though we really don’t need any more in this house.

Basically, I am giving myself permission to be kind to myself, for a change.

 

This festive break I am going to do my usual stuff – eating, Netflixing, crocheting, but also my annual digital decluttering. I am also intending to get out once a day, and not just to bring in firewood or feed the birds. I want to walk around the fields and watch the river. I want to tromp around the woods and I want to eat healthily and I want to exercise more.

So tomorrow is Monday and as we all know, these sorts of things can only be started on a Monday. We are hopefully rehoming a cat tomorrow so it will be a very cat-centric sort of day, but I am also going to hula hoop. I am, I am, I am.

I have also started journalling again, and my crochet mojo is back with a vengeance. I can’t stop making stuff at the moment, I don’t have enough hands and I can’t crochet quick enough.

I want to return to work in two weeks time, feeling healthier and better and more relaxed and ready to face the year as we close down two big projects. I want to feel like I’ve had a restorative holiday break and not just slobbed out.

 

So yeh. You’ve got to nourish to flourish, and it starts with a tub of Roses.

Cottage Garden Update

I haven’t posted much of a garden update blog for a while. I tend to post all the gardeny things over on Instagram (because of course I set up an Instagram account just to document the garden. Click the link and follow me!). I have grand plans for this little patch of ground. David wants lawn, I want flowers, so we are compromising by me digging flower beds everywhere. Even if I dug more flower beds, he’d still have a huge lawn, so I’m not sure what the fuss is about – especially when he complains that the garden is hard to mow. I’m doing him a favour, right? Wrong. But anyway, I shall continue to dig flower beds until I win him over. Marriage!!

So in that vein, I have dug more beds. The first bed was put alongside the hedge between us and next door. It is 6m long and it looked huge until I stepped back. You can hardly see it because the garden is so big! It is filling out and growing well, but I might make it deeper/wider next year and put MORE THINGS in it. So far it has: hollyhock, clover, campion, sea holly, chives, fennel, ox eye daisy, verbena bon, nasturtium, lemon balm, salvia, fox and cubs, rudbeckia, hibiscus, echidna (echinacea), scabious, and the things that were already there (nettles).

I have decided that I want a bazillion more calendula, since I am now learning how to dry them so I can use them for teas, cooking, baking, and hand salves etc.  Guess what you are all getting for a certain festive holiday? Either herbs or calendula hand salve. Yay!

The second bed is the biggest, under the middle apple tree. I haven’t finished it yet as I want to extend it around the left hand side apple tree. Two semi circles around the trees connected by a rectangle bit. It’s huge and sloping and a pain to water, but I want it to be full of life and flowers and wildlifey stuff. This bed has: willow, dogwood, teasel, foxglove, comfrey, poppy, sea holly, cosmos, calendula, ox eye daisy, toadflax, chives, and loads of other things. I made my own seed mix and scattered it enthusiastically and I can’t remember what was in it, but if it works it’ll be GLORIOUS. I think it had a lot of honesty in it.

The third bed is much smaller and I wanted it to be a statement bed. Purposely put in the way so you have to stop and look at it, but also visible from the gate. I made it narrower as compromise but it nestles into the corner of the path but leaves room for mowing either side. Although I have very grand plans to get rid of all the grass around the slabs and make a herby area with camomile and creeping thyme. This bed has: cistus, echinops (globe thistle), lambs ear, verbena bon, sunflower, nicotiana, bleeding heart, borage seed, tagetes seed, and ranunculus.

The slab path was done by both of us. I had laid the slabs onto the grass to get the placement right, David went to dig them in, and then he found two huge slabs buried by 4” of grass. So the little slabs have been bedded in on sand, and then I extended the path the other way towards the fire pit.

The fire pit was fun, I dug four circles out of the lawn. Again a compromise, as I wanted three of them to be (on purpose) in the lawn so that they stood out to force people to admire them, but instead I moved them back towards the hedges, so when I get around to digging this flower bed later in the year or next year, the circles will half be in the flower bed. The tree have funeral pyre sweet pea towers in them, and the fourth (in the “middle” of the lawn *gasp*) has been lined with brown paper and filled with grit so we can stand the fire bowl on without burning the grass.

The funeral pyres were seeded before I put the bamboo canes in (harvested from the garden last year) and have got: sweet pea (direct sown), calendula, mixed wildflower, red orach, knapweed… all sorts of stuff. But again I forget and I don’t write anything down.

The two newer beds flank either side of the path that leads to the fire bowl area. At some point I am going to have arches between them, over the path, with clematis and other climbers over the arches to make a tunnel of flowers. The bigger bed has: cistus, bleeding heart, peony, sunflower, ranunculus, cosmos seed, borage seed, and tagetes seed. 

The narrower bed has sunflower, artichoke, peony, tagetes seed, borage seed, and cosmos seed. Both of these beds are also going to get chives and calendula plants, and maybe a lemon balm.

We made an above ground pond as there are too many hoops to jump through to be able to dig one, and the pond lily that has been out of the water for 4 months is growing and putting out new leaves, so I’m well pleased with that.

I have made a couple of raised planters at the side of the house, one at the base of the log store and an L-shaped bed on the other side of the path to frame the grassed area. This space is perfectly sized for my car so I need to leave it open for parking if we need the space. The bed under the log store has clematis, honeysuckle, jasmine, potato vine, ranunculus, lambs ear, and bedding plants (I don’t know what as I don’t really care for “bedding plants”). The herb bed has rosemary, sage, thyme, orange thyme, mint (in a pot), lime balm, and catmint. It isn’t fully finished yet but not far off.

The log stores are being used as my plant nursery as I don’t really have anywhere to put anything and I kept knocking the pots over when they were all on the floor. There are sunflowers, pots of cuttings, dahlias, squashes, more artichokes, and pots of mint up there.

The floor herbs by the front door are all growing really well, and I have been cutting back the lemon balm regularly to get cuttings for drying. I need a shelving unit in the kitchen for all my jars of dried stuff.

I’m very pleased with the huge thyme growing in the basket on the fence. This was a tiny plant when I first had it two years ago – I bought it in the first lockdown – and its thriving. Which I didn’t think it would since the planter is plastic lined so retains water, and thyme doesn’t like to be wet. The strawberries on the garden gate are setting fruit and I have also decided to make some new strawberry planters to put somewhere.

The wild patch at the side of the house where the bins are is growing well too. Red and white campion, heartsease pansy, the buddleia is coming into bud which will make David happy as he wants a huge buddleia, the delphinium (I think) is flowering, and the pulmonaria was all really popular with the hairy footed flower bees that nest in our wall. The blue geum thingy that I salvaged from the garden in Halesowen is loooooooooooooooovely because it isn’t pink like the rest that we have growing along the hedgerow. I might have to dig it up next year to separate it and spread it around a bit.

We have left the edges of the garden to grow long for no-mow May and now we’re/I’m leaving them long. The toads like to hide in this bit and I quite like seeing what is growing. Next year however these strips will be flower beds, so I shall have to designate a new bit for no-mow May 2023. Comfrey grows EVERYWHERE in our garden like a bladdy weed so I’ve been trying to contain that to a couple of areas as I don’t want it all over the garden.

So all in all, the garden is looking super! I am already planning my next few beds, I just need the mental energy to be bothered to dig them. My garden theme for this year is MORE IS MORE. I’m really not bothered about colour combinations or having a white border and red border and a blue border. Nah. Bung it all in together and see what happens. I’m also gardening knowing full well that in winter, everything I’m digging and planting with the exception of the three funeral pyres will be under water, so I need to try and grow things that perhaps don’t mind being under standing water for a couple of weeks at a time.

And there you have it, eight months of the garden in one fab blog post. Although we’ve been here since September but I didn’t start gardening until March at the earliest, after the flooding. So three months of gardening. Not too shabby.