How are you all doing on this the eve of Christmas eve? I’m in the office doing my PA thing, hoping for things to quiet down soon. I’m very much looking forward to hometime tomorrow which will hopefully be earlier than the usual 17:30! John and I are going to friends for Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day I’m cooking a pimped-up-Sunday-lunch-type-Christmas-theme-sort-of-meal. Apart from these two things we have absolutely nothing planned until we are both back at work on 5 January! Isn’t that fantastic?!
I say “nothing planned” but what I mean to say is that we don’t have places to go or people to see – I actually do have one thing planned: FINISH THE CROCHET MOOD BLANKET 2014!!!
For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to catch up on my daily (hahahaha, that was wishful thinking!) squares. As of 23 December, I’ve crocheted squares up to 1 October. That means roughly 80 to go, plus the border. Luckily the last nine days of 2014 won’t be mood-hooked because that would leave a row of only 9 squares in my blanket, so I have a bit of breathing space, and time to finish the border before 31 December 2014. I have to, have to, have to, finish that blanket before 31 December!
After that it’s on to three beautiful pieces of wearable woolyness: one knitted and two crocheted. I just have to share them with you. I’m super excited and can’t wait to get started.
Number one on the list is pattern 136-23 “Blues” by Garnstudio.

This top will be the third crochet top from the Garnstudio 136 collection. The other two are Whispers and Country Dreams – both pieces I loved making and still enjoy wearing.
I’ll be using one shade of Vinnis Serina for this baby. I showed you how beautifully Serina (a 4-ply Bamboo yarn) works up back in June, and complained that the Japanese diagram top I wanted to use it for, would use too much yarn. I’ve since changed my mind (there’s a shocker) and will use Vinnis Serina for a top, no matter how much yarn it uses. I changed my mind because I’ll be on holiday in South Africa at the end of January which means I’ll be right there to buy more yarn from I Love Yarn if needed. Yeah! Hopefully Blues will turn out to be a super fun holiday project just like my Rowan Dusky top, which I finished whilst on holiday in Corfu.
Second project for 2015 will be Paget, a knitted cardigan which can be worn back to front!

Just yesterday I was looking for an easy knitted cardigan pattern but gave up the search. This this morning I stumbled upon the Berroco Design Team Blog post called “Style Your Knits: Paget” in my WordPress Reader. The video in the post demonstrates four ways of styling the very versatile Paget . It was absolutely perfect for me! I immediately bought the pattern for $6 through Ravelry. The suggested yarn is Berroco Flicker but I think I will rather use Drops Paris. The shade is yet to be decided…
Last item on the 2015 To Hook List is the Convergence Top by Linda Skuja for Interweave Crochet Spring 2014.

Isn’t this just amazing!?! I bought the pattern yesterday for $5.50 directly from the Interweave store, only to see that it is on sale as of today for a mere $3.85. Click here. Go, go, go!
I plan to make my own self striping yarn for this one. I have two balls each of King Cole 4 ply Bamboo in Glacier and Denim. I desperately want to use it, but I love the effect that self striping yarn gives to Convergence. In fact, I think self striping yarn is essential to make the design of Convergence work. Luckily there are very clever knitters out there who blog, and make videos, to show you how to make your own self striping yarn! Lorraine of Knitting Pipeline explains how to make self striping yarn with small bits of leftover yarn in her blog post here (she calls it a Magic Cake). You join the pieces of yarn with a super strong Double Knot. Watch the video of the Double Knot method on YouTube here. Closer to the time I will work out a method of ensuring my two colours are truly randomly joined, but for now at least I have the beginnings of a plan.
I can’t wait to get started crocheting and knitting wearable pieces again. I was very busy the past six months designing patterns for I Like Crochet magazine and I published my iBook Crochet Pretty (which Inside Crochet magazine wrote about in Issue 61!!!). Things have also changed on the work front (with more, bigger changes coming) so I’m a bit tired now and ready to take it slow, easy, bright and breezy.
Do you like any of my three upcoming projects? It will be great if you join me making one, or all, of them! What are your yarny, hooks and needles plans for 2015?