The past four weeks have just flown by and now Christmas is over and we are well into 2023. Evenings have been spent knitting both a jumper for myself and one for a grandson who is growing so quickly I hope it still fits him by the time I finish it. I don’t often knit clothes as I am impatient and sweaters etc. take too long. I do prefer knitting smaller items like the toys and ‘accessories’ such as hats, scarves, mitts and cowls. The DragonLady is however a mass of contradictions. I also hate sewing up at the end of a knitted project and there is an awful lot of sewing up with the toys.

I am keeping to my promise to myself and using (some) afternoons to finish off projects. So far a few jewellery projects have been completed and a knitted dog has now been sewn up and is waiting for adoption.

A polar bear has been pulled back and the yarn will be re-used for something else. There was nothing wrong with the knitted pieces, just too much sewing up of all the fiddly bits was off-putting (I did say I hate the sewing up?). That does leave the desk clear for finishing off another UFO.

Meeting up with my friend for our ‘coffee, craft and chat’ mornings means I do get to experiment with a variety of different crafts and certainly lets me know where my skills lie (or not!) We have been doing some embroidery on our last two sessions which is not really ‘stretching’ me but we will have a change next week. No sneak-peek at what the next craft will be, but maybe if it works ok there might be a picture in next month’s chapter.

A few years ago I made some ‘art doll’ Vikings.  They were quite fiddly to make but I was satisfied with the outcome and apparently so were the customers who bought them. The picture on the right shows the first one I made. When I was making another I could not get the head right and he looked weird, so I beheaded him and there he has lain in the WIP box for at least two years. Poor chap. I must get him finished this year.