Finishing off the Year

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas.  It was wonderful having the girls back home, catching up and doing all the things we love doing together.  Eve has gone back to London now, but Grace and her boyfriend are still here for a few more days.

It's been a lazy few weeks and I've enjoyed plenty of knitting and crocheting time.

I knitted these mittens for the girls for Christmas.  They're lovely and snug.

Full details of the pattern (which is a free one) and the yarn used can be found here.

I also made some socks for my husband.

Full details of these, here.

I finished the crochet shawl I was making myself - another hot pink one!  I need to branch out into some new colours.

The yarn is gorgeous and soft and the pattern a nice easy one to work with.  Full details on Ravelry, here.

Grace and I cast on some socks on Christmas Eve.  I wanted to try something different than the usual recipe I use, so I made these toe up, using Judy's Magic Cast On, Fish Lips Kiss Heel and Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind off for the cuff.

I love the colours in this yarn and I particularly enjoyed the toe up construction of the socks.  I will be using this recipe again when I cast on for January socks.  Full details of my socks can be seen here.

And my final project for 2015 was some more fingerless mittens.  No particular reason for making them apart from I love the colours in the yarn which was leftover from some socks Grace knitted me earlier in the year.

Full details of the project are here.

We have nothing planned for tonight.  A few beers and a cosy evening with hubby looking back over the year.

It has been a very good year.  Nothing sensational happened to me,  but I've been happy and busy and I finish this year on a contented note - the best way to end the year.

I have my jar crammed full of happy memories of the year and I'm looking forward to reading through them all this evening and reliving the happy times.

Whatever celebrations you have planned for tonight, I wish you a very happy New Year.  Here's to another jar full of memories for 2016.

Happy New Year

2015, hello and welcome.  Very best wishes to everyone for the New Year.

As a final goodbye to 2014, I'll show you another (and the last) of my Christmas makes.

This one, for a change doesn't involve yarn of any description.  It starts with a decorated matchbox.

Pretty paper, some lace and a paper flower make a dainty covering.  Inside the boxes are tiny little photo albums.

Each album consists of five pages.

The pages are cunningly folded to be nice and small.

But they open out into bigger pictures.

As it says on the label, you can "take your family with you".

These would make ideal gifts at any time of the year, especially for someone moving away.

Before I go off to mull over my New Year Resolutions, here is a quick update on the pink rat polar bear.

He's had his legs repositioned, his eyes lowered and received a brand new nose - what an improvement!

Now he looks more lovable- but I don't think I'll bother making any more of the toys from that book.

Bye for now, have a relaxing day.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I wish you all a very Happy New Year with lots of interesting beginnings.