Happy New Year and some plans for 2019…

2019 is nearly upon us and I’d like to send each one of you all good wishes for the year ahead!

The new year is always a time to look back on the year just gone. This grid of 9 photos are my ‘Best Nine’ photos that I shared over on Instagram during 2018…The ‘Best Nine’ or ‘Top Nine’ is created using an App that orders the photos based on the amount of likes each one received. But I thought it would be fun to do my own ‘Best Nine’ based on my favourite crochet moments. That was actually much harder than I thought it would be… how to choose only 9?! But here it is with the photos in no particular order…

1. Going to Yarndale,
2. Hosting two workshops this year for ‘The Crochet Sanctuary’… the first my crocheting around pebbles,
3. My California Coast shawl and of course little Salty had to be in there!
4. All my magazine designs and interviews… a massive highlight,
5. The Seaside Stash Busting Blanket Crochet Along – one my greatest achievements ever and something that will always be incredibly special to me,
6. Being asked to design a set of Christmas decorations for a Supplement with Simply Crochet,
7. My second workshop for ‘The Crochet Sanctuary’ and my ‘Coastal Christmas’ decorations,
8. Designing the June ‘Little Box of Crochet’,
9. Hosting a workshop in my local yarn shop YAK.

It’s been an amazing year for my crochet with so many wonderful projects and experiences that I’m truly grateful for. And earlier today I bought a copy of Inside Crochet magazine and there’s a back page feature of me and ‘Coastal Crochet’ as well as my thoughts on crochet and mindfulness! It’s a really lovely end to my crochet filled year… 🙂

Now is also a time to look to the year ahead and in this blog post I’d like to share some of my crochet plans for 2019…

Firstly, yes I’m going to be hosting another blanket ‘Crochet Along’ (CAL)! 😊 Lots of people have asked me this so I thought it would be good to give you a heads up… I’m going to be approaching it a little differently to my ‘Seaside Stash Busting Blanket’. That project which ran from January- September 2018 will always be the most special crochet project to me… it was an amazing experience in so many ways which I summed up in the last post about it here.

So I’m not going to try and replicate it. My next Crochet-Along blanket will involve more planning on my part (rather than making it up as I go along which is what I did for the 2018 CAL!)

I’m in the planning and designing stages right now and the actual CAL will be ready to start in April… it won’t be designed as a stashbuster although what yarns people use is entirely up to them but I’m going to be using ‘Stylecraft Special Aran’ and Stylecraft have kindly provided me with all the yarn I need!😊

More about this in the coming months…

Secondly, more workshops and crochet classes are planned at my local yarn shop YAK. Hosting workshops and teaching crochet locally has always been a wish of mine but I’ve struggled with locations. So to have this collaboration with a fabulous little local yarn shop is perfect.

I have more commissions in the pipeline which I can share more of in the coming months too!

And then I’m going to be attending another workshop in February by the fabulous Ellen from Pollevie who hosts wonderful crochet shawl and bag workshops. I was lucky to attend one of Ellen’s workshops at Closs and Hamblin in Brighton back in September and was totally inspired by Ellen’s completely freestyle approach to crochet! Here I am holding one of Ellen’s beautiful shawl wraps… just stunning isn’t it?

I haven’t had time to do any more of my own shawl so booking onto another workshop is just the motivation I need! And I’ve booked on with my mum and daughter (so three generations of us!) which is special…

And finally… I mentioned doing a community ‘Yarn Bomb’ earlier in 2018 but just didn’t have the time to get round to organising it… so I’d like 2019 to be the year I do this!! More on that soon too… 🙂

So THANK YOU as always for following along…Happy New Year Everyone… and Happy Crocheting! 😊❤️❤️