1 Year Blogiversary!

Today marks my one year blogiversary! In that time my first born has gone from being a toddler to a little girl, who thinks she can do everything herself… I’ve also had my second child, now approaching his 6 month birthday. Less independent, more “I need you to hold me all the time, thanks” – although that is his Jumperoo you can see in the background in the picture below. Or ‘the circle of neglect’ as it’s called in my family…

Anyway, I digress.

I’ve managed to start countless projects and finish a few. I’ve written 41 posts (42 counting this one) which is less than my one a week goal. BUT I have 10 in my drafts section so does that count? Also I’ve updated my events and workshop posts a few times and, let me tell you, those are time consuming, so I’m ignoring the numbers and telling myself I reached my goal 😉

Oh, and have I mentioned I like buying yarn? I’ve bought a bit *cough cough* in the last year. So I thought to mark the anniversary I would take a picture of my current stash as this is the yarn that I’ll hopefully be writing about in the next year, as I knit/crochet it up. There’s a bit more than I realised. And I’ve just bought more (whoops. But you’re fellow yarnies so I’m sure I’m amongst understanding friends…)

There’s a bit of a mishmash of yarn in there. Mainly natural fibres with some good old acrylic thrown in for good measure. I like Drops – actually, less like, more ‘have a small obsession with’. There’s some lovely South African yarn in there but that’s getting a whole blog post to itself so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Some of the yarn is for specific projects – the grey Drops Nepal is for the jumper that I gave my husband for Christmas last year (see A New Challenge). Yeah, haven’t gotten very far with that one. The Oatmeal Sirdar is for a cardigan for my daughter – started a year ago, nowhere near finished. In fact, there’s half finished projects all over the place in there. Why do I get so distracted?! I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with the rest of the yarn yet. But I just needed to buy it. (“It’s in the sale!” “I want to get free delivery so must spend at least £25 on yarn I don’t need!” You’ve all been there, admit it)

As for the blog, I’m still learning. Only the other day I realised that people had to submit their name and email to comment and comments were closed after 14 days (must be the default settings. I’ve turned both off). Some of my posts have been read and shared more than others, but I’ve enjoyed writing all of them.  They represent lots of parts of my personality: the part that likes order and organisation – well, I like to be mentally organised, physically I am a bit of a shambles – which can be seen in my copious categories and lists (see any of my posts from the Dates For Your Diary or Useful Knitting/Crochet Links categories) to my slightly more whimsical, laid-back side (mainly reflected in the Crafty Musings and Everything Else categories).  Although this is mainly a knitting and crochet blog, the posts that have been read the most are the ones relating to my personal life and to mental health. So I might do some more of them.

I’m always looking for ideas for the blog – any suggestions?! That will be my lazy side coming out, making others do the work for me… Seriously though, if any of you would like to read more of a specific thing, please let me know. I always love reading people’s comments – and hopefully I’ll get some more now I’ve turned those settings off!

Thanks as always for taking the time to read and for sticking with me for a year!

Aileen x

All the lovely yarn 🙂 And the Circle of Neglect