This is the year I am going to have a pattern published.  I have not yet written the pattern, nor have I approached any pattern publishers or magazines, but I have been putting this off for far too long and so 2018 is going to be the year of the breakthrough!

2018 got off to a flying start with my first sales from my Etsy shop of some Christmas bunting.  I had several pieces in my shop and they all sold in the first week of the new year.  What was most thrilling about these sales is that they were not bough by friends or family – but a real life customer who had found my products and decided they were the ones to buy.  As a consequence I have added additional stock to my shop and am planning a small range of Valentine’s Gifts to add to it at the end of January.  This has given me a real incentive to get my sewing machine back out and to make more small gift items to sell.

This week I have also finished a further sample for the International Diploma in Crochet.  In the past few newsletters and on recent feedback, Pauline Turner has kept referring to creating ‘pieces’ of crochet as samples and breaking out of the habit of squares.  Originally I thought this was just bonkers – a sample is a sample, however, I now realise the madness in her method.  By creating a shaped sample I have learned more about shaping.  I have always wanted to create a raglan style sweater for children.  By completing a submission in the shape of a raglan sweater I have learned a lot about garment shaping, decreasing, how to make the sleeve fit with the front and the back.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t anything like as easy as I had anticipated!  But these things rarely are!  I loved this idea for a sweater.  I’ve been very interested recently in how children are targeted by gender specific clothing and so am quite keen to design a range of items that could be adapted for both boys and girls.  As a child I loved learning about space and the universe – so this design would very much have appealed to me!

Other pieces I have on my hook this week include Star Wars figures.  I was given the perfect Christmas present – a gift set which included the instructions and enough materials to make two of the figures.  What can be better than the combination of crochet and Star Wars!  I have set myself the fun challenge of making all the figures in the book this year.  Being small they are quite nice to fill a couple of hours on a quiet afternoon.

Something I am really trying to do this year is to remain focussed on one thing at a time, so rather than starting a million new projects I am aiming to finish some of those I have started, but also to make sure I complete things within a  reasonable time frame.  I’d really like to make some serious progress with the International Diploma this year and that’s going to require my to be much more focussed on the task at hand and less inclined to being sidetracked!  This resolve will probably last until the next time I walk into a wool shop!

I’ve also set myself the target of learning pottery.  I am a girl from Stoke-on-Trent after all.  My only attempts at pottery were at primary school and on a visit to Gladstone Pottery museum (well worth a visit).  But after watching the Great Pottery Throwdown last year decided I’d really love to try throwing a pot!  It may well be a disaster, but it will be great fun trying!