Plan your Crafty Year

February 6, 2022

Hi Fellow Knitters,

Summer holidays are over, adults are back at work (or working from home), children are back at schools and some of us are lucky enough to be retired from full-time work. Now is the time to plan for the coming year - don't let it just creep up on you - be positive and assertive. This means fitting into your schedule the activities that revitalise you and give you pleasure.

I am not sure yet of the direction my knitting will take this year. I have finished my eighth baby blanket pattern and finished the computer work associated with getting the patterns ready for a new book - Daphne's Best Baby Blankets, which will be available towards the end of February. What's Next? Not sure. I spent so many months absorbed with the baby blankets, that finishing them left me feeling a bit flat and empty.

The good old internet came to my rescue when Cathy from the Pittwater group of the Knitters Guild NSW, posted a picture of a fun variation on the traditional Granny Square blanket. It was a very relaxing project for me - so unlike the designing, writing the pattern, knitting, videoing, photographing and editing one of my original designs. It is a simple, quick crochet pattern.

I have not quite finished it yet - I might make it longer before working the border. The last crochet rug I did was 45 years ago when my mother-in-law Dot showed me how. I often crochet around my knitted blankets.

knitted baby blanket with textured stitches adorned with ribbons and bows

Ribbons and Bows Baby Blanket has textured stitches, interesting colours topped off by shiny yellow ribbons and bows.

Recently I joined an online group called Australian Knitters United. A post that came up was from Candice Fox. I wondered if this was the Australian crime writer. Sure enough, a few weeks later there was another post from her. This time she wrote about what influences her when naming the characters in her books.

"This is what happens when you’re a knitter who writes novels, and you’re scratching around for a character name, and you have a desk cluttered with random balls of yarn, you get Dr Gary Bendigo."
People joined in with comments and suggestions - like a stabbing with knitting needles, another suggested, a cousin called Patons and a dog called Nundle.
The TV show TROPPO based on her novel Crimson Lake, will air on the ABC on the 27th of Feb. Knitting boxes for knitting and crochet

Ferg has been busy too. He puts together all my video clips to make the tutorials for the rug patterns. As well he has been refining his Yarn Boxes. He found that the mitre and spline boxes are the most popular, so he is concentrating on those.

We are looking forward to meeting and chatting with fellow crafters at Morwell in Victoria, at the Craft Alive Show, Friday 18 to Sunday 20th February, 2022. My new Baby Blanket book will be debuting there.