I thought I would do a round up of my January projects as they were a varied bunch.

I took advantage of the Boxing Day sales to get some yarn at 40% off to knit an Oli Cardigan which was in my to do pile for a while.  I couldn’t find anything chunky enough for the pattern in a colour I liked so I got double the amount I needed of a slightly less chunky yarn and used 2 strands to knit with.  I used Moda Vera Mawson from Spotlight which is 50% acrylic, 25% alpaca and 25% wool in Denim.  I was pleased with how the cardi turned out and it is nice and light.  It knitted up really quickly on 15cm needles and I was finished in a week.  I ended up with 4 balls left over so will make myself a beanie as I need a new one for winter.

We brought a new Christmas Tree last year and I wanted to get a Tree Skirt for it but didn’t like any of the ones I saw and they were all too expensive!  When I was at Spotlight getting the yarn for my cardi, I also got some Christmas fabric with 75% off so I could make my own.  I also used some teal broderie anglaise fabric that was a scrap from a dress I made and some plain red that I had in my stash.  I found a free pattern online.  I am happy with how it turned out and can’t wait for December now so I can put it under the tree.

I had some fabric bags that I had been saving to repurpose into reusable Christmas wrapping.  They are the bags that sheets and pillowcases come in now instead of plastic.  Some of them had a label on the front that I unpicked and replaced with a square of Christmas fabric, and some had the details printed on the fabric so I unpicked the bag, cut out the printed panel and replaced it with some Christmas fabric.  This was a good way to use up the leftover fabric from my tree skirt and some other bits I had in my stash.  I am pleased with how they turned out and will save me having to use paper to wrap my pressies this year.

One of my brothers is getting married in March and Dad mentioned when I saw him in January that said brother had pinched the knitted dishcloths that I gave to Dad when he visited in June last year.  I sent Dad home with some more dishcloths from my stash and knitted 3 for the brother for his wedding present.

Since my Mum retired, she has joined her local knitting group and she asked me if I could help them out by knitting some wee hats for premature babies that they give to their local ambulance service.  I have a lot of yarn in my stash and thought this would be a good way to use some of it up.  I have made 3 so far, man are they tiny!  I used my Lamy fountain pen in one of the photos for size reference.  I will keep knitting these until I have used up the stash yarn I got out to make them and this will be my charity knitting project for the year.  Apparently I will get a mention in the newsletter as well. 

This next project is a bit of fun, I got given this lego set for Christmas and really enjoyed making it, even though I made a mistake at the start and didn’t realise until I went to join on the legs but luckily didn’t have to pull it apart.  It is a pinata and splits in the middle and lego confetti comes out.  I love how colourful it is and it has pride of place on the bookshelf in the lounge.

And last but not least, my friend T from Christchurch sent me an old Bon Jovi t-shirt that had a hole in it and couldn’t be fixed.  I used a bit of fabric I had left over from resizing a king size duvet my Aunty gave me into a queen size one and the tshirt and made a tote bag for T.  I made the tote bag out of the fabric using another bag I had as the pattern and sewed the front and the back of the t-shirt to either side.  T loved it.  Unfortunately I can’t find the photos I took but will no doubt come across them while looking for something else so will add them in if I do.

And that’s it for January.  I am busy working on other stuff at the moment so watch this space for a February round up.