Hello, readers.
Happy new year!
Yes, I do realise that I am about a week late with my greetings, and that I have totally missed the Christmas greetings. This year (or should I say, "last year") we decided to spend the 2011 Christmas holidays on the road. We spent the last 2 and a half weeks on the road, but more of that later.
We now welcome 2012 with open arms, and I, in particular, am looking forward to a better year than 2011 as 2011 was a mixed bag, and I hope this year's bag of surprises holds more pleasant than unpleasant ones.
Celia's Basket saw more pattern activity than hand-dyed yarn in 2011. I am coming to terms with the reality of trying to run a hand-dyed yarn business without a proper workshop or studio. It is just too hard. My focus has moved to pattern-writing, something that I can do in small chunks that gives me great pleasure. I fit pattern writing into my evenings, a few minutes or a couple of hours after work daily, and I can manage to complete my patterns without too much stress. Hand-dyeing, on the other hand, requires me to set up, do the dyeing, clean up, wait for the yarn to dry (rainy weather is not your friend here) and then check the yarn for faults before photographing and listing in the store. I simply do not have the time for that anymore. Our weekends are too precious.
In 2012, you will see more patterns from me. There will be a few store stock updates, but I am planning to dye in large batches or to allow pre-ordering so that I don't have to photograph and list each skein separately. If you're after semi-solid colours in adult garment quantities, you'll be happy to hear that I will be working on that this year. My plan is to dye up a small selection of semi-solid colours from which you can order larger quantities - dyed to order.
I have about 6 incomplete patterns that require testing. That will probably be the first cab off the rank this year as they are mostly complete. I have another dozen or so less complete patterns that require editing, tweaking and testing. There some scare are some scarves, hats, shawls and children's garments. The adult garments.. well, there are two but not in any shape to be released in the near future! If I work hard, perhaps they will be done by the end of the year.
This poor neglected blog... ever since the birth of Alex, it hasn't seen that much activity, has it? Certainly not enough to keep the readership up. I suppose the erratic posts and unpredictability of it has not really helped. In 2012, there will be at least 1 post a month. I am committing to that for now. If you are on Facebook, you can follow the blog using the
Networked Blogs app.
You will also see more food-related posts. I am a foodie at heart, and I married one, and as it turns out, I am raising one too! I enjoy cooking for the family. I have two willing "testers" who happily sample my experiments. We also enjoy trying out new eateries and I want to share that with you. In 2012, I am looking forward to widening my cooking repertoire and trying a few new restaurants.
In 2011, Alex moved for a daycare with a preschool program to a preschool and he thrived. He had a great time there and we were sorry when the year ended. We watched him grow and mature. In 2012, he starts primary school. On February 1st, he will be a "big school boy" as he calls himself. Perhaps I will shed a tear watching him enter the school gates, as my little baby is now all grown up, or perhaps I won't. The past few years have gone by quickly, and I can't believe he is the same baby we met 5 years ago. It has not always been easy, but the good times have made the harder times all worth while. I am sure all you parents out there will agree. We're all set for school. Aside from sports shoes, all uniform items have been purchased and we're ready to go!
In terms of personal crafting, I have big aims for this year. A few months ago, I upgraded my small Ashford knitters loom to a larger rigid heddle loom. It is still sitting under the guest bed, and has not been used yet. I intend to weave a couple of shawls and a few scarves on it. Weaving is such a calming activity. Passing the shuttle back and forth is almost like meditation. The action is automatic and soothing. I need more meditation in my life. 2012 is, I hope, a year of less stress and more contentment.
During the Christmas trip. I also started a
Nuvem using a 300g ball of Wollmeise lacegarn in the colour Taube. I weighed it today, and I have barely knitted 50g!! So, with that in mind, Nuvem is going to be a long term project. I intend to complete by my birthday which is in June. I want to wear it this winter! I also have a couple of unfinished projects which need to be finished. Aside from that I am not committing to any more. I will just "go with flow".
So.. that is the year that was.. and who knows what the year that will be holds. Let's just go with it and see what happens.
Happy new year, everyone!!
Labels: new year
Did you stay up for the fireworks last night? We all sat together for the 9 o'clock fireworks and then Alex went to bed after that. I was surprised that he didn't seem to enjoy them all that much. Chris and I sat up for the midnight fireworks and saw the old year out and greeted the new year.
What's in store for this year?
Knitting-wise, I am going to shop from my stash as much as possible. You may have noticed the knitmeter I have added to the sidebar. I'll be updating it with information as I go along. My target is to knit20km of yarn this year. There, I have said it now.. and I'll have to try. I am rather proud of teh nearly 16km of yarn I knit up last year, but I also probably added more than that to my stash!
I hope to have at least another 3 patterns completed and published. In fact, i am starting off the year ahead! I have a pattern for a pullover and another similar one for a cardigan which I will be publishing later this month. They will be two separate patterns also available as an e-book on Ravelry.
For the store, I am still trying to decide whether I want to focus on the thinner yarns. I first need to use up my stock of thicker yarns I suppose. I am also considering adding a few new products to the store.. more about that later.
This year is Alex's last year in daycare before he goes to "big school" in 2012. I am sure it will be a fun year with lots of surprises. He's come a long way this past year with his reading, writing and counting. At the beginning of this year, he only knew the letters of the alphabet and was only just starting to work out the sounds. He is now able to work out words (most, not all) from their sounds. A year ago, he could count to 10 and was making attempts at counting to 20. Now he's happily counting to over 100, can read numbers up to the hundreds and can do basic addition and subtraction. His ability to reason astounds me. Perhaps I just have low standards.. but I am quite amazed by his ability to work things out. Alex has come a long long way in 2010 and I wonder what he has in store for me in 2012.
Labels: new year
Where has the year gone?
Remember this?
That was last year. This is this year.
Alex turned one yesterday and all of a sudden, with his new hair cut and new found confidence, he seems like a big boy and no longer the wee baby I knew. He now walks holding on to us with only one hand. Before I know it, he will be toddling along on his own. The thought of that brings a little tear to my eye. He's growing so quickly, I can barely keep up. Selfishly, I wish he'd stay a baby for a little longer, but I am also glad that he has grown and developed so well over the past year.
I was going to have a Christmas post, but did not find time... so here it is...
It was Alex's first Christmas, and boy, was he spoilt!
He had a ball wandering around the in-laws' house, even managing to find the stairs and climbing halfway up.
Here he sits amongst his mini mountain of presents
I'd like to say that I had nothing to do with it, but the truth is that I am partially responsible. I thought I would stick to the "only one present" rule, but that didn't really happen. From my parents in-law, he received a Tonka ride-on toy and a whole lot of new clothes. from my sister-in-law and her fiance, he received some musical instruments (which he loves!) and some bath toys. My parents bought him the Magna Doodle toy. Chris' cousin and his wife bought Alex the Mr Potato-head toy and we bought him a shape sorter and some books. So.. is he spoilt or is he spoilt?
We had a relatively simple Christmas eve meal. Everyone helped to put it together.. which is part of the fun of a Hernandez Christmas. This year I made roast pork, which came out quite well, even if I do say so myself.
I received, from my sister-n-law and her fiance, a creme brulee torch. Can you guess what we had for dessert that night?
On Christmas day, we had dinner with the Cooper-Garrett clan. Always a fun event and Alex scored more presents! He was given a Fisher Price Gumball machine which he loves. He pushes down on the handle to make it "sing", and sing it does! It plays one of those crazy tunes that's a cross between a carnival game type melody and a pinball machine type melody. He was also given a knitted cat, which he thinks is fantastic. It lives in his cot and he sleeps with it every night!
What better gift could one give a knitter's son? Especially when he is the son of a knitter who does not like knitting toys. Why? That's a story for another day, I think.
All in all, we had a pleasant break from work over the Christmas week. I did not log in to work for a whole week! That's a first for me. At the end of the 10 or so days of holiday, we had Alex's first birthday. Poor boy was born on the day when everyone goes back to work, so he is destined to always have small birthday celebrations, I think.
We had a small celebration for him with a mountain of cupcakes. I made 52. It was an accident.. really! I was trying out a new smaller cupcake tin and ended up with more cakes than I thought I would. I still have half a mountain downstairs in the kitchen!
Alex loved the candle and it was then that I realised that it's probably the first time that he's seen a flame up close. he doesn't know yet that it burns and that's ouchie!
He loved the cake too, and could not get enough of it!
Since he was so spoilt with toys and clothes for Christmas, we did not buy him too many birthday presents. My parents sent me out to choose a book or two for him. Alex ended up choosing one and I chose the other. No, really, he did choose one book. He threw a tantrum when I put it back on the shelf - a reaction that I got with no other book. He really likes that "Monkey peeps" book. It makes him giggle when the monkey falls out of the tree! Chris and I bought him a new tee shirt and some new pants. He'll be wearing those this weekend when he celebrates his birthday with Chris' family.
So.. what has the past year been like for me?
So much has happened in the span of a year.
In January, Alex was born and Chris bought a new car.
February marked Alex's first Chinese New Year.
In March, Chris' brother and his wife came home for a surprise visit. Doesn't sound like that big a deal unless you know that they live in the UK! What a pleasant surprise!
In April my parents came to visit and spent Easter with us. I also managed to get the only spinning I had done all year done then. We haven't seen my parents since then, though we do chat on Skype quite often. To Alex, they are just faces on the screen.. but that willc hange soon as we're going back to KL for a visit in February!
In May I posted off my ISE4 scarf. It was difficult to part with the scarf as I had grown quite attached to it in the time that I had spent spinning the yarn for it and knitting it.
I turned the big three-oh in June. I feel old now. Just old.. not grown up. I also started knitting things for sale then. Oh, and that was when I handed in my business project for uni. The end of my studies... what a relief!
July saw Alex tasting "real" food for the first time. Up till that point he had only ever had breastmilk, so it was quite a big change for him. He took to it like a duck to water and we haven't looked back since.
August... we fell in love with a house, after many long months of searching, and bought it!
We moved in September and for the first time in about 8 months, Alex slept through the night. Oh, what bliss! I strongly believe that it had a lot to do with him having his own room. Aside from the odd occasion when he is teething or not very well, he has slept through almost every night since.
Not much happened in October aside from a short trip to Canberra to renew my passport. So glad I don't have to do it again for another 5 years.
In November Alex was cruising and we thought he'd be walking pretty soon after that. We were wrong, though as he still continues to walk only with some assistance.
December was haircut month for Alex. He endured it well and now looks more like a boy than a baby.
What is in store for us this year? I wonder...
Labels: Alex, birthday, Christmas, life, new year
