December Furtle in January

 A bit late with this post but I have been catching up with things over the past few days and trying to finish things off and think about projects for the New Year.  

During last month I decided to post a picture of my handmade Christmas decorations as a daily Advent project on Instagram and I did wonder if I had enough items for all 24 days and I did! Just about, I might add, couldn’t have stretch that out any longer!

Here’s just a few pics

Day 5 - a little bear, pattern by Little Cotton Rabbits

Day 10 - was a Christmas Mandala from a Little Box of  Crochet kit from 2 years ago

Anyway, I’ve been furtling away on a pair of fingerless gloves while David was out at work, so he had no idea I was making these.  Made in West Yorkshire Spinners bird themed yarn, this one was Blue Tit and although self striping I managed to get the fingers and thumbs to match.

I was a bit of a numpty, no sorry, hurry, to get a Christmas present done that I forgot to take a photo, but I made my sister fingerless gloves and a hat, for those winter dog walks.  I have plenty of yarn to make a cowl to go with the set so I will be working on that this month.

But I have a finish of my own for December and it’s socks These are a bit shorter than my normal socks and it’s using yarn I’ve had for quite some time.  Way back in the beginning of my sock journey several years ago I bought some neon yarn (by Regia, I think) and made one sock with double rib and another with single rib and later on a dropped stitch laddered, so they were a disaster.  Anyway I used the unused neon yarn along with WYS turquoise yarn for cuff, heels and toes.  The neon yarn lasted as far as the gusset of the second sock so I undid one of the legs of the old socks, washed and reused to finish the new one,  

Over the years, I have found the needle size and number of stitches that make a sock that’s suitable for me and these will be a better fit than the old socks anyhow.

One temptation I gave into earlier this month was a kit from Lucy Locketland for some lovely crochet fairy lights and got this in the bright colours in a dinky little box.  Looked too sweet to dig into but I soon made a few. It does need some concentration but now I’ve got another 11 months to get more fairy lights done.

Another little bit of crochet I started on New Years Eve is a little shawl for Daisy the Herdwick.  I’m using a couple of mini skeins from Cuddlebums in two delicate shades, one of which is used already.

Keeping busy sorting out my scrap box which was getting quite full I found some blocks that I made for the Scrapbusting Sew Along by Sugar Bowl Crafts from 2019.  Last year I made a quilt for Project Linus and had 5 blocks left.  So I made 4 more

 And with blocks that I already had, laid out on the floor.

I’ve got more strips to join so I’ll keep going.

I’ve been and listed my Finish a Long list, not very long but things that must get finished because they were on the list from last year (oh dear!)

I’m linking this post with Mini Archie’s December Furtle Around the Blogosphere and look forward to more Furtling this year.