Tuesday 13 January 2015

New year, New blog

Oh, hi. Is anyone there? I decided to have a spontaneous re-design today! Do you like it? I am IN LOVE. I was neglecting my blog. It had become a tired space, no room for growth or improvement. Just drab photos of sporadic makes. It wasn't a place that inspired me anymore, just an obligation that had no worth to me. I've not felt like picking up my hook for myself, and left several knitting projects abandoned. Unfinished books, dusty sewing machine and a busy life built around a growing school boy and difficult toddler have all left me and my blog in the doldrums. 

I once read that comparison is the thief of joy. Ain't that the truth! I don't need my blog to look Scandinavian- because I'm not. And I don't need it to have detailed tutorials and glossy, styled images. All I need is a personal space, cultivated to my tastes and loves; a place that I can escape from real life. Therefore I need somewhere tidy, clean and colourful, reflecting my loves, passions and memories. So I made it happen. I deleted the expensive Etsy-bought template; beautiful though it was it didn't feel like 'me'. 

And on this sunshine-filled winter morning I gathered my very bestest craft supplies: Liberty 'Betsy' tana lawn in my favourite-ever (discontinued) colour way, my very favourite knitting needles (bamboo, 4mm), this stunning Rowan Alpaca yarn (what shall I knit with it? I need it near my face, or my hands, it's the softest thing I've ever known), the best-ever mustard yarn (Rowan Handknit Cotton, FYI), this beautiful blue silk thread on a wooden spool- a relic from my grandparent's sewing box- and a couple of jaunty coloured hooks. I tend to use these plastic hooks for decoration, really I prefer the Clover Amour crochet hooks. I also added my favourite vintage brooch- I'd like to write a little about my favourite outfits too. 

All of this inspired me. Lately, crocheting for work and making things for others has turned me off. It's hard when you also have been recently diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome to get motivated! However, it only takes a look around Pinterest, a flick through some favourite magazines (see right) and a pile of books to get me on the right and proper hooky path. I'm finishing off a 'Hook a Stitch' feature for Simply Crochet at the moment, and a huge baby blanket for a friend that I put off for ages...the headache of working with black yarn was too much for me to contemplate! Then I have a list of things to make- including two of Kat Goldin's designs. 


I also have some knitting projects I want to try- a few hats (perhaps for next winter), perhaps a cardigan or two, and some socks of course. My sewing is improving a lot, I'll share a couple of recent makes soon I hope. I want to make dresses, dresses and lots more DRESSES! And blouses, I have recently discovered love of blouses. With pretty handmade skirts and clogs, what can go wrong? I hope this will inspire some style posts, too. 

I have recently got a new camera phone so I hope when the winter light gives way to Spring I'll take some better photos! And perhaps even finish off so projects that have been lying abandoned in my box for so long- remember that Wes Anderson-inspired blanket? Well that's half complete. And I'm having major second-sleeve syndrome with my Quince & Co. Annabel cardigan. I will finish it! So there we are, my creative intentions for 2015. And as you as my witnesses, I know I'll be motivated enough to finish them!

Thanks for staying me with me all these years. I think it's my fourth bloggiversary! See you soon for more stitchy chit chat. 
xxx

21 comments:

  1. Heeeeeello.....loving the new header, I'd love to change mine but have no idea how to, took me ages just to work out how to put the bloglovin logo on today, and that was with instructions!!! ;) xxx

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    1. Hello lovely! Guess what...I didn't how to do it propwt either! I'd dabbled before but it wasn't great. I found a FANTASTIC blog called Sophie Slim who has video tutorials of how to change stuff and make blog headers. Hey presto! Hope you're fabulous, glad you got that yarn sorted :) x

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  2. Hello Lovely. I hope your Christmas and New Year were good ones. Love the new blog look. That Betsy fabric is one of my faves too. I think with blogging, it's all about getting back into the rhythm of it. It took a while for me when I became a distant blogger because of instagram. It's a lovely place to record everything though to be able to look back at it in years to come. I'm sure with a fresh new look, you feel invigorated again on the blogging front! Happy New Year to you, and I hope that 2015 is all that you wish it to be....and more.......xxxxxx

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    1. Thanks Vanessa! It's nice to be back in the saddle. I find if I think too much about it I get stuck and the words won't form themselves coherently y'know? I've been keeping up with Instagram of course but got a bit lazy with blog lovin'. Happy new year to you, can't wait to share the journeys through the year! X

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  3. Hello, and welcome back! It's looking marvellous, such great colours, what a great choice! Can't wait to read what's next!
    I'm still awaiting my own blogging mojo to come back to me, maybe it'll bethis year...

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    1. Thanks Kerry! I really wanted just all my favourite colours on the page! Hope yours returns soon, just do what works for you x

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  4. Welcome back Kath. I know what you mean, my blog is definitely not designer!!!! I suffer second sleeve syndrome too - see my cardi proves that. Lets make more this year, especially a row of Tif frocks! X

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    1. Oh yes please! I have already mentally selectes fabric for at least 3 Tif frocks- bizarrely it's all green! Perhaps I should shoehorn some mustard in there... ;)

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  5. Lovely mustard and gorgeous fabric - it looks fab. Completely agree with what you said about comparisons, it can be overwhelming rather than inspiring sometimes. Look forward to following along this year. x

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    1. Hi Claire! Thank you, I wish I had enough of the fabric for a blouse, one day I'll track some down- if I'm very lucky!

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  6. Love what I'm seeing here, Kath! Also love what I'm reading - I strongly believe that writing from the heart about things you love and care about is what blogging is about and that's exactly what I feel when visiting your - lovely made-over - blog! Marianne xx

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    1. Hi Marianne! Yes I agree, time to get back to 'me' happy hooking xxx

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  7. I am tired of all the look-alike blog headers with their pretty floral graphics. Where did all the originals go that actually gave some originality and personality to the blog? Some of them were so lovely and totally captured the bloggers personality. But all gone sadly. People are like sheep, one person changed and then it was like a domino effect. So dull. One person shows a particular plant or flower and you can just watch as blog by blog it appears in a vase or pot. We are all following the leader.

    Blogging used to be about the unique person, now too often it is being about being like others. So there is little new anymore. I don't want to see rip offs of popular blogs, because for one thing, they don't work as it isn't their own voice, whatever that is. I would like a few more opinions, less baby talk and cosiness (come on we live in a harsh world here with a lot going on, that isn't made better by hot chocolate and marshmallows and a squirt of cream - who are we all kidding?) It is artificial. By all means leave out the mess, the angst and the depressed introversion (oh there is a lot of that! Such a contradiction to the insistence of everything being perfect most of the time, that it is painful when its opposite breaks through the enforced continual sunshine. Why not just have the moderate sunshine and showers that suggest reality instead of insisting on the bright Mediterranean sunshine that can't be sustained?)

    I like most people, don't have matching furniture, pristine walls and endless beautiful crockery to stylistically place next to the crochet project. I live in a normal mismatched house, where money is stretched and purchases measured. Yet some bloggers seem to be gobbling up all the things just to show on their blogs. Is that all they are there for, to basically show their most recent purchases?

    Crafting is not about life-style. Blogs are not life-style magazines. Well they used not to be. It's about making stuff, mistakes when doing so, the successes and pleasure, the joy of sharing thoughts and ideas just as they come in to your head. A lack of contrivance. If you follow guidance for what makes a good blog, you will lose your own voice and you will sound like a pip squeak. Those blogs we all love and who we now try and emulate all blazed their own trails and in doing so became the golden standard. So just be yourself, it's the easiest the best and most loveable thing to be.
    Maria

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    1. Yep, 'be yourself' is the best blog advice there is, Maria! I think I visit different blogs for different things and I love those stylish, magazine-style ones too but that just isn't me, so reality bites here!

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  8. I'm new here, visiting from Coco Rose Diaries. Your freshly redesigned blog looks lovely, and I'm intrigued by the thought of a Wes Anderson inspired blanket. I'll be back...

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    1. Hi CJ! Welcome! I think there's a post called 'Summers End Blanket' explaining my colour choice but really I'd love to finish it to show you!

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  9. Hello Kath
    Ooooh, its so lovely here ! How have I never discovered your lovely little corner of blogspace before ? Big thanks to Vanessa who sent me in your direction, and now I'm off to add you instantly to my favourites side bar, be back soon,
    Kate
    www.justpootpling.blogspot.co.uk

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  10. Hello Kate! Thanks for visiting, now I can repay the favour! Can't wait to catch up on my favourite blogs and meet more lovely folks! X

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  11. Bee-yew-tee-ful blog! I love, LOVE your header! This is my first time visiting (over from Coco Rose Diaries, too!), so I don't know what this place looked like before, but I love how it looks now; it is beautiful and warm. I'm wanting to change my blog up a bit, and keep seeing all the "simplified", white blogs with a graphic on top. I think some are pretty, but...they're not me. I can't wait to look over the rest of your blog (just realized it's 2:30 am, oops, one of the dangers of getting on the computer when hubby's on graveyard shift!).

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    1. Thanks Michelle! Hello, thank you for the warm welcome...hope you got some sleep ;)

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  12. Noooooo Kath...just red about your carpal....I have just had surgery on something similar...I had a 'cubital release" because my ulna nerve got squished...soo painful I know and it stopped me crocheting...better now after surgery hope yours gets sorted soon....Ash AKA Daisy Jxx

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