Art Deco Scarf

When we went to New Zealand, I promised my mum I'd make her a scarf with some yummy possum/merino/silk yarn I bought there. I managed to do it without her seeing it (although the blocking part had me EXTREMELY nervous, luckily it was warm weather and only took one night). It ended up really nice and I'm sure she'll get a lot of use out of it once the weather cools down. I ended up with two left over balls so eventually I might make myself some fingerless gloves or mittens maybe.

It's an art deco scarf because we went to Napier in New Zealand, which is an art deco town, and zig-zags are a common motif in Art Deco style.

The pattern is Isobel, knitted with Supreme Possum Merino with Silk. Took about a month and a half of surreptitious knitting.

Looking Back at 2008

Looking back at 2008, it was a bit of a blah year unfortunately. We lost our darling Barney in February and I felt like I was working a lot. I think it was just the way my hours were set out that I felt like I didn't have big chunks of time to do stuff I wanted.

I've just been looking back on my goals for 2008 and to be honest, I didn't really go all that well on them.

1. Comment more on blogs/projects/images etc. Partly I don't do this because I read Bloglines at work, so I figure the more websites I go to the badder I am, but when I'm looking at stuff at home I'm going to make an effort to comment more. Most of it is just laziness really.
I didn't really do this. Looks like I'm shy on the net and in person.

2. Keep a creative journal. I'm not sure how well this one will go, I've tried it before, but I'll do my best. I'm not going to put any pressure on myself for daily writing or anything, but I think it will be useful.
Also didn't go very well.

3. Get a shower timer. I should stop assuming I'm having short enough showers and actually measure it.
Hooray, I did this one. Go me!

4. Complete some stuff I started this year - TAST, the 12 inch square CAL (only one of these to do and then combine everything). Also use some of the supplies I have.
Ummm...no, I guess that's part of the overwhelmed with work bit.

5. Challenge myself creatively. This may include large projects, new skills etc.
Yes, I did knitting and made socks, did cabling and lace. I'm pretty impressed with myself here.

6. Read another 15 books from my list (see previous post). Read over 100 books in the year.
I read over 100 books (180 actually, the last one scraped in just on New Years Eve)
Only 7 from the list, but I've read lots from other lists.

7. Make some plans for an overseas trip in 2009 and ask others to join me.
Definitely did this one. In fact I'm leaving in February, so not long now. I didn't actually ask others to join me, I was going to, and then they were talking about going overseas so I invited myself. I have done most of the organising though. .

8. Take a bit of time out to think about where I'm going etc.
Kind of, I'm going on a big overseas trip!

So what about 2009?

I'm finishing my job in mid February then making my way to the UK, travelling through India (5 weeks), Thailand (1 week) and Japan (2 weeks) on the way. Once I'm in the UK I'm going to work for a little bit (to make up the money I've spent in the first part of my trip) and then travel round Europe in between working. It's been something I've been wanting to do since uni and I'm so glad to finally be getting the chance to.

I'm going to keep blogging here until I go (probably fairly sporadically though) and then I think I'll set up a new travel blog but I'll see how I'm feeling before I leave.