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 I was thinking about my blog earlier today and realised it has been an age since I last posted. I miss it - don't know why I have left it so long.  Certainly not for lack of items to blog about.  Since my last post I have made some great sweaters - not least of which is this beauty. It was a free pattern that I spotted on the fantastic Ravelry.  Here is the pattern link for the cream jumper

I used some lovely Sirdar Babouska which I had picked up at a fantastic bargain price from Kemps Wools. I wasn't sure if I would like this yarn and really bought it because it was a stupid 29p a ball at one point. This is not always a good reason to buy yarn but on this occasion it proved to be an excellent purchase.  It is over 50% wool and extremely light , fluffy and warm with very good yardage. Babouska was a perfect choice for the pattern.  The pattern was really easy with minimal shaping and a combination of knitting and crochet. Very pleasing result.

For a while, I became completely obsessed with mittens.  They are an ideal way to try out new techniques and are small enough to complete fairly quickly. I found that a few pairs of these mittens resulted in a huge improvement in my stranded colour work.  There are loads of free patterns for mittens that can be downloaded as well as some amazing patterns for sale on Ravelry.
This pair had a Christmas carol knitted around them, which was so much fun.

 I really enjoyed making these little gems and will probably knit a few more pairs throughout the year just for the fun of it.

I also made the first pair of socks in a very long time.

I wanted a chunky pair to wear with my Winter boots and have worn these a lot.  Sirdar Crofter may not be the most hardwearing of yarns for a pair of socks but they are holding up well.

As usual when the weather gets colder, I feel the need to knit a selection of new hats.  The Baable Hat is a free pattern, again from Ravelry, that knits up into the cutest of hats.  I used some Drops Alaska from stash for this one. Love this hat so much! I also made another Westie Hat.  I seem to have lost the red and white one that I knitted last year and was wanting to mkae another.  This time I used some Katia Alpaca which is supersoft and a pleasure to knit with and wear.
 
Alpaca is one of my favourite fibres and this lovely hat from Toft Alpaca was purchased as a kit at Knit and Stitch Show last year. I really like it .

Last year I wanted to learn something new and decided it was time to tackle entrelac. I have now knitted about half of this totally gorgeous wrap in Noro Silk Garden Lite. The pattern is the Lady Eleanor Wrap from Scarf Style, which has been on my to do list for ages. This project has been "resting" for a while but I am psyching myself up to finish it sometime soon. Entrelac is a lot less complicated than I had expected.
 
There have been so many projects over the last year that I can't possibly blog about all of them now. I will give a mention to Tiny Ted though as he is a particular favourite of mine.

I made him one evening out of a small scrap of leftover sock yarn and plan to knit him some friends at some point.
Currently on my needles are an aran jumper, a Lollo Rosso crochet shawl and a simple knitted fluffy cowl. More of these soon...