Happy New Year!!!

I know the New Year has arrived for real when I get the uncontrollable urge to scrub the kitchen table and purge the pinboard! Had a cosy Twelfth Night yesterday, enjoying the last embers of the Xmas glow - burning the holly, sitting by the fire with candles lit and glass in hand. Always seems like a good time to reflect on the coming year and what it might bring.

We saw in the New Year with friends and fireworks around a bonfire in their garden. Felt quite pagan to be outside and exposed to the elements at the dawning of a new year, and the bonfire kept us all surprisingly warm... no doubt the bubbly had something to do with it too!

I don't do resolutions as when I used to I never kept them. However, P and I did start off the year with a fast on New Year's day, which made me feel very virtuous. We heard about the 5/2 diet while talking to some friends at a party, who were on it not because they wanted to lose weight, but because it's been lauded as a good way to stay healthier for longer. They told us it claims to ward off such western diseases as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers. Well, if it only achieved half of that we thought it would be worth giving it a go, mainly for us just to counterbalance the excesses of the festive season.  Apparently you have to restrict your calorie intake to less than 600 on two days a week, then you can eat whatever you like for the rest of the week. Sounds easy peasy - we'll see.

First family occasion this year was Ava's fourth birthday. It was lovely to see the girls for the first time in 2013 and present Ava with her gift - a guitar in her fave colour. She took to it like a duck to water, cool and confident - a rock chick in the making if ever I saw one.

This last month has been fairly full on, which helps explain why I haven't found much time for blogging. Text edits for upcoming book, prepping classes for VK Live etc etc, (btw would be great to see you there if any of you are going), but of course I still found time for a spot of knitting. Here it is waiting to be pressed, designed for Artesano yarns a few years back. It's a design I love to wear and oh so easy to knit.

Chill

It can be worn two ways, either make it one size smaller and wear it edge to edge as in the pic, or knit the correct size and overap the wide band and add two large buttons (pic in the pattern).  The alpaca is SO warm and cosy, only thing you have to watch is that you don't wash in the machine on anything other than a wool wash - I've already shrunk and felted one to bolero size! Not on purpose I might add!

To celebrate the New Year I'm gifting the pattern to all you lovely peeps who read my blog, wishing you a year of peace, health, love and laughter.  You can download it here.