Happy New Year to you all!  I hope that the holidays were everything you wanted them to be and of course a little bit more.  I had planned to take some time ‘off’,  I am not sure as a freelancer that we ever truly take time off.  There is always something that we think,  I will just…..  whether that be sewing up a completed project or re-reading a pattern.  I find myself sat with my iPad chilling out,  then before I know it,  I have read an article that has got me thinking,  where are those notes?  what happened to that UFO? I wonder if that would work well for my blog?  I sincerely hope that none of this sounds like complaining,  I love my life and I would not change it for the world.    That said, with all this ‘me time’ set aside during the holidays and thoughts of knitting and crocheting for ‘pleasure’ my knitting mojo just vanished!  Everything I picked up to knit, sucked!  I dropped stitches,  miss crossed cables and on more than one occasion fell asleep with my needles in my hands :0  The result being not much to show for my break, other than my Pinterest boards. But I do feel nicely refreshed ready for the challenge that is 2014.

I thought about writing a blog post looking back over 2013, sharing just how wonderful it had been for me and how much I had learned.  But, then my head started to spin with all the new things I had experienced.  I knew my chances of writing of a coherent post where slim at that point.  So in short,  thank you for all your loyal support during 2013, for showing interest in my fledgling blog,  for the feedback and for bearing with me on my journey through the good and the erm, not so good.

So what is new for 2014?

I do not make resolutions for the new year, it is more a reassessing of priorities for me.  Am I spending enough quality time with those I love?  Are we healthy? happy? And content? One thing that I will have to challenge myself with this year is being more organised, it is looking like it is going to be a busy year for me.

I have lots of exciting commissions for this year already.  I also plan to release a large portion of my back catalogue designs for sale this year.  Thank you for all the lovely messages I have received via Ravelry asking for these patterns, I was touched by the amount of people saying that they would rather wait for me to release the pattern than find a back issue of the relevant magazine.  

I am also teaching workshops this year,  I will announce further details when the tickets are available to buy.  I am really looking forward to meeting those of you who take a class with me.  This job can be isolating sometimes and getting to spend time with other knitters, especially my local knitting group, is always great.

What have you got planned for 2014,  which events are you wanting to attend?  What is on your crafting wish list?  I would love to hear from you.