Saturday, December 29, 2012

A Review, a Preview, and a Riddle

Some love it, others hate it: those obligatory "Best-of"-posts at the end of the year. I'm a huge fan of those posts! Why? Because when I write my own review-post, I flip through my archiv and discover things that I had already forgotten, so it's a nice review for myself, to see what I have accomplished this year.
I also love those 2012-summary-posts on other blogs, because when you're following lots of crochet blogs (and some of them just recently), it just happens that you miss some beautiful projects - and in those end-of-the-year-posts, you suddenly find them (again), and have all the good stuff in one post.

So let's see, what has been going on in k-town this year?

The bigger projects were the two blankets I've made this year. One was the wedding-blanket I've made for my friend in spring, the other one was the Christmas blanket I've made for my Mom later this year.

The Wedding Blanket

The Christmas Blanket

A fun and interactive highlight of my crochet year was the 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week in April. During this week I also introduced you to my little IKEA-stool that I had covered:

Frosta: something a little bit different

Although I still enjoy it, I haven't made as many crochet covered stones as last year. Here they are:

1: birthday-stone for my sister-in-law, 2: a gift for John's sister, 3: a gift for a friend

 And here are some more smaller items I've made this year, they were mainly gifts:

1: three Kindle-covers, 2: my first baby-hat, 3: a smartphone-cover, 4: a potholder dress for John's Mom, 5: a new pair of potholders, 6: Easter Bunnies, 7: potholder dresses for my Mom, 8: Birthday Potholders

 The most popular posts were the free patterns I've shared this year:

Little Spring Mandala

Spiral Coasters

Christmas Bowl

Last but not least, this year I've worked my way through Edie Eckman's book "Beyond the Square" - I'm sure you didn't miss The Grand Finale, did you?

Beyond the Square: The Grand Finale

Oh, and one more thing that's dear to me: I've started a second crochet-site, "The Crochet Boulevard".

The Crochet Boulevard

It's a place dedicated to crochet link-parties only: usually there's one theme-party and one free-topic link-party every month. The whole month of December was reserved for Winter- and Christmas-Crochet, but there's still a poll going on for the first theme-party in 2013 - have you placed your vote yet?

And talking about 2013, I think it'll be a very exciting year, both in real life and on my blog. The spring will probably be filled with wedding-preparations, but there are still a few weeks of winter, which will hopefully be filled with lots of crochet-posts, both by myself and by amazing guest-bloggers.
Some of you might like to hear that I've also started a Facebook-page for my blog (although I'm not quite sure if that even makes sense, but we'll see). I had already created this page a few months ago, but then I forgot about it. But now I see more and more crochet blogs being on Facebook, too, and I thought - why not give it a try and see what happens, and so I've published the yesterday. So, if you're on Facebook, too, maybe you want to give Made in K-town the thumbs-up! :)
I'm also thinking about starting an online-shop (probably on Etsy) to sell my handmade items - but this is still future talk, I haven't given more thought to that yet.

Let's get down to the real things instead, things I've made but haven't published yet: the squares for Jill's Beautiful Blogger Blanket 2013, a custom-made R2D2-hat (the first item I've ever sold), a custom-made toilet paper cover (yes, indeed...), a beautiful shawl made with a vintage pattern, the start of a brand-new blanket,... and this:

This is my New Year's Riddle for you: tell me - what could it be? Some hints: the size of this item is approximately the size of a small dish towel (but of course it isn't one, otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it), and it's already finished and ready to serve its purpose (i.e. it's not part of something bigger). Can you guess what it is?

With this riddle I'll leave you for today, and I'll post the solution some time next year.

In Germany we say "einen guten Rutsch (ins neue Jahr)!", a literal translation would be something like "have a good slide (into the new year)!" I kinda like that! :)

So, thanks for your visits in k-town this year, I hope to see you all happy and healthy in 2013,

Have a good slide everyone!


 

15 comments:

  1. Ach herrlich, Barbara, wunderschöne Sachen hast Du gemacht über's Jahr! Besonders gefallen mir die Wedding Blanket und das Spring Mandala :-). Das Rätsel, hm, könnte es ein Rollmäppchen für Strick- oder Häkelnadeln sein?
    Einen guten Rutsch wünsch ich Dir ebenfalls, und ein kunterbuntes, gesundes und glückliches 2013!
    LG, Nata :-)

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  2. You've had a fabulous year, thanks for sharing your creativity with us. Happy New Year!!!

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  3. Ich auch ganz beeindruckt! Am liebsten mag ich den Hocker. Ich möchte auch dringend einen Hocker umhäkeln, habe aber noch nicht den Passenden gefunden.

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  4. Could it be a teapot cozy or something of the sort? :) Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Love your 2012 review - it's lovely to be reminded of all the pretty things you've made!

    Happy New Year for 2013 and hope all goes well with the wedding preparations and everything else.

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  6. And to add to my previous comment, I love the colours of your mystery item - is it a crochet hook case?

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  7. Barbara, as that possibly very Happy New Year 2013 nears, I would like to thank you for all your crochet motif explorations during 2012. Though I've not often left you a message along the way, I definitely want to thank you now for all your posts.

    Crocheting is such an enjoyable technique, so flexible, and with much more instant results than its knitting cousin. (I also really love knitting for its subtle possibilities.)

    Best wishes to you for a very Happy New Year!

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  8. Lovely projects for the year 2012 Barbara..looking forward to more such stuff from you next year and also all ears for your big D-day :)

    Is that new piece of crochet a tissue box cover or some form of cover as i see 2 buttons and corresponding holes?

    Happy New year!!

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  9. Thank you Barbara for sharing such a pretty and colorful year on your blog.
    Could your mystery piece be a colorful Cowl for your neck?
    Happy New year!
    Blessings-
    Renate (RenInAz)

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  10. I missed the post about the beautiful Christmas blanket! So it's a good thing, your end-of-year post :-)

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  11. Is it something te keep a yoga-mat nicely rolled up?

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  12. Everything you made is so lovely. Such pretty colours. Thank you for sharing your crochet during the year.

    Happy New Year!

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  13. I love the year end posts for the same reason you do! Your year end wrap up just reminds me how much I love your photography! (No guesses on the project - I'm terrible at guessing games, though.)

    Happy New Year and best wishes for a wonderful 2013.

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  14. Hi Barbara. Happy New Year. Happy to share with you that I followed your Little Spring Mandala tutorial to make a mandala... my first crochet project of 2013!. No wonder it was one of your popular posts. A very clear and beautifully made tutorial. Thamk you so much. I learnt two new stitches while making my mandala. Its a pleasure going through your blog. Love being here :)

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