Happy New Year!

I think I say this every year but I can't believe how quickly 2015 has gone! It feels like it should be February. 2014 was a very, very busy year for me and I didn't think I could get any busier but I did. The last few months in particular have been way too busy. I said yes to too many workshops which means I'm still behind on e-mails, pattern writing and admin. I've also submitted to far fewer publication this autumn because of my very busy teaching schedule. 

But for now, let's focus on what's good about the last year! The biggest highlight for me this year is having my book, Beaded Lace Knitting, published. I've been dreaming of writing a book for several years and to see that become reality was very exciting! I'm very very happy with the result and I'm currently negotiating my second book deal.

It's been a big year for designing. I've had 33 patterns published by yarn companies and magazines and I've self-published 26 patterns, 10 of those are club patterns. And of course there are the 25 patterns in my book.

I've had several magazine covers this year - one each for Vogue Knitting and The Knitter each and five for Let's Knit.

I've taught more workshops this year than any other year - 34 workshops in all (19 of them since September, which is why I've been feeling very overwhelmed and exhausted lately). I've taught at Spin A Yarn and Social Fabric in Devon as well as giving a talk for the Devon Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers, the 3 Bags Full Event in Cornwall, Sitting Knitting in Birmingham and La Mercerie in Wales.

Crescent Bay was my most popular pattern in 2015.

In October I hosted my first YarnAddict Retreat - Mastering Lace Knitting, which was a big success. I had 10 ladies join me for the weekend for a master class in lace knitting. I learnt a lot from hosting the event which I'll take into account when organising the 2016 YarnAddict Retreat.

Dakota

On a personal level, this year I wanted to focus on improving my health and well being. I suffer from severe chronic pain and I also have an underactive thyroid. Both those things make it hard to control my weight and it's been steadily creeping upwards. I wasn't desperately unhappy with my size but I was starting to worry that it would affect my health as I'm nearing 50. So in January, Simon and I started Weight Watchers and so far I've lost 3.5 stones (49lb/22kg). My weight has been bouncing up an down since August. I'm the same weight now as I was in September which is a bit annoying. So in 2016 I want to get my weight loss going again as I'm not even halfway to my goal.

Eliza

I travelled quite a lot in 2015 both for work and holidays. I did shows in Surrey, Cumbria and Yorkshire, taught in Birmingham and Wales as well a locally and we had holidays in Spain and Scotland as well as several short trips to Bristol and Cardiff to see Vanessa.

2015 was a great year for me and I'm proud of my achievements but I've also made some mistakes, mainly taking on too much work this autumn which means I've let people down which is very regretful. I'm trying to learn from it. I need to accept my health limitations and schedule my work accordingly. Turning down work when you're self-employed is hard so I need to improve some of my processes and planning to enable me to maximise my working time but I also need to be more realistic about how much work I can actually cope with. I must be a slow learner because January is going to be very, very busy with  four workshops (three next week at Artesano in Reading) and five design deadlines. I also need to catch up on the back log of e-mails and admin this month.

How was your 2015? Are you excited about the start of a new year?

Happy New Year!