Hello !! First let’s start with wishing everyone a fantastic New Year ! May 2011 be a joyful and crafty year, with good health for you and your family and friends !! 2010 has been a bit trying for my family, so I hope this new year will bring good things and joy and smiles on people around me. :-)

After the Xmas market I felt like I had exhausted all my crafty juices and it took me nearly a month to recover.

Am finally sewing again, and I even took pics! let me show you my cute little panel skirts. I adore all the possibilites of fabric combos, so much fun to dig into my pile of fabrics collected over the years until I find the perfect mix !

Made tons of them already, and even wrote the pattern for them. All I need is a good name now ! :-)
Also, many of the skirts I made previously had matryoshka (russian nesting dolls) appliquà©, but I didn’t take good enough pictures before they sold: I need to make more !! :-)

I have also been in pursuit of the perfect granny slouchy hat lately. Didn’t want to use the same Phildar yarn as for the grey one as I always try to use non-french-specific yarns for my designs… So I chose Cascade 220 wool instead. After about a week of crocheting/ripping/recrocheting, here’s what I came up with: my new favorite hat !! Which led me to discover one great advantage of slouchy hats over regular hats: it keeps your ears and back of head really warm, exactly at the place where our Xi-gong instructor told us we should never be cold ;-)

Last but not least: Am finally taking the plunge and started working on the adult version of Ermeline again. Because the stakes are so high (LOTS of people have asked for it!) I am starting with a hooded capelet version, to get the hood portion right. Then I’ll tackle the cardigan next. :-)
Oh and btw, see my highly scientific method: get the Ermeline’s hood, and work another hood in similar proportions (except it’s not exactly similar to work right on an adult…but you get the picture!) till it fits your head right. Yep, that’s how I work. :-)