New Year, New Decade, Still Furtling

January doesn't seem to have been as endless as it usually is and I am feeling reasonably pleased with my progress for the month.

I continued with my hot water bottle covers making them after reading Helen's success in making hers more rectangular than bottle shaped.

I made a normal sized one -

Then a wee one - very squinty stitch and flip!

and for comparison -

In recent months whilst browsing Pinterest I found lots of articles and instructions for making a burrito style pillowcase - I hadn't come across this technique and became slightly desperate to try it out. ( Do have a browse online, you'll find lots of references to this) Anyway, I bought some white polycotton and partnered it with cotton from stash and was delighted to make a pair of these -

The main difference to a usual pillowcase is the lack of the envelope flap but I enjoyed the process and would do it again.

My next accomplishment was a finish, first of the year - am I the only one who starts off a project with enthusiasm, even almost gets to the finish line and then, it sort of gets forgotten about for some considerable time. The benefit with this one was that it didn't take too long to complete it. I haven't actually hung this yet but I do have a space planned for it. I decided to add a frameless binding which I think is just right and doesn't take anything away from the impact of the pattern's design.

I found the pattern for this puss at the Festival of Quilts in 2018 from craftyretreatts.com

I have just checked the website and see no mention of such patterns but I do have the correct link so if you are desperate to find the pattern perhaps an email would work?

I also made another decision in January - almost 3 years ago I bought wool, sorted out a pattern and got started on a hoodie for my grandaughter. I think my knitting dreams are beyond my capabilities and I would struggle  at times, many times, and when I actually got to the hood, many months had elapsed since the previous knitting spurt and I was totally unhappy with it...........as this year dawned I finally accepted that Ava would be 8 in March and had just turned 5 when I cast on.

So I ripped the whole thing down and am now happily knitting a simple blanket. I do feel like a weight has slipped from my shoulders, I am so glad not to have this UFO looking at me.

I will keep on furtling and am linking to Mini Archie's Furtling adventures