I have been saying for over a year that I want to design and publish the pattern for an adult garment. I think I'm about to achieve that aim! I'm rather excited about it.
Early last year I designed a sweater. With the aid of a Craftsy course I learned how to grade a pattern (that is to say, how to work out the maths to write for a number of different sizes). I already do it for socks with little difficulty but I wouldn't have known where to start for something as complex as a sweater. I swatched, I graded, I crunched numbers with a calculator (Excel being beyond me at that point), and I came up with a sheet of figures that I could knit from. I knitted. A sweater appeared. It fit. I didn't like it. Even though I'd designed it, and the maths worked, it just wasn't my style and I had no idea what I was thinking with that particular design. I also didn't much like the yarn I'd made it with, so I donated it.
The experience put me off for some time, until a design challenge came up on Ravelry to design a sleeveless top for an adult. Since I'd already got a few baby and toddler size vests under my designing belt, I knew I could handle the basic construction, but if I was going to design it for myself, could I handle making something to fit the shape of a woman? I took a deep breath, bought Excel for Dummies, and set to.
There was a lot of muttering involved, and a lot of frogging. I'm usually one to fudge a fix to an error but this is a fitted vest and there was no room for making-do. Honestly, I ripped and re-knitted enough that I literally knitted two vests but ended up with only one at the end of it!
It has taken me several months to be brave enough to actually write up the pattern as well. What finally got it done was working out what on earth the "concatenate" function in Excel does, and it was plain sailing after that.
Next obstacle (for that read "excuse to put it off") is that my usual technical editor is currently on maternity leave, and I want an editor I trust to work with on my first proper garment pattern. However, a fellow Ravelry designer who I have test-knitted for and whose patterns I have worked is also a tech editor and was advertising space for new clients so she is going to edit it for me.
The only thing left to do is work out how much yarn yardage all the different sizes will likely take, and then the pattern will be off for scrutiny.
​Watch this space!!

I hope everyone has had a safe and happy festive season. Here we are in 2017, and it's time for me to set out some plans for the year.

In terms of knitting plans, I have two main goals - to use up the last of my oldest stash, and to turn over as much of my current stash as possible.
I first started using the Ravelry Flash Your Stash thread in 2014, when I had enough yarn to cover my entire bed (a British double, so 4'6" wide). All I have left from January 2014 is this:

My current stash as of January 1st this year is here, and I'd like as much of this to have moved as possible by this time next year. That's laceweight and light fingering at the top by the pillow, fingering and sock yarn next with the Wollmeise all together below the other brands. Then in the foreground I've got my one sweater quantity of DK, and my one current WIP.

As for designing, I have a few goals I have set myself, and I like to put them out there to keep myself accountable.

1. I intend to publish a minimum of 12 patterns. That's an average of one per month (obviously!) but I don't necessarily mean to put out one every month as long as I get the 12 out there and done.

2. I will publish at least one adult-size garment this year. Now, this is something I've been saying for a while now but this year I'm going to do it! I have the sample knitted and the pattern mostly written. That's been a learning experience in itself. I've learned more about Excel on that one design than in decades of computer use!

3. Finally, I hereby declare 2017 to be the Year of the Large Shawl! I have one at the writing stage, one at the knitting stage (that green blob at the bottom of the photo, in fact), and I intend to design at least one more before the year is through. That doesn't mean I'm not going to be designing my usual socks and small shawls, far from it, but I do like to get my teeth into a good challenging shawl project (figuratively speaking) and this is going to be a Large Shawl year.

So, what are your crafting plans for 2017?