January Comforts

January was not the kindest month from a work-life balance point of view, but there were many highlights. I always think of January as a quiet month, a month when I try to rest or at least hunker down a bit before spring. I did try to do that at the weekends.

I am so pleased that I made time to make marmalade. I find it an absorbing and relaxing way to spend time in the kitchen, and the smell of the boiling oranges in a steam-filled kitchen is comforting when it is grey and dark outside.

I am always happy when potted tete-a-tetes and hyacinths are in the supermarkets, and bunches of daffodils. Those hopeful green shoots.

January is a month for keeping fairy lights up and going through all your cookery books looking for ideas for stews and casseroles, things which can simmer slowly during the afternoon.

January's bedside reading pile looked like this: the new Nigel Slater, which I feel I've hardly had time to really explore yet; Such a Fun Age a Christmas present which came very highly recommended; Donna Tartt's The Little Friend, our chosen title for book club this month, and I am still amazed I ever finished it although I am glad I did; Scoff: A History of Food and Class in Britain, a non-fiction book I'm dipping in and out of in between fiction and enjoying very much; February's book club choice, The Wine of Angels, a crime series that is new to me; and The Temptation of Forgiveness, number 27 in my favourite Commissario Brunetti series but sadly not as good as previous books in the same series.

January is a month for getting outside when you can. Often that is just a quick walk or taking Ziggy for a run somewhere nearby, but occasionally, when time allows, there are longer walks and big hills to climb and watching the sun set and the moon rise as you walk back to the car.

It is a month for taking stock of the crafting situation and trying to finish projects which have been on the go for years, but inevitably starting new ones.

I did mange to finish this beautiful granny square scarf, from the book Modern Crochet Style . It is very thick and very warm, perfect to wear inside a well-ventilated classroom.

I am always working on my English Paper Piecing patchwork quilt. It waits quietly in the background, always there when I want an hour of quiet sewing while watching TV.

I have started making granny squares with the vague idea that I will turn them into a tank top to wear over a big white shirt and jeans. I don't have a pattern and am making it up as I go, but it is keeping my hands busy during these January evenings.

365 Stitches

Hello! Finally, a post about my 365 stitches sampler which I worked on last year. I finished it on the 31st December 2021 and you can see my December stitches above. December was such a fun month to sew - with Christmas, there are so many possible motifs and images to create with thread. Mine included a poinsettia, wreath, paperchain, tree, bauble, card and many other festive details, plus two trips to London (the underground sign and The Shard building), plus a trip to the theatre to see a pantomime. Then there's the food: cookies and gingerbread houses and candy canes and Christmas cake.

Lots of people have asked me for more detail about this project and, while I cannot retrospectively put together a how-to tutorial, I can give you some details.

• I used a 12 inch embroidery hoop, the biggest I could find
• my fabric was a plain white cotton tea towel I ordered from Amazon
• my threads were a mixture of DMC, Anchor and whatever I had in my stash
• I mostly worked with one thread (pulled from the strand of six in an embroidery silk) due to the level of detail needed in such a tiny space
• Most motifs are around 1 cm in size
• I kept a list in the notes app on my phone of ideas for things to sew, so that if it had been a dull day, I could still think of something
• I was not always able to sew a stitch a day - often it was seven at the weekend
• there is not pattern for this as I made it up as I went along, but at the start I divided my circle in twelve equal spaces
• I used a fading ink pen to draw the shapes onto the cloth before I began sewing

Below you can see the project growing, month by month. Before I began, I chose a colour wheel. I really wanted to be able to use orange tones in the autumn months and red in December, so that dictated the shades I used in the other months.

January was a deep purple colour, and looking at it now reminds me that we were in lockdown this time last year, and had left the EU, but I tried to cheer myself up with cooking, sewing, walks, jigsaws, early spring flowers and reading. 

February was more of a purple-lilac. I remember two weeks of remote learning at university for my teacher training, our WIFI being tested to the absolute limit as we all tried to work/learn from home, my birthday, going for runs, pancake day, and a very boring half term break where everything was shut.

March shifted into blue, and many causes to celebrate: being vaccinated, getting a teaching job, the arrival of spring. My favourite stitch in that month is the magnolia bloom.

April, still blue, and a cold month. Filled with Easter, snow showers, cooking with the pizza oven outdoors, and the slow awakening of the garden.

May was green as everything burst into life; highlights included Angus's birthday, the Eurovision song contest (which meant a weekend with friends - so good after lockdown!), library visits, margarita cocktails, asparagus risotto, and cow parsley in the hedgerows.

June is still green and filled with trips to gardens and glasshouses, a birthday for John, washing on the line, a second vaccination, salads and sweet peas in the garden.

July was yellow and glorious: hot weather, work in the garden, football on the TV,  passing my teaching course, lobster lunches, ice cream, cold beers, fresh flowers.

August was a deeper yellow and filled with outings: Durham cathedral, the Angel of the North, The Alnwick Gardens, Yorkshire, Longleat safari park, the funfair at Southsea Pier, banger racing and trips to the beach. Closer to home were library visits, sunflowers and dahlias in the garden, wheat in the fields and brambles in the hedgerows.

September moves into a soft orange, with the faded colours of summer: ferns fading, dried hydrangea heads, conkers and mushrooms and rosehips. Also, a new term and a new season of Great British Bake Off. 

October was bright, vivid orange and I enjoyed sewing leaves, pumpkins, soups and pies with all the best bits of one of my favourite months. 

November was pink: pink knitwear and woolens, pink saucepans of milk and the last of the pink dahlias in the garden. There was also fireworks, parkin, fairy lights, geese, casseroles and stews. 

Which brings us up to December, which had to be red. Red for berries, for robins, for Father Christmas's hat, for stockings hung on the end of the bed and baubles hung on the tree. And Bella's fifteenth birthday, too. 

I've enjoyed looking back over this project: 365 stitches, 365 small memories of personal moments and the changes in the seasons. I love using embroidery as a way to record memories and special times in life, it is like drawing with a needle and thread. I have not plans to do one this year (it would be too similar, too repetitive) but I see plenty more embroidery in my future.

You might like:

• My lockdown sampler
• My holiday diary for New York 2019
• My holiday diary for France 2017
• My holiday diary for Cornwall 2014