Happy New Year!  I hope that 2008 was a good year for you and that 2009 will be even better.

Today is the second anniversary of my knitting blog Vic’s Knits and in the past year, I’ve had twice as many visitors with my stats now totalling over the 30,000 mark.  I can’t believe it really, because I don’t write about anything particularly exciting or funny.  It’s just about m’ knittin’!  

Here’s what I achieved in 2008:

I was also looking at the entry I wrote this time last year.  I had a number of knitting ambitions for 2008, some of which I achieved, some I didn’t:

• To learn to knit in the round using DPNs – done!
• To knit a pair of socks, once I’ve learnt to handle more than 2 needles at a time! – done!
• To learn to crochet beyond doing chain stitch – done!
• To knit something with wire
• To knit something with beads
• To visit Get Knitted in Bristol
• To write and publish my first pattern – done!
• To finish the Art of Knitting blanket – done!
• To open a yarn store… well I can dream can’t I?

The final item in the list there was just a whimsical idea last year, however… I think that 2009 might bring with it some exciting developments which could turn the dream into a reality!  Watch this space

In blogging news… Just been taking a look at my stats and I noticed that I’ve gone some way over 20,000 visitors since I started at the beginning of last year. Thanks to everyone for stopping by and reading and commenting!

In knitting news… I’ve completed the back piece for the new top and am sewing up blanket squares this week. It would nice to catch up and complete the blanket “on time” as it were.

There just aren’t enough hours in the day though. I’m busy at work, need to do some maintenance on a couple of websites, have ideas swimming round my head for writing a book on building church websites, letters to write, have landlord type stuff to do, and a possible new venture which I can’t divulge just yet but is very exciting and I’ll certainly tell all if it comes to fruition.

Happy New Year to you and Happy Blog Anniversary to me!

I’ve now been writing this blog for a year now – I can’t believe how fast the past 12 months have gone by and had nearly 10,000 visitors according the stats! It’s unbelievable that so many people want to read about my knitting exploits. Thank you to everyone who left comments. It’s nice to develop friendships with other knitting bloggers.

2007 was a good year in terms of my knitting. Whilst breaking my leg back in March wasn’t all that much fun, it did give me plenty of time to knit whilst I rested on the sofa. I can’t believe how addicted I am to knitting now. I think that my friends are slowly coming around to the idea that it’s not so weird to be a 30-year old knitter, or else they’ve just come to accept my eccentricities! I did persuade one friend to pick up some needles and over the coming year I hope to cultivate her interest!

Things I’ve learnt and achieved this past year:

• Knitted my first garment (and several others since)
• Learnt to do intarsia, fair-isle and cable
• Increased my stash considerably
• Discovered knitting podcasts (who would have thought that I’d want to listen to such things?)
• Used circular needles for the first time
• Made some online knitting friends

My knitting aims for the coming year:

• To learn to knit in the round using DPNs
• To knit a pair of socks, once I’ve learnt to handle more than 2 needles at a time!
• To learn to crochet beyond doing chain stitch
• To knit something with wire
• To knit something with beads
• To visit Get Knitted in Bristol
• To write and publish my first pattern
• To finish the Art of Knitting blanket
• To open a yarn store… well I can dream can’t I?

Wow, that’s quite a few things I want to do over the next year. It should be achievable though I think.

There are so many excellent knitting blogs that I keep discovering. My RSS reader used to be full or entries from web developers about various aspects of website design. However I’ve now got almost as many knitting feeds too.

There also seems to be a knitting blog language that I need to learn though. Thanks to Ingrid (Ingrid Knits blog) I’ve discovered that ‘LYS‘ means ‘Local Yarn Store’. WIP means ‘Work in Progress’ and I’m assumed that ‘FO‘ means ‘Finished Object or ‘Finished Off’? I’d not heard the term “frogging” either until I started reading knitting blogs.

I have to say that I’m totally hooked on WordPress – the system I’m using to run this blog. I recently used a standalone version to set up a site for a charity my friend helps with, and I’ve got several other websites in mind where I can use it. Because I’m using the WordPress hosted blog service for my own knitting blog, I can only use the plugins provided. I’m not too bothered but one thing I wished I could have was little progress bars, as seen on other knitting blogs. Up until this morning I’d only come across ProgressFly. However I have now discovered the ones from Yarn Tomato. The kindly blogger at that site has made a selection of progress bars in difference colours, which you can download. To use, all you need do is insert some simple HTML to display the appropriate bar, into a text box widget in my sidebar and voila! I now have a way of displaying my WIP! (Please note the use of knitting lingo!!)

I started my own blog at the beginning of 2007, where I write all sort of thoughts and musings. However I’ve also become hooked on knitting and decided that I would set up this dedicated blog just to talk about how I’m learning to knit and the various projects that I’m undertaking.

Why do I like knitting?

In the evenings if I’m not going out somewhere, I like to do something rather than just sitting in front of the TV all evening. There are lots of things I could do such as working on my family tree, or working on some website, but sometimes I just can’t face sitting at a computer after having been in front of one all day.

Knitting is great because it’s different to anything else I do, it appeals to my arty-crafty side and I can watch TV at the same time without feeling guilty!

There are lots of great knitting blogs out there and I’m enjoying reading them. I’ll slowly be adding links to my favourites but if you can recommend any then let me know!