2016 round up and plans for 2017

Happy new year, folks! My 2016 round up has slid into 2017 which is a bit annoying but I doubt the world will implode as a result.

First up, cakey creations! I have to admit to feeling disappointed with my baking output on the blog last year. The first part of the year was ok but by the latter half I found myself repeat baking so hardly anything got blogged. Nobody needs to read about me baking the same chocolate or carrot cake for the 10th time.

Although there's nothing wrong with having favourite recipes, I'd like to get back into the habit of trying new recipes or occasionally pushing myself out of my baking comfort zone. I received digital scales for Christmas (and utterly brilliant 3D dinosaur cake moulds!) so there's no excuse for avoiding more complicated recipes which require precise measurements.

For the first time in a couple of years I checked my blog stats (seriously, I never look at them) and my most popular baking post was the salted caramel cake. My personal favourite, however, was the deceptively named sour cream coffee cake which contains no coffee. I definitely need to bake that cake again; the texture and flavour was just so good.

Onto sewing! In 2016 I made 5 dresses, 3 tops, 1 skirt and 1 pair of dungaree shorts. I feel like I learned a lot last year: new construction methods, automatic buttonholes, covered buttons and generally making items fit better. As much as I hate the phrase "game changer" I think upgrading my sewing machine massively improved the quality of my sewing.

Although I'm really happy with all my handmade pieces from 2016 my absolute favourite, most worn and according to my blog stats most popular (out of all my blog posts!) is my pink dungaree shorts. These get worn almost weekly I love them that much. They were the first item I sewed on my new sewing machine and I put so much care into their construction that every little detail makes me happy when I wear them. I'm delighted blog-land thinks they're awesome too.

In 2016 I knitted a mixture of very wearable, practical pieces and utterly silly, useless things. And I love all of them! And like last year I have one token piece of crochet. I haven't been much of a crocheter since I've fully learned to knit.

I'm pleased that I have continued to progress my knitting skills such as venturing into cables and stranded knitting, both of which were much easier than I expected! My most popular knitting post in 2016 was my pink Sunshower cardigan which is lovely as I'm still stupidly proud that I can knit cute cardigans.

In terms of overall blogging reflections, 2016 has been a funny year. I haven't posted as frequently and I've been rubbish at keeping up to date with other blogs. I get the feeling blogging, baking blogging in particular, has had its day. Many of my favourite bloggers, mostly small baking blogs, have stopped blogging completely (which is fair enough if you're busy and/or feel the blog has run its course) or moved to newer platforms such as Instagram.

In other words, I've had a blogging identity crisis. Over the past year I've debated setting up a separate space for my knitting and sewing, but ultimately I know I can't be bothered with the hassle of running an extra blog. Also part of me enjoys having all my fun, creative things documented in one place. It represents me, even if it's a bit of a jumble. I'm probably over thinking all of this and people are happy to pick and choose which blog posts they want to read, but I'd be intrigued to hear other people's thoughts.

 Irrelevant photograph to break up all the text. How cool is my new tea strainer?

So what's in the pipeline for 2017? In a nutshell: more varied baking, more sewing with jersey and solid colours and more cardigans and colour work with my knitting.

I've started my gauge swatch for my first knitting project of the year: an Andi Satterlund Blaster cardigan. For sewing I've got a Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress traced out and ready to make in a plain, navy jersey. Baking plans have to go on hold until all the Christmas/New Year food has been eaten and I've made my eldest nephew's birthday cake, but I'd like to bake something pastry based.

Congratulations if you made it to the end; that was a lot of naval gazing. What are your creative plans for the year ahead?