Newsletter December 2010: Best wishes and a calendar for 2011News:First of all, don’t miss next month’s news: Free shipping worldwide for all kits during the month of January!During this last month of 2010, I republished a pattern from 2008: Kubix (also known as the Mitered Squares Scarf).This pattern was originally published in the Winter 2008 issue of Interweave Crochet, but it was no longer available until now. I added a chart to the pattern, to clearly illustrate the construction of the scarf, and worked it up in Mochi Plus (col. Tapestry Rainbow). A great match between design and yarn, if I may say so myself!A totally new, beautiful crochet pattern from EclatDuSoleil is available: Italian Travels.This pattern contains detailed instructions for three very well constructed crochet bags, and lots of information that will enable you to create your own designs from the same basic template. As always in the patterns from EclatDuSoleil, the pattern is lavishly illustrated with step-by-step photos.I also added a yarn in the shop: Mochi Plus’s little sibling, Mini Mochi.This fingering weight yarn with its long colour repeats is a great match for many of the crochet patterns in the shop – well illustrated by this swatch in the Celeste stitch pattern. I’m pretty certain this beautiful yarn will inspire new designs in 2011…In knitting news, the new hat pattern by Circé aux Belles Boucles, Arabelle, is a great addition to the collection.I worked it up myself, in the largest size and using the ultrasoft merino yarn available as a kit in the shop.Sooo soft and warm! I’ve used it a lot these past few weeks – we’re having a cold, cold winter here in France. This yarn also shows off the cables beautifully.Best wishes and a calendar for 2011:Another new year… The beginning of a new year is always a special time for me, and I think I’m not alone.I wish you all the best for 2011 – love, health, peace, happiness, and lots and lots of handmade things. There have been times when I dreaded the new year – but it never turned out quite as badly as I’d thought. This time, I look forward to the new year with hope and inspiration. Even if 2010 had its share of difficulties, it was also a great year in terms of work. I have many new customers and readers (this newsletter is now sent out to more than 1,000 persons), I participated in my very first craft show, I started selling yarn, and things look really good for 2011! I also expanded the number of designers I work with during 2010, and I’m very happy and proud to distribute the patterns in French for such talented English-speaking designers as Alana Dakos (NeverNotKnitting), Kirsten Kapur (ThroughTheLoops), MidnightSky Fibers and Jennifer Benson (Elizabeth Nicole Designs). And there are more to come!All this means I need to be very organized for 2011, of course! Hence the new form of the Crochet Calendar (previous editions were published for 2008 and 2009). This time around, I decided to make it as an organizational tool. Very selfish, of course, but you can use it as you like!I will be using a clear binder with sheet protectors, which looks like this:I printed all the pages on ordinary paper, but I think it would be optimal to print the pages with pictures on photo paper, and the others on a rather sturdy paper, so they can be taken out and put back into the binder easily.I also added pages at the end (not included in the pdf), for my own organizational purposes: General goals for 2011 (based more on what I want to do than on what I should do!), a basic weekly plan (I started with this in September and it’s great – I simply plan what type of work I need to do on which day), a page for tracking exercise goals (I need to take these goals seriously in 2011!), a page for my translation queue, another for my crochet and knitting projects, etc., etc. A great place for inspiration for this is the DIY planner site – I’ve only just started exploring the wealth of ideas there. All this is an attempt to put my beloved lists (I can’t get anything done without a list) in one single place. I know there are many, many organizational tools in electronic form out there – but to me personally, nothing beats a piece of paper.You will find your own calendar available for download HERE (allow some time for download, it’s a heavy file!).Once again: all my wishes for a happy new year to you. Let’s make 2011 a great one! See you soon!