Grow Your Blog Party 2014

Welcome to all my old and new readers.  I'm taking part in this year's Grow Your Blog Party which is hosted by Vicki at the 2 Bags Full blog.  This is a great event which helps to introduce bloggers to each other.  It worked for me in 2013 when my blog was still quite new.  I'm hoping to find many more blogs to follow this year.

I have lived in London, UK, all my life and am a very busy person.  I used to work full time in a library until 2011 when my employer decided that making me and 25 other colleagues redundant was part of the solution to the world's economic problems. Luckily, I was just the right age to take early retirement, so I now work only one day per week in a library and the rest of the week is spent enjoying a new lease of life. 

After a few weeks getting used to being a lady of leisure, I had the brainwave to return to knitting which I used to do many years ago.  I had given away all my knitting needles and didn't have one ball of wool in the house.  I restocked my needles, built up a good collection of wool and the rest is history.

I started my blog at the end of 2012 mainly to record my knitting projects.  I used to have a gardening blog with a total of 6 followers.  I didn't have any higher expectations for my knitting blog, so reaching the dizzy heights of nearly 100 followers has amazed me.  The figure is only approximate as some of my followers use Bloglovin', some use Google Friend Connect, some use Ravelry and some follow me through other blogs.  

If you have come to my blog as a new reader, I would love you to follow me.  I write about knitting, crochet and sewing.  Knitting is my first love and I have been doing it for over 50 years.  I am a competent sewer and occasionally make girls' dresses for charity and tops for myself.  I am teaching myself to crochet and very slowly making some progress.  

I don't think one day goes by without me picking up knitting needles or a crochet hook.  I mainly make things for various charities and seem to concentrate on blankets, hats, scarves, and babywear.  I sometimes make things for my family and just recently I vowed to make my own knitwear instead of buying it.  That could be interesting!

I find that reading other blogs and seeing what other people make is very inspiring. I follow many many blogs and have "met" some lovely, generous, helpful bloggers.   There are some great blogs out there!  I love reading them and looking at the amazing photos.  Let's all have a great party in 2014!