Hill of the Dragons

I finally found the time to take pictures of one my latest pieces from pottery class. You might recognise it since I have been posting in progress pictures and already showed this on Instagram.

It's a piece is just for decoration. We were supposed to create some kind of landscape on a round base plate. No, it’s NOT a church! As some you might have seen on Instagram - it's (loosely) inspired by the city of Whiterun in Skyrim. And when I say loosely I mean that the basic shape is based on the city but some finer details I just couldn't replicate in clay. It's actually red clay by the way but I used engobes that tend to be very opaque. For the water in the river and the well I used tiny glass pieces that melt in the oven but stay transparent just like water. 

It's one of the last pieces I made last year. Since now I'm starting another internship I wont have pottery class for a while. Also my teacher for this class quit and in summer we will get a new teacher. I hope they will be as great as the old teacher since I really enjoy this class.

Smoke & Tentacles

Here is another piece from my pottery class. I have already been posting in progress pictures of this one here and on Instagram. 

This little dilapidated hut covered in tentacles is an incense burner. You put an incense cone in the house and smoke rise out of the little crack in the roof. The design of my incense burner house is probably not your typical christmassy cute design but since I burn incense all year long it seem fitting to make a burner that I'd like to display all the time.

Stash Reducing Project 2018

Last year was not really a great year for knitting. I had some trouble with my left hand (tendonitis ...). So I only knitted some projects in the first few month of the year, did my usual break over the summer (it was just way too warm) and then I had to keep my hand in a hand splint. It has gotten a lot better but I'm still taking it easy. But that doesn't mean I abandoned my stash organising routine. For the sixth year in a row I'm now working on reducing my yarn stash. In 2018 I started with of 4.750g of yarn and had the resolution to end the year with the same amount or less in my stash. And I reached that goal - by the end of 2018 I had a total of 4.340g in my stash. Thats a minus of 410g in total. (And it's exactly the same amount my stash gained in 2017 - that's kinda funny to me.)

In total I used up only 410g (in 2017 it was 2.370g) of yarn and added no new yarn at all  to my stash (in 2017 it was 2.780g). I worked on only 4 projects, finished 3 successfully and one is still in progress. Here are all my 2018 projects on Ravelry.

This year my goal is still to get my stash under 4.000g or at least use up at least as much as I buy. My queue on Ravelry has some things on it, but I'll need to sort through this again. And I still have to decide what to do with my Rainbow "My Favourite Things Scarf" since I don't really like the way it looks and that's probably why I didn't continue working on it. So much for the plan. In the sidebar you will find a link to the project which I'll try to update every month.

2018

2018 is over. Finally? I'm not sure how to feel about the past year. It had it's ups and downs. It's not *the worst year ever* but it also not my best year ever. There have been a lot of small things that happened this year. Good things, okay things and not so nice things. 

Feeling unproductive was the main feeling this year. But there are a few things I made or did this year:

• I made quite a few things in pottery class. I'm not exactly sure how many pieces but that's actually what's important. What I really like about pottery it that it takes time. The whole process is just really slowing and calming to me. 
• I completed only 3 knitting projects this year. One of the main reasons for that was the tendonitis that prevented me from using my left hand for quite some time. I'm still not really back into knitting but I guess I just have to give it some time and not stress myself.
• I published only 39 posts this year. It's even less than last year because around August I decided to not pressure myself to write a post every week and instead focus on having fun with what I do. So far it works very well for me.
• I had 3 really nice short vacations with Mr. Biest. Some friend and us went to Prague in February. In July we went to Hamburg and in October we went to the Frankfurt Book Fair. 
• I really love taking photos with my Instax polaroid camera. I decided to only use it for special occasions and on vacation since the films are quite expensive. 
• I had my a longer internship in the beginning of the year. It wasn't really a pleasant experience. I'm trying to mostly leave that behind me and at least learn how I don't want to things.
• And I'm really proud of myself that I managed to publish a video on YouTube every month plus some travel vlogs. 

The year was bit of a mixed bag. There was some personal growth for me but I guess there is always room for improvement. There were some dark times, some still ongoing issues and sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in a loop. But there were also some really great times and amazing people that I have grown closer with over the course of that year.
I'm not good at new years resolutions but I'd really like to get better at standing up for myself in a healthier way. Thats not something I can measure or cross off a to do list but I'll try my best working on it. Also I'd like to continue appreciating on the positive things and all the good time I have and had. If you like you can watch this video I made with all my favorite moments of the year here or on YouTube. 

And so I say goodbye for this year - I wish you all a wonderful New Year's Eve!