{"id":5144,"date":"2016-12-29T11:47:06","date_gmt":"2016-12-29T16:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/?p=5144"},"modified":"2016-12-29T11:47:06","modified_gmt":"2016-12-29T16:47:06","slug":"the-end-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/?p=5144","title":{"rendered":"the end of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a weird year, hasn&#8217;t it? Nearly done, and me not writing here for months! I&#8217;m sure I can&#8217;t remember half the things that happened, but here&#8217;s my attempt at catching up.<\/p>\n<p>After our wedding we had to move house, as the landlord of the apartment I&#8217;d lived in for 5 years kicked us out in order to renovate. It sucked, but we managed to (eventually) find a new little house that&#8217;s pretty darn awesome. Three bedrooms (so we each get an office with a door!), gas stove, dishwasher, washer\/dryer, sunroom, backyard, kitchen with actual counter space and outlets &#8211; it&#8217;s great! We moved less than a month after the wedding, so that was crazy. Of course, there&#8217;s still loads to do in terms of getting settled in, but it&#8217;s always a work in progress. At least with a trip to Ikea last week we finally have all the window coverings up!<\/p>\n<p>Our new place is on the other side of town from where we used to live, so I left my fabric store job after three months. It was a pretty short stint, but overall an interesting learning experience. I met some pretty awesome people and picked up just a little bit of fabric. I don&#8217;t miss the job, but it was probably a good kick in the butt to take stock of what I actually want to do with my working life.<\/p>\n<p>In early December I went on a little trip to the east coast to visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lichenandlace.com\">our Megan<\/a> in New Brunswick. It was cold, but clear, and we knit, ate, and gabbed as much as we possibly could in a weekend. We even dyed some yarn!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/lechatbleu-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5153\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/lechatbleu-sm.jpg\" alt=\"lechatbleu-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/deanne-studio-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5150 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/deanne-studio-sm.jpg\" alt=\"deanne-studio-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/yarn-drying-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5154 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/yarn-drying-sm.jpg\" alt=\"yarn-drying-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/yarnmug-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5155 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/yarnmug-sm.jpg\" alt=\"yarnmug-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/big-sky-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5152 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/big-sky-sm.jpg\" alt=\"big-sky-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For Christmas, we got a tiny live tree in a pot, and I made so much candy and cookies. And a yule log! We actually spent Christmas together for the first time (we&#8217;d been going up to our parents&#8217; separately), and had dinner at my parents&#8217; house on Christmas Day and at the farm after Boxing Day.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/tiny-tree-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5156 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/tiny-tree-sm.jpg\" alt=\"tiny-tree-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/candies-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5157 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/candies-sm.jpg\" alt=\"candies-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/xmas-dinner.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5158 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/xmas-dinner.jpg\" alt=\"xmas-dinner\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On the designing front, I didn&#8217;t self-publish as much this year as I would have liked, but I did get out quite a few patterns with other publishers. (See and buy them all on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/designers\/laura-chau\">Ravelry designer page<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>SIX new patterns from Swans Island:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/swans-island-designs-2016-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5145 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/swans-island-designs-2016-sm.jpg\" alt=\"swans-island-designs-2016-sm\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Four from Harrisville Designs:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/harrisville-designs-2016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5146 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/harrisville-designs-2016.jpg\" alt=\"harrisville-designs-2016\" width=\"800\" height=\"568\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Three from I Like Knitting magazine:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ilk-designs-2016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5147\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/ilk-designs-2016.jpg\" alt=\"ilk-designs-2016\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Plus a few more here and there, including this one newly released from Diamond Yarn in their yummy Regal Alpaca, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ravelry.com\/patterns\/library\/waving-ribs-cardigan\">Waving Ribs Cardigan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/DSC_4957_medium2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5148 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/DSC_4957_medium2.jpg\" alt=\"waving-ribs\" width=\"639\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It was a busy year for me! I have lots of design and editing work lined up and a nice new studio to organize, and I definitely want to get back to blogging more regularly. I would also love to do some personal crafting, knitting or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>2016 had some huge ups (getting married!) and downs, and here at the end of it I&#8217;m pretty worried about the state of the world, especially for my American friends. But I&#8217;m still excited to leave 2016 behind and see what happens in 2017. All we can do is move forward, right?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/garter-st-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumbnail aligncenter wp-image-5159 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/garter-st-sm.jpg\" alt=\"garter-st-sm\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hug your friends and loved ones, and have a strong, safe, and happy new year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a weird year, hasn&#8217;t it? Nearly done, and me not writing here for months! I&#8217;m sure I can&#8217;t remember half the things that happened, but here&#8217;s my attempt at catching up. After our wedding we had to move house, as the landlord of the apartment I&#8217;d lived in for 5 years kicked us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,84,70,100,54,67,96,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-crafting","category-design","category-friends","category-knitting","category-patterns","category-travel","category-yarn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5160,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5144\/revisions\/5160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurachau.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}