hello world, it's been awhile

 

 

 

Wow. 16 years of fiber crafting statistics! This chart is deceptive because I only count "yards out" when the project is finished, which means I never count the works in progress that linger for many, many years. I have four sweater WIPs that have been in progress for the past four+ years that will make my output look amazing when I finally finish them! 2024 year was the year of the handwoven dish towel--22 towels, in fact! And with one set of two averaging around 450-500 yards, those added up. 2024 was also the year of the baby sweater! I knit four different baby sweaters for people in my life that were expecting and while the yardage for those was tiny, they are so satisfying and fun to make. My daughter lucked out and received two new cardigans this year, I made a large blanket for our family, and finished an old knitted t-shirt WIP. That pretty much rounded out my year!

2021 year in review

 

Who would have thought that the second year of a pandemic would be worst than the first, in terms of crafting mojo? Not I. But this chart says it all with that orange 2021 line consistently below the blue 2020 line. I've never mapped my year visually this way, and I can really see how my day job and work cycles influences my crafting energy mojo. January is a slow start--I'm casting on projects and not really finishing things, since they're new cast-ons (I only mark finished project yardage in these charts). Then February is super productive traditionally because that's the month when my favorite Ravelry charity hat knitting challenge and stashbusting challenges happen. And I'm still highly motivated with New Year's energy! March slides off as I'm casting on "big" new projects after the hat-a-thon but not really finishing anything until May-June because April is end of the semester and my overall energy is lagging. Summer starts off motivated and with New Year's like energy, but is short-lived. Knitting in Mississippi in July temps is not appealing, so I usually have another lull in July and August. That's also when I travel, and although I pack projects to work on, I generally don't knit much unless it's long car travel. Once I'm at my destination I don't knit much at all. August-September are typically lagging months thanks to the effort to get the kids and myself back to school with new semester prep work for me. I pick things back up mid-fall when holiday knitting mojo kicks in and I'm settled into the new school year. That August 2020 blip? I participated in a second hat-a-thon that year. 

I'm not being fair to myself though, because despite my "lagging mojo" I still finished three shawls, two woven scarves, 28 hats (all but one baby sized), one baby dress, one baby blanket, one finished adult-sized sweater, one toy snake, and three sets of woven dish towels. And my numbers look low, but I have three adult sweater projects that are 60% done (that yardage adds up). And a vest that was a big flop that will never be documented. Ever. Ha! What made the year feel weird was so much time spent feeling "meh" about projects. I've never had such persistent long stretches of a languishing feeling where nothing quite lit me up or got me excited. Of feeling so doubtful and dissatisfied with my crafting work. I'm returning to some of those unfinished projects now and realizing that my mood was really messing with me--I'm easily falling back in love with the projects and amazed that I ever doubted the project or felt meh about it. But such is navigating mental health and the effects of chronic stress in a pandemic. It messes with your head is the understatement of the century ... 

2021 Finishes

Thankfully I was wise enough not to set any crafting resolutions in 2021 ... which given the variability of my mojo and my mood last year, they would have 100% been a flop! But this year I'm feeling optimistic ...

What are my crafting goals for 2022?

• Goal #1: Get serious about crafting from stash. String together six months of no fiber purchases.
• Goal #2: Make more toys.
• Goal #3: Make more sweaters.
• Goal #4: Always have an active project on my loom.
• Goal #5: Sew something every month.
• Goal #6: Get back to my cross-stitch and needlepoint projects!

2020 in review

 

a naïve Facebook post I made March 19, 2020

Oh, 2020. This is the post I would have written in the first week of January this year, under normal circumstances. But nothing has been normal for what feels like an eternity now, has it? It feels oddly appropriate though to return to this space now, considering my last post was almost exactly one year ago about what makes my knitting projects stall out. In hindsight, this is ironic perfection, or a spooky vision of what was to come, because indeed ... everything stalled out after that in the early days of the pandemic becoming real for us here in the United States. 

Normally I don't map out my yards crafted per month, but this really tells the story of 2020 for me. Early on, one would've thought I'd be knitting up a storm to soothe my anxious nerves. But instead, like many others, I jumped on board with the sewing masks for healthcare workers in March and April (more on that later this week). The only reason April has any yardage at all was because I finally finished the second sleeve of a sweater that was 95% finished for two years prior. Things picked up in the summer as I joined the Knit Girlls annual summer Stash Dash challenge. With no summer travel (my output on the road is pretty low, despite the ample knitting time!) and several opportunities to test knit patterns for my favorite knitwear designers, my activity soared. Back-to-school and back-to-work stress (adapting to teaching university courses in a pandemic) then resulted in another crafting pause. My best yardage months--February, August, and December--those were thanks to two different "hat-a-thon" monthly challenges I participated in (crocheting bulky yarn hats for charity) and Christmas gift making.   

Now to the fun part--what did I make? So many little things this year:

• Three shawls
• Three sweaters (two for me, one for a nephew)
• 43 hats for charity
• My first crocheted snowflakes blocked with Elmer's glue!
• My first of many handwoven dish towels!
• A return to stranded fair isle colorwork 
• My favorite mosaic colorwork dish cloth patterns

January through June 2020

July through December 2020

Lots of little things adds up--I would have never guessed that my yardage would have been this high, based on how 2020 felt. No crafting resolutions for me this year (let's be real--it's still hard to make concrete plans for anything after how 2020 went). I'm keeping it simple in 2021. Make things that bring me joy. Use my stash of supplies first, if possible. Make a dent in my overflowing sock yarn stash. Weave more! Sew more! (I've joined the local quilting guild thanks to my mask-sewing efforts, so if you follow me on Instagram you may have already noticed more sewing projects!) Learn new things. And maybe, just maybe, be present in this space a bit more often than once a year. 

2019 year in review

I don't care if it's February, I'm keeping up with my tradition of reviewing "what I made last year." Oy vey. In my defense, December was filled with travel and hosting family. January was filled with illness. Now I'm feeling back to my normal self and I'm chomping at the bit to get making. Looking at the numbers, 2019 was a big jump back up in individual project numbers. But that included 21 hats and 10 ornaments, so those numbers are a bit inflated--which you can see in the measly 10,453 yards of yarn crafted in those 52 finished projects. Whereas 2018 was the year of the sweater, 2019 was the year of the shawl. I have never made more shawls in my life--seven shawls, four cowls, and four woven scarves. That's a lot of "neck things." 2019 was also the year I returned to making a significant contribution to my knitting guild's annual charity project--hats for homeless children in our local school district. It felt good to contribute 20 hats to that project, and it gave me some good crocheting practice. In 2019 I returned to colorwork knitting, which is something I truly love but somehow quit doing--my records show the last time I did stranded colorwork was in 2017 and before that 2014. Yikes.

*2015 was the year I made three large blankets with yarn held double-stranded.

January - March 2019: 

one cowl, two woven scarves, one shawl, and one colorwork mitten project

April - June 2019:

This montage is deceptive--it creates the illusion that spring/early summer was my most productive season, but in fact December was. Simple crochet edgings on four fleece blankets, three more shawls, two cowls, and two more woven scarves.

July - September 2019:

Three shawls and one cowl. In hindsight I would have expected more output during this time, but the beginning of the school year is hectic and in 2019 was filled with weekend activities.

October - December 2019:

My most productive part of the year, with 10 ornaments and 21 hats finished. Also when I finished the project I'm most proud of last year--stranded colorwork mittens for my mom.

Now for the fun part … looking back at those crafting resolutions I made back in January 2019. This is going to be a bit painful.

• Goal #1: Reduce, reduce, reduce my stash. My stash of yarn, my stash of fabric, my stash of crafting kits! RESULTS: Since I completely failed at Goal #2, not much progress here unfortunately. I did make a lot of things, but I also bought additional supplies to make those things.
• Goal #2: String together at least six months of zero yarn purchases. RESULTS: Big fat nope!
• Goal #3: Continue to knit sweaters for myself! Shooting for nine adult sweaters this year. I've already picked nine patterns that are at the top of my list! RESULTS: Not a single sweater sadly. Shawls took over!
• Goal #4: Finish at least two quilts. RESULTS: WIN! I actually did this! I made two cute baby quilts: a very hungry caterpillar quilt and a forest creatures/lumberjack quilt. I made a TON of quilted finch bucket bags in 2019.
• Goal #5: Expand my weaving skills. Try to make a wearable garment/vest! RESULTS: Nope. Kept on making scarves, lol!
• Goal #6: Finish another big needlepoint project! RESULTS: Nope.
• Goal #7: Crochet a sweater. RESULTS: Nope.
• Goal #8: Crochet a toy. RESULTS: Nope.
• Goal #9: Practice overdying yarn! (changing a yarn's color by dying it) RESULTS: Nope.
• Goal #10: Blog more frequently and consistently. RESULTS: Nope.

What are my crafting goals for 2020?

• Goal #1: Revive my love of knitting from my stash and "stashing down." I've already joined some Ravelry challenges and groups that are already doing this. 
• Goal #2: The ratio of yarn out of stash to yarn purchases by the end of the year should be 3:1, as in yardage out will be three times more than yardage in. I'm not going to make any grand proclamations of not buying yarn this year, but I am determined to make a big dent in my stash this year. I've never tried using a ratio for this type of goal before, so this is an experiment. I've been "cold sheeping" (aka zero yarn purchases) since December now, which is what really helps.
• Goal #3: Use more of my old stash. Enough said!
• Goal #4: Weave more. Make a woven garment.
• Goal #5: Learn something new. (like brioche or stacked stitches or crocheting toys)
• Goal #6: Six sweaters this year. Ideally? My original #makenine from 2019, but we'll start small.
• Goal #7: Learn something new in quilting/sewing. Quilting as you go, paper piecing.
• Goal #8: Finish lingering things that are 99% done.

Looking forward to another productive and creative year! It's fun to look back at how my skills and design taste has evolved over the years. 

2018 crafting year in review

2018 was the year of sweaters, weaving, and crocheting borders to make fleece blankets! By the numbers, this was a low project count year. But since the projects were largely sweaters, yardage output increased from 2017.

*2015 was the year I made three large blankets with yarn held double-stranded.

So how did I do on those crafting resolutions I set back in January 2018? Welp, this year it's a little laughable. Pretty much the only goal I would count myself as "successful" on was making sweaters. That's okay. There's always another year! I couldn't anticipate that I would decide to get a loom mid-way through the year and be distracted by learning to weave, along with a punch needle to play with! The charity I had primarily been knitting for in the past also declined new donations, so that pretty much killed my charity crafting mojo for the year. Sewing sadly just fell by the wayside until I started making finch bucket bags at the end of the year (I definitely anticipate making a bunch more in 2019!). 

2018 Crafting Resolutions:

• Goal #1: Going for year three of ZERO yarn purchases. RESULTS: hahahahahahaha. Big fat NOPE. Made it until February 10, when I purchased yarn to make a new school-uniform-compliant sweater for my daughter. Not sad I slid off the wagon for her … but probably should have restrained myself better for the rest of the year! But I'm not regretting a single yarn purchase. It's all awesome stuff and I hadn't bought a single yard for TWO YEARS straight.
• Goal #2: Knit twelve sweaters. RESULTS: 10!!! Sooo close! And yes, I am counting baby sweaters! Officially I knit one doll-sized sweater, three baby sweaters, one child sweater, and five finished adult-sized sweaters for myself. I have the sleeves left on one more sweater, so allllmost 11 sweaters finished. I made this stretch goal never really thinking I'd get this close, so I'm celebrating this as a win! Normally I would average one baby or kid-sized sweater a year. And NEVER make adult-sized sweaters. I knit ONE sweater for myself in 2017, and before that the last time I'd made an adult-sized sweater was 2011. In fact, I'd knit a grand total of four sweaters for myself prior to 2018. Wowza.
• Goal #3: Make 18 hats for charity. RESULTS: Nada. Not a single charity project this year. Kind of sad about that, but I'd churned out so many the previous two years I was a bit burned out. And my favorite charity didn't want/need new donations as I mentioned earlier, so … 
• Goal #4: Sew one project every month. RESULTS: Didn't do a good job tracking this on the blog, but thanks to Instagram I know I sewed in April (adorable baby monogram quilt with tutorial), May (progress on king-sized Christmas quilt), September (sewed my needlepoint project into a finished pillow), October (made my first finch bucket bag), November (made a bajillion more finch bucket bags as gifts), and December (sewed a puppet theatre for the kids). That's six months out of the year--I'll take it! 
• Goal #5: Devote weekly time to needlepoint/cross-stitch projects. RESULTS: This goal was successful in the first half of the year--I even started a "100dayproject" challenge on Instagram to help spur me along. I was consistent until May, and then summer travels stopped the habit. This really worked to get me to finish my triangles needlepoint project, and I even sewed it into a pillow. But after that big finish I stopped stitching for the rest of the year after that.
• Goal #6: Learn how to crochet toys! RESULTS: Not this year. Still on my list of things I'd love to try!
• Goal #7: Dye my own self-striping yarn. RESULTS: Not this year. Still on my list of things I'd love to try!
• Goal #8: Continue my Love Your Library project! RESULTS: It depends on what I count as a pattern from "my library." Technically I would say six out of the 34 projects I finished were made using patterns in my library that I owned prior to 2018. But the grey area are the crocheted blankets I whipped out in December for gifts: I made 10 of those, and I learned out to make them in 2016 and used the same instructions. But let's face it--this year I just did basic single crochet, not some fancy edging pattern. So I'm sticking with counting six projects toward this goal for 2018, which is 17% of my finished projects. 

What do I want to accomplish in 2019? My theme for this year is ACTION. I'm a dreamer, and I can spend oodles upon oodles of time planning and dreaming all the things I intend to do. I purchase supplies the same way: with all kinds of INTENTIONS. This year I'm focusing on FOLLOWING THROUGH on my INTENTIONS with ACTION. With this in mind, I'm planning on crafting using supplies in my stash as much as possible. Based on this theme, these are my goals for 2019:

• Goal #1: Reduce, reduce, reduce my stash. My stash of yarn, my stash of fabric, my stash of crafting kits!
• Goal #2: String together at least six months of zero yarn purchases.
• Goal #3: Continue to knit sweaters for myself! Shooting for nine adult sweaters this year. I've already picked nine patterns that are at the top of my list!
• Goal #4: Finish at least two quilts. The first one that won't take much work is the Christmas quilt I almost finished in 2018. The second is a national park themed quilt for our Airstream that I've been planning in my head for the past four months now!
• Goal #5: Expand my weaving skills. Try to make a wearable garment/vest!
• Goal #6: Finish another big needlepoint project!
• Goal #7: Crochet a sweater.
• Goal #8: Crochet a toy.
• Goal #9: Practice overdying yarn! (changing a yarn's color by dying it)
• Goal #10: Blog more frequently and consistently. Frankly, I've missed it!

What are you resolving to do in 2019 with your crafting/making?

2017 year in review

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

And the grand total is .... 55 projects knit or crocheted this year! Almost exactly half of my output in 2016, interestingly! This year I was distracted by needlepoint in the first half of the year, and just not as crafting obsessed as years prior. That's okay! I should call 2017 the year of crochet, as I've never crocheted more in my life--20% of my finished projects were crocheted! 

So how did I do on those crafting resolutions I set back in January? Eh, mixed. Some big achievements, but definitely big fat NOPEs on several of them. That's okay. There's always another year!
2017 Crafting Resolutions:

• Goal #1: Going for year two of ZERO yarn purchases. Results: COMPLETED! That makes TWO FULL YEARS of not purchasing yarn for myself! Amazing!!
• Goal #2: Sew at least two quilts. Results: One quilt completed!
• Goal #3: Knit 50 charity projects. Results: NADA. 2017 apparently was a selfish year of knitting for me. To be fair, our knitting guild had pushed really hard on this for the two previous years and we all needed a break.
• Goal #4: Knit at least three sweaters for myself. Results: One sweater knitted. Better than zero!
• Goal #5: Devote more time to needlepoint/cross-stitch projects. Results: WIN! Definitely got back into needlepoint and stitching in 2017. Not a ton of finishes though.
• Goal #6: Learn how to crochet toys! Results: NADA. Oops.
• Goal #7: Dye my own self-striping yarn. Results: NADA. Oops.
• Goal #8: Continue my Love Your Library project! Results: Completed 19 projects from patterns in my library! That's 34% of my 2017 projects!

 
So what do I want to achieve in 2018?

• Goal #1: Going for year three of ZERO yarn purchases.
• Goal #2: Knit twelve sweaters. 
• Goal #3: Make 18 hats for charity.
• Goal #4: Sew one project every month. 
• Goal #5: Devote weekly time to needlepoint/cross-stitch projects.
• Goal #6: Learn how to crochet toys!
• Goal #7: Dye my own self-striping yarn.
• Goal #8: Continue my Love Your Library project!

It feels silly to repeat so many goals, but I really do want to do those things--2018 will be the year! And I'm officially declaring 2018 the year of the sweater ... I have way too many sweater quantities of yarn that have sat in my stash for much too long! And I also commit to resurrecting this poor neglected blog in 2018--I really enjoy looking back at my projects, and I miss blogging!

2016 Year in Review

It's New Year's, so you know what that means .....year-end-review time!

 January

February

 March & April

May & June

 

July & August

 September & October

 November & December

 

And the grand total is .... 111 projects knit or crocheted this year! Holy cow!!! (not all 111 are depicted above, but pretty close!) I should call 2016 the year of the hat, since 54 of the 111 projects were hats knit for charity. 

 

So how did I do on those crafting resolutions I set back in January? Eh, mixed. Some big achievements, but definitely big fat NOPEs on several of them. That's okay. There's always another year!

2016 Crafting Resolutions:

• Goal #1: ZERO yarn purchases this year.WIN! This was my biggest achievement for the year. I bought NOTHING. Yay! And my stash reduced by more than 19,000 yards!
• Goal #2: Empty at least two storage containers of yarn. Not so much.
• Goal #3: Sew at least four quilts. Haha! NOPE. Did sew one though!
• Goal #4: Knit at least three sweaters for myself. NOPE! Did make one though!
• Goal #5: Knit 50 charity projects. YES! This was a big win! 54 to be exact.
• Goal #6: Empty a storage bin of needlepoint projects. NOPE.
• Goal #7: Make new pillow covers for my front sitting room. NOPE.
• Goal #8: Continue to build my budding crochet skills. Yes!! I really built my crochet skills this year!
• Goal #9: Dye my own self-striping yarn. NOPE.
• Goal #10: Continue my Love Your Library project! Yes! 58 projects total were knit from patterns I had in my library prior to January 1, 2016. 

 So what do I want to achieve in 2017?

• Goal #1: Going for year two of ZERO yarn purchases.
• Goal #2: Sew at least two quilts.
• Goal #3: Knit 50 charity projects.
• Goal #4: Knit at least three sweaters for myself.
• Goal #5: Devote more time to needlepoint/cross-stitch projects.
• Goal #6: Learn how to crochet toys!
• Goal #7: Dye my own self-striping yarn.
• Goal #8: Continue my Love Your Library project!

2015 sewing year-in-review

I'd be remiss if I didn't do a post taking a look back at all the sewing I did in 2015.

• 18 tote bags (that's 36 yards of fabric!!)
• two lap quilts and one king-size quilt (!!)
• 8 pairs of pants for the kiddo (that's 8 yards of fabric)

Next year will be the year of the quilt. I have plans to make a Christmas quilt for my son, a Christmas quilt for my own bed, and a couple of flannel winter quilts for the kiddos. I'm also thinking placemat marathon and finally make my own knitting project bags (with zippers!) for further stashbusting purposes.

2015 knitting year-in-review

January

 

February

March - April

 May

 June-July-August

September - October

November

December

This year was epic on several levels. I knit more yardage than I ever have ever, and that's mostly because I knit not one ... not two ... THREE humongous garter squish blankets this year! I also set a personal sock knitting record this year, knitting a total of seven pairs of socks for myself (most years I'm lucky to knit one pair!). And the fall was dominated by a charity hat knit-a-thon that amassed 30 hats for local homeless kids. That was a fun project that will be repeated next year!

And now for the moment of truth ... how well did I do in achieving my knitting resolutions?

• Goal #1: Knit down my stash. Results? MIXED. I knit more than I ever have,  but .... my stash grew like it never has before.
• Goal #2: Finish, frog, or otherwise eliminate my current WIPs. Results? MIXED. I whittled my WIPs down to five projects, and that's down from 16!
• Goal #3: Continue my Love Your Library project! Results? SUCCESS!

So what am I thinking about for 2016? I'm devoting this year to recovering my spare bedroom. Right now it is filled to the max with yarn, fabric, yarn, and more yarn. That means I need to get serious. Really serious. And I'm realizing that means I need to go cold turkey--no new yarn. Period. It pains me to write that, which is ridiculous if you could see the size of my stash. I'm also thinking it's time to go back to a more specific list of goals. When I go vague, I just don't get as much accomplished.

• Goal #1: ZERO yarn purchases this year.
• Goal #2: Empty at least two storage containers of yarn. 
• Goal #3: Sew at least four quilts.
• Goal #4: Knit at least three sweaters for myself.
• Goal #5: Knit 50 charity projects.
• Goal #6: Empty a storage bin of needlepoint projects.
• Goal #7: Make new pillow covers for my front sitting room.
• Goal #8: Continue to build my budding crochet skills.
• Goal #9: Dye my own self-striping yarn.
• Goal #10: Continue my Love Your Library project!

Phew. Yes, it's ambitious. But if there's any hope of unearthing my spare bedroom, this is what must be done. If you'd like to join in on the 2016 Love Your Library challenge, come back on New Year's Day! I'll post more specific details about those plans for the year. Happy New Year!