2017: Year-in-Review

Obviously, I've not kept up as well as I'd like this year, but considering how the year started out, and how I felt after the sudden death of my father, I'd say I did fairly well on the creating aspect of my life. Unfortunately, I suffered from a pretty deep depression last winter and spring, and it took months to start breaking the ice. I am still pretty reclusive, I still feel anger and anxiety nearly every day, and I've put on a lot of weight since having Blessing, that I just can't seem to shake. I'm really hoping that having passed the first anniversary of losing him will help to keep the blues at bay and get through this winter without too much trouble.

I hate to start on a downer, but that really has a lot to do with how much I accomplished this year. The first few months of the year, I spent days in front of the computer, constantly trying to take my mind off things. I discovered Staci at Very Pink Knits, and immersed myself in tutorials and new projects. I shopped for "fancy" (wool) yarns and tried a few new things I'd been too scared to before. I made my first sweater, a little person vest for Blessing. I had to sew it together, which took forever (weaving in ends took even longer!), but it is all but done. I still have to block it, which I'm waiting to finish the pair of socks I'm on to block all my wools, but he can wear it, although it's still a little large for him. I felt good about that sweater, so I tried my hand at top-down raglan sweaters and completed 4 of those.

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished the blanket I started in August to send to SC for a housewarming. I also finished the C2C blanket earlier this year, and started on my Mandala quilt. That one will hopefully get some time next year, but for now, I've got one block completed and 7 more with a good start (out of 16).

Sweaters, socks, and the largest blanket I've ever made are just the beginning. I also passed the 50 orders (hooray!!) milestone on my Etsy shop. Here is an exhaustive list of all the yarn projects I made this year:

2017 Finished products:

Knit Marissa messy bun hat-leftover Vanna's Choice

Crochet Eric train conductor hat-dark blue cotton

Crochet bow ties x 4-Red heart bits

Knit hair bow-leftover bits

Crochet Cheryl black hat w/ red/tan flower-bought all 3 colors

Crochet pink elephant for baby shower-RH pink

Crochet brown beard with leftover RH/ILTY balls for Etsy

Crochet light brown beard-leftover ILTY for Etsy

Crochet light brown beard-purchased ILTY for Etsy

Crochet C2C blanket in Cherry Twist-purchased 7 skeins

Knit Blessing sweater-Sue baby yarns

Knit Blessing merino wool sweater-purchased Cleckheaton

Knit girl sweater-Sue baby yarns

Crochet monster truck hat for Peyton-leftover Simply Soft

Crochet elephant for Blessing-denim twist leftovers

Crochet light gray Viking hat w/ black beard for Etsy-leftovers w/ new white

Crochet teal shawl-purchased Yarn Bee sugarwheel

Knit teal/purple/brown RH socks-purchased sock yarn & reinforcement thread

Crochet cow hat x 3-leftover white, black, and light brown ILTY

Crochet monster hat-leftover RH orange, teal, white, black

Crochet red beard-purchased ILTY terra cotta

Crochet brown beard-purchased ILTY brown

Crochet yellow beard-leftover ILTY yellow

Knit pink/teal/navy cloudborn socks w/ aqua heel-purchased colored and aqua

Crochet baby viking hat in blue-Caron blue pound from Grandma

Crochet child viking hat in blue-Caron blue pound from Grandma

Crochet adult viking hat in blue-Caron blue pound from Grandma

Crochet child beard-purchased ILTY yellow

Crochet child braids-purchased ILTY yellow

Crochet adult viking hat-purchased gray ILTY

Crochet adult viking hat w/sand horns-leftover ILTY

Crochet brown beard-leftover ILTY

Crochet dark brown beard-purchased ILTY

Crochet dragon shawl-Centaur Mandala

Crochet purple viking hat-ILTY purple, scraps

Crochet purple XL viking hat-ILTY purple, scraps

Knit Bl'aig green sweater-Sue baby yarns, purchased green

Knit L'aig blue sweater-Sue baby yarns, purchased all colors

Crochet Susan beach blanket-purchased ILTY-9 1/2 skeins

Don't know if you're counting, but there were also 10 beards and 7 viking hats nestled in there! That's 41 completed yarn projects, and I'm still working on a couple. And this doesn't even take into consideration all the quiet books, quilting (even though I didn't get too far, I still started one), and the Soft I made Blessing. I still have grand plans for quilting 6 placemats, making my own knitting project bags and DPN holders, and even a DPN roll, but I'll have to dust off the sewing machine and get really comfortable with it before then. I need to lose a ton of weight (well, not literally a ton, but a LOT), and I'd like to look into making some dresses and skirts in my new size.

I have pledged to my hubby that I will not buy more yarn (except for Etsy orders) until I have used up at least half my stash. With my Mandala craze earlier this year, I have enough yarn to make many, MANY projects without even setting foot in a retailer (or online; no more shopping!). I have sock yarn to use up, an intricate lacy shawl's worth of yarn, plenty to make lots of stuffed animals with (and some super-cute patterns to try out!), a beautiful and difficult scarf pattern to try, some Fair Isle patterns to work on, mittens, hats, and numerous novelty items to make. I'm pretty excited, and I can't wait to share them with you, as they come up. 

I also have so much Cricut material to use, gifts to make, and felt to cut. I still want to make fun felt board Montessori-inspired manipulatives for the kids to play with, and I just need to do it. As a preview, here's a list of some of the items you'll hopefully be seeing in the near future:

Knit teal/stripe short socks

Knit hubby gray/red socks

Knit 2017 Patterson Christmas ball ornament

Crochet dish scrubbies for gifts

Crochet NICU octopus

Crochet sky blanket

Knit wool slippers

Knit stuffed cat x 2

Knit Blessing dog

Knit fox paws scarf

Crochet bear

Knit bento box quilt

Knit hippo

Crochet ugly square

I'm sure some other items will sneak in there before these are finished, but the great thing is, I have all the yarn to make every single one of these projects! I think that's a good thing...

Anyway, until next time, merry Christmas and happy New Year! God bless you in 2018 even more than 2017.

Blankets, and socks, and sweaters, oh my!

It is never my intention to go months without updating, let alone 6 months, but that is what happened this year. I have been keeping busy with my crafting (well, crocheting mostly), but I haven't done a great job of keeping up my blog along the way. I have taken loads of photos of everything, and even kept a detailed list of all the projects I completed this year!

I'll start with the last thing I finished, a very time-consuming project that has kept me busy for months! This summer, we were blessed to get to go see my aunt and uncle in South Carolina, and they have always lived near water. Either the ocean, a huge pond on their ranch, swimming pools in their backyards, lakes that are actually drained in the winter, or Lake Murray, where they currently live, and have just finished building a beautiful new home. They have always been very generous people and let us stay with them, borrow their vehicles, provide everything we need for our stay, and never ask for anything in return. They always send gifts for my children's birthdays and Christmas, when we don't really do that for the rest of the family.

I found a project on Ravelry this summer while we were visiting them that inspired me, and I knew as soon as I saw it that I needed to make a similar project and gift it to my relatives. It is based on Planet June's Turtle Beach blanket, and I used colors I found from Hobby Lobby. When I picked them out, I had the "sand" colors in the reverse order, so it looked differently than the final project turned out. I am not completely satisfied with how the sand turned out, but it's too late to take it out, as it has to go on an airplane with my mom in a few days. I really like how crocheting through the back loop (for the whole blanket!) gives the ripple effect more definition, and I think it really adds to the project.

My gauge must have been completely off, because I was planning to make it 52" x 60", and it turned out to be 46" x 75". I also had over 4 skeins of yarn leftover, so my math must have been off as well. At least I use Hobby Lobby yarn a lot, so it won't go to waste!

This blanket is what I've been working on since the beginning of August, to the exclusion of nearly everything else. I started a baby blanket just before then using some of the Mandala yarn in Phoenix and a no-pill yarn from Hobby Lobby. I've only been able to get about a third of it finished (I think?), so I'll be working on it more after my next projects.

I am currently working on a pair of socks (yes, socks!) that will probably have to be a gift for my sister-in-law, that I plan to finish up in the next week or so. I have limited yarn leftover to finish them from another pair of socks, so I don't think I'll be able to make socks big enough for my feet. These will be the 3rd pair of socks I've made since I wrote last! I'm following a sock knit-along with the Yarn Hoarder lady on Youtube, so I decided to try my hand at knitting socks. I don't mind it too much, I just don't think I can make the exact same pair over and over like some people. I've tried 3 different things with each pair: a German short row heel, an afterthought heel, and currently, just a short row heel with a pattern on top, and I have enjoyed each pair. I still don't think I can allow myself to spend upwards of $30 on yarn for socks, but I think the novelty of pretty yarns for socks is an interesting notion.

Here is the 1st pair (technically, the 2nd pair I've ever made):

Red Heart sock yarn, German short row heel

Here's the 2nd pair:

Cloudborn sock yarn, afterthought heel

The current pair I'm working on is with the Cloudborn yarn, with the aqua as the main color and the stripes for the toe and heels (hopefully). If I run out, I'll figure out something else to do with the yarn, but it was too much to just put into my ugly square.

Other than the projects listed above, I've been involved in a craft fair at my alma mater, so I made viking hats, braids, and beards in infant, child, and adult sizes using my school colors (blue and gold). They were a lot of fun to wear to our Homecoming football game (we were even on the local news!), and have gotten a lot of traffic on my Etsy site. I am putting them out as "team spirit" products, and they can be made in any school's colors. I have my Etsy shop on vacation until after the holidays, but they'll be available after that for any team.

I have been busy the last 6 months, finishing up large projects and starting new ones. I finished all of the boys' striped sweaters during that time. I'll include photos of these at the bottom. I also planned 2 birthday parties, 2 vacations, reffed a LOT of volleyball matches, and joined the local symphony chorus. Blessing is walking, so he keeps me busy during the day, and we volunteer at our church a couple of times a month. We are planning a large Christmas party this month, and I still take the boys to see my grandparents at least once a week. My grandpa passed away early in October, so we are very eager to spend as much time as possible with Grandma.

I hope to keep updating more often, especially after the holidays. I will post a year-in-review shortly to go over all the things I was able to complete this year, which is great for me to see. A lot of times I feel like I can't get anything done, but then I check that list and see that I've done a lot more than I realize. Until then, happy crafting and merry Christmas if I don't get to post before then.

DK sweater for Bl'aig

DK sweater for L'aig

DK cardigan for Blessing