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.

New Year, Same Goals

Happy New Year and a belated merry Christmas! I hope the holidays found you well. Ours were very subdued and lacking in merriment, but we managed to get through without Dad for the first year, which will probably be the hardest one.

I did very little crafting for gifts this year, on account of the events of the last month and having the newborn, who is now 4 months old (today!). My sister-in-law asked over Thanksgiving if I could make her a new set of towels and pot holders for their new house, so I came home and bought that yarn immediately. Other than that, I've not really worked on anything except a sweater vest for little Samuel, which I'll post about in another post.

Lily's Sugar 'n Cream cotton

I've been almost obsessed with watching a YouTube channel about knitting. It is AMAZING!! This woman has posted about everything I've ever seen in knitting, and so many things I've never even heard of. Her name is Staci Perry and her channel is VeryPink Knits. I had seen a couple of her tutorials a long time ago, because she is very good at explaining and demonstrating clearly stitches and techniques.

Staci only knits with wool and wool blends, which I've only ever done twice (a pair of wool flip-flop socks, one of my very first projects, and the sweater for my cousin), and I was inspired to try it. I bought some of the beautiful Cleckheaton wool from JoAnn's, which is, by far, the most expensive yarn I've ever bought. They had a free pattern attached for a baby vest, which I picked up, because I thought if I was going to mess up, it would be for a baby.

I didn't even think at the time about how expensive this baby sweater would be. Nearly $40, plus all my time!! I've never paid more than a few dollars for something my children are going to wear, so this is definitely a splurge. If I hadn't already finished half of it, I should have instead made a scarf or something elegant for myself. Oh well, live and learn.

I'll post a couple of photos of the sweater when it's finished, blocked, washed, and all the "real" knitting techniques are done. I'm excited to see how the wool behaves.

I wasn't planning to buy any new yarn this year, to use up my stash, but I forgot about that when I was in the store. I also had to buy the cotton yarn for my sister-in-law's gift, because I didn't have cotton in her colors. I also had to buy the wool for my cousin's sweater. Other than that, I believe I went the whole year without buying any new yarn (correction--I had to buy yarn for the car blanket this spring...). I still have so much yarn left, and tons of projects queued up (like a stuffed elephant for Sam, baby cardigans for Sam and my cousin's new baby girl, a shark hat for my best friend, more stuffed friends, and my first pair of toe-up socks!), so I shouldn't need to buy any more yarn for a very long time still. I've also asked my grandmother to help me work on and finish up the boys' quiet books (finally!), and possibly even make one for Samuel.

Between all these projects, taking care of 3 little boys and a new house, spending quality time with my mom, and cooking, laundry, and keeping house, I'll have another busy year. I plan to open my Etsy store again in the next couple of weeks, so I can hopefully have some income to fund all my new ideas. God bless you this New Year and good luck reaching your goals!

Dad

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 weeks, but the first week flew by with all sorts of preparations, and this last week I've been working at home to get caught up from the week before. My dad passed away the week after Thanksgiving, suddenly and surprisingly not from the cancer we knew he suffered from.

There's so much I could write here about him, about how it happened, the events leading up to his death, but I just don't want to relive it all right now. Just know my heart is hurting and I have no words to describe this feeling.

I made the hat below and gave it to him the night before he died. He got to wear it once, and my mom took a couple of pictures. I think he really liked it, although, when you're dying, there's not a whole lot to get excited about. I am grateful he got to see it and knew I was thinking of him.

I'll post more later, but tonight I can't. God bless you and take care.