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.

So much to post!!

I have a ridiculous number of projects and things to talk about, so I need to just get it out there. I've been very busy spending time with my kiddos, being outdoors, watering flowers and plants in our new yard, finding fun things to do this summer, and I was housesitting my mom's place for a month while she spent time with her sister. In my "free time," I have been working on quite a few large projects, as well as lots of little things. Add to that, a very needy little boy who likes to be held every waking moment, and still refuses to sleep through the night, I've been very busy!

One of the cutest reasons to not post

First, I should wrap up about some projects I hinted at a couple of months ago. My mother-in-law loved the brown and navy flower beanie I made for her in January, so for her birthday, she requested a solid black hat, with removable flowers in red and tan. I had a hard time finding the right tan, so it is more of a yellowy cream than a tan, but she liked it. I just sewed the flowers to a barrette clip, and it worked out beautifully. She can wear both together, either color separately, or just the black hat. If I'd had that yarn in white, I probably would have made a white flower as well, but those were the only colors I bought.

Caron Simply Soft black, red, tan

 

The next project I hinted about was the pink elephant. I wanted to make it for our youth minister's new daughter, and since I never get to make girly things, I immediately found my pink stash. I planned to give it to them at their shower, but that was the week Blessing cut his first teeth, stopped sleeping through the night, and rolled over, so he was very high-maintenance that week. I didn't get it completely finished by the following week when I gave it to them, either. I should have sewed toes, eyebrows, a smile, and crocheted a chain tail. I also misread the pattern on a couple of points. It had different wording for crocheting in the back loop, so I did the opposite. Oops. They won't be able to tell, but I fixed this for the next one I made (still needing to be sewn and stuffed for Blessing...).
 

Old Red Heart yarn from Grandma

I am all but finished with 3 sweaters, and have made amazing progress on another one, and just cast on the last one yesterday. The first one is the first sweater I've made for an infant, and it is for Blessing. I believe I mentioned it in a previous post, about the outrageous cost of the yarn and the care of this sweater. I still haven't blocked it, but I think it turned out beautifully. I should have just enough yarn leftover to make myself some ankle socks as well. The yarn is so squishy.

Cleckheaton merino wool in Truffle and Cream, size 6 needles, per pattern

The second sweater is the one I made for Blessing with the leftover yarn from a gift several years ago. I still need to weave in the ends on one sleeve and sew on the buttons, but I think it turned out beautifully.

Yarn Bee yarn from Sue

I had a bunch of girl colors (purple, pastels) that I didn't know what else to do with, so I started a sweater for a little girl in the same style as Blessing's sweater. I wanted to try to steek it, but realized since it was acrylic, that wouldn't work as well as it would if it were wool, so I just just finished it in the round. Of course, it also needs the ends woven in...

Yarn Bee yarn from Sue

The fourth sweater is for one of the twins. I just finished the bottom ribbing Sunday, and obviously still need the sleeves. I should have woven the ends in as I went, but I'll just have to take a day or two to finish that when it's completed. It is going so much faster because it's all in the round, instead of the cardigan, which was all stockinette.

Yarn Bee from Hobby Lobby; Lion Brand Baby Soft in blue and yellow

The last sweater I just started is going to be just like the blue sweater, except the main color will be green. I hoped to have them done by Easter, but that didn't happen, with all the other projects I've had.

I also heard about this thing called a "corner to corner" (or C2C) crochet blanket. I have always liked the Sweet Rolls at Joann's when I went, but never had a use for them, so I ignored them. They had them on sale for 3 for $10 a few weeks ago, which I thought was reasonable, so I bought 4 in two different colors. I let my hubby pick which one he liked better, and he liked the Cherry Twist. I decided to make one of those blankets, but I didn't know how much yarn I would need. I ended up going back to buy 3 more skeins of the yarn, and it still isn't huge, but it is bigger now that I got the other 3. The yarn is warm and fairly soft (although I think Hobby Lobby's "I Love This Yarn" is softer), and the colors are beautiful. It doesn't match anything in our home, but we like it. Once again, I still need to weave in the ends. I entered it in a crochet-a-long on Ravelry, so I might be able to win something for completing it.

 

Sweet Roll in Cherry Twist; H hook, 7 skeins

I also sold my first beard since my Etsy site came back from vacation! I only had leftovers, but I had just enough of 3 different browns to make a full beard. I think this is actually the most realistic and beautiful beard I've ever made. I really like how the different yarns made it look like highlights and lowlights. I probably won't ever make another one like it (unless I have only remnants left), but it turned out wonderfully. I hope the gentleman likes it.

I have so much more I want to post about, but this is getting quite long. I'll try to finish up with a pair of flip flip socks I made a couple of years ago. These are the only socks I ever made, and I hope to be making several more this year. I made them with wool I received as a gift, and I barely knew how to knit at the time, let alone, what a gusset or heel flap were. Yet, I finished them both, even though my gauge was way off.

Wool from Cheryl

Too long

Holy cow! I've been so busy with so many different projects lately, but I don't have them all completed. I want to get the finishing touches on stuff before I post it, but hopefully after this weekend, I'll have a whole slew of new things to post. Sorry for the long absence.

So much new stuff to share! I can't wait to tell you all about everything. Here's a tiny preview of a couple of things...

Stay tuned!

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We always spend the holiday at my parents' house, which is a little different this year, since Dad is sick, but still festive.

It's been a busy time, but somehow between a wedding, traveling, traveling some more, spending time with my dad, cooking for my mom, refereeing volleyball districts, planning a birthday party for 2 3-year-olds, and fully nursing a newborn, I've been able to find time to make some amazing hats for my little people. 

I found all of these patterns on Ravelry or Pinterest, and knew they would be fun for my boys to dress up in. I didn't know how much they would love wearing them all the time! I'm so pleased with how they all turned out.

The twins had a jungle-themed birthday party, so they got to wear them all day Saturday for their grandparents and aunts and uncles too. We're getting a lot of mileage out of them this week! The best part is, I didn't spend a dime to buy any more yarn or supplies for these! They were all made of yarn I already had in my stash.

The giraffe is pretty much exactly like the pattern, except I made crochet eyes instead of using buttons (I did this on all the hats because I had plenty of yarn), and I used colors I had and wanted to use. I made it the largest size that wasn't listed as "adult" and it still fits snugly on Teeny's head. My children either have huge heads or my gauge was off.

The elephant was based on this pattern, but I'm not totally in love with how the trunk came out. I followed the pattern for it first, but I thought it was too short, so I doubled the length. I also wish the ears were a little bigger, but the pattern was written for a newborn, which would not have fit my infant, who also has an oversized head. I used the giraffe pattern and made it to fit a child/toddler. It's a little big for him but he'll be able to wear it when he's older and can play with his brothers.

The monkey was the first hat I completed, and I wasn't planning to do ear flaps for the others at the time, or I would have put them on this as well so it would match. It went to my nephew, who has a relatively small head (smaller than average), but I still made it the same size as the twins' so he can wear it for a while. I should have put the ears down lower because I think it looks more like a bear than a monkey with them up high, but it still turned out cute. I didn't plan to make the half-smile, but I ran out of yarn on my needle at that point, and thought it looked super-cute, so I left it.

The lion is my favorite out of all the hats. I pretty much made the pattern from a composite of several different designs. I couldn't find one that was a beanie style with ear flaps, so I wasn't sure how to do the mane and left it off for a week or so while I debated how to do it. It looked like young Simba from The Lion King, which made my son happy, but I also thought it looked like a lioness, so I wanted to finish it. I finally decided to just try the knotted technique that I eventually used, and after finishing it, I think it looks fantastic! I might make one for myself, I like it so much...

The last hat I made was for my best friend, who is having a baby this spring after trying for over 10 years! I am so happy for her, and thought I would make something very personal. She has a horse that is almost as old as she is, and has put so much love, time, money, sweat, and tears into keeping him that I immediately knew I had to make a hat that looks like him. I used some photos of him to design it, and since she is not finding out what she's expecting, I left off any embellishments, like bows or trim. I think it turned out beautifully, and used the zebra pattern and the muzzle from the giraffe to complete it. I can't wait to see her face when she opens it.

Photo by Sarah Dickerson