Knit 1, Make 2

I definitely inherited one thing from my great-grandmother – her need for speed. She loved anything that she could finish fast, from quick baking recipes to a dress she could sew for me in under an hour. I notice that in myself, I always want to finish things quickly, move on to the next thing, be prolific in quantity. Let’s just pause and think about how many vanilla socks I’ve knit. (hint, it’s in the triple digits)

I’ve done a lot of thinking about this over the years and recently noticed how I shove the big, daunting, slow projects to the side and they get put on shelves, in baskets, and generally out of mind. Truth be told though, I want to make those projects. They are things that would stretch my skills or are things I really just want to try.

So, let’s give it a go! How about making this my year of slow? Sounds a little silly, but I like it. I know I’m already making my dozen socks (I’m still me) but slowing it down everywhere else sounds fun! I’ve got some beautiful slower projects in my mind and some skills to practice. 2025 is the year!

I’ll go through the projects in my next post but let’s talk skills! We’re going to practice spinning, hand stitching, and hand quilting. I’ve already been practicing spinning a little every day and this is what I’ve done so far:

I think it’s starting to look like singles! This one is a struggle, but I’m sticking to it. Next up is hand stitching. Now, I have quite a few embroidery kits that I just never pick up. I want to make them but never seem to find the time. I also really want to try English Paper Piecing – I’ve dabbled but nothing substantial. So these two are up on the list:

One is a cute little sampler with lots of different embroidery stitches to practice and the other is an EPP quilt project. I DO NOT plan to finish the quilt this year. I really want to get it going, see if it’s something I enjoy the process of, and go from there.

Finally, for hand-quilting, we’re digging back out my oldest current WIP, the project that has survived multiple challenges and come out unfinished, the one, the only… Norah quilt.

I made the top in 2020 and started quilting it pretty quickly. I challenged myself to finish my three biggest WIPs in 2021 and it came through unscathed:

Those other two are finished now – read about them here: Crochet Afghan and Granny’s Garden. Then back in 2022 I had a big WIP finishing challenge – I finished 13, but Norah wasn’t one of them. I worked on it a bit, but put it away again:

This needs to be the year. I’m going to finish the quilting and make some decision on whether I just didn’t enjoy the process or if I just needed to get the hang of it. Time will tell.

There you have it, my year of slow. I’ve got another slooooow project on my knitting needles right now, so stay tuned! I’m going to stretch my crafty legs, try new things, practice old things, and see where 2025 takes me.

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Happy slow making!