Category: crochet

Year of WIPs recap.

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Happy New Year’s Eve! This has become one of my favorite traditions, recapping the year in terms of my chosen theme or goal. I started the blog with a year of making and have come back to the “year of” idea the last couple of years. I’ve got a new idea brewing for 2023 but for now, let’s see how all those WIPs turned out. You can check out the original post here, but this is the list today:

Look at all those cross-offs! I wound up finishing 13 total WIPs. The list morphed a bit as I went: I found 3 projects that weren’t even on the original list and I frogged 3 projects. All in all, I started the year with 21 works in progress and I cleared 16 of them off my plate. I’ve been looking forward to piling everything up like I did last year, so here you go, all those finished WIPs:

Let’s take a closer look (with links to the original blog posts for details):

Granny’s Garden

2×4 Quilt

Homespun Quilt

Rainbow Quilt

Split 9 Patch Quilt

Log Cabin Mini

Clamshell Mug Rug

Wook Ewe be my Neighbor?

Kennecott

Yowza! Weight It Shawl

Habitation Throw

StressKnits Advent Socks

Opal Socks

The other 5 projects are in various states. I picked up the Norah Quilt a bit but it’s still only about 30% quilted. I did a bit more on my Fairytale Forest and I’ve got 5 blocks out of 25 done. I restarted the crochet blanket with a new pattern. The last standing cross stitch project has been pulled out of WIPdom. I want to make that project but I’m still not settled on a background color so it’s going back into planned projects. Finally, since I finished the last bit of quilt binding, I’ve been putting time into my Pink Fizz. I’m ready to pick up for the sleeves so I hope to have this one off the needles soon in the new year.

Well there you have it friends, a year of WIPs. I did want to add that I certainly started other projects throughout the year. This process kept me quite contentious of what I was starting though so I’m happy to say that I only have 2 2022 starts rolling over into the new year. I had an additional 19 projects finished that I started this year. Lots of socks and quite a few gifts in that mix. To come out of it all with only 6 projects on the go feels so freeing.

I think the biggest thing I learned this year is that I really prefer to focus on one primary project at a time. I’ve pondered this before, I think at one point I even wrote that big projects sit around until I decide to just dive in and finish them. That seems pretty intuitive so I’ve never given it much true thought. A few weeks ago my little brother mentioned something over Thanksgiving that really resonated with me about project-based time management. You commit your brain power to one project until it’s finished and then you move to the next project.

My professional life doesn’t really go that way but I think my making should. This started to become clear while I worked on the Granny’s Garden quilt. Working consistently on that project helped me get in and stay in the rhythm of it. I had floundered over and over trying to do a block a week or something. Committing to the process and pouring my focus into it made it flow for me. I did this over and over this year and it really made a difference. So much so that I wound up cancelling some planned block of the month projects and just saving all my Avonlea boxes. That’s one of my rollover projects but it’s time will come.

All in all, this was one of my favorite “year of’s” so far. Clearing out brain space and getting beautiful quilts and socks and makes in return is a great exchange.

Happy making!

Not exactly according to plan.

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This is my year of WIPs. One part of that has been to focus more on WIPs than on starting new projects and don’t get me wrong, I have done that. Mostly. I’ve completed 11/19 so far and then…

You know I started a few things. A gift, a shawl, some socks… and I’ve finished all those things! The gift is obviously not popping up here and I still need to weave in the ends on the shawl but the socks! I finished the socks!

These are Harriet’s socks, made for my mom’s dear friend Harriet. I used some long-hoarded lolodidit in the colorway “Don’t Stop Believin'” – I hear she likes them. I also finished the pink and yellow pair I was knitting back in the summer, but I didn’t take a picture of them… I’ll pop them on here some time.

Happily we had a lot of fun over the summer. We kind of turned over a new leaf – we went swimming a bunch and went kayaking a lot – it was great. My little brother and his wife came up and we took them out on the lake complete with coffee and cool breezes.

While the sibs were in town, I got out my crochet blanket and had a good think with my SIL. In the above shot, the bottom strip is my old WIP. One challenge with that pattern was that I struggled to get in a good rhythm with it as a newbie crocheter. We looked for a pattern that a bit more simple than that, but still different than my granny stripe blanket. I went with the Easy Eyelet Ripple Blanket by Attic24.

I’ve put a bunch more rows on and am now a good fifth of the way in or so. I’m not rushing on this one but I know I’ve picked a good pattern when it’s tempting to just pick it up and add one more row.

I’m thrilled to share this little beauty – a dear friend had a baby this fall and I sent this along for baby snuggles. This is the Trippy Quilt pattern by Southern Charm Quilts. I had never made a trip around the world quilt and this was a fun way to dip my toes in. I have to tell y’all, Melanie of Southern Charm has an online class for this pattern all about accuracy and I found it so helpful! This is certainly not my first quilt but her tips and tricks are amazing! I highly recommend trying it out to learn about quiltmaking or just to brush up on your skills.

I machine quilted it myself and really love how that came out. And last, but not least at all, I tried big stitch quilting for the first time.

How sweet is that? Once I got going this was a joy. I used a perle cotton #8 and just went for it. I am really looking forward to adding this detail to other projects.

Speaking of binding, I picked up the Granny’s Garden quilt and bound exactly one corner of it and put it back down. If you’ve been around here for any amount of time, you know that binding tends to languish for me even though I like the finishing process. I’ve got a stack of four quilts (with two at the long-armer) to bind before the end of the year – I really don’t want them laying around after that. Send motivation!

One thing I’ve really learned this year is how much I enjoy a leader/ender project. If you’re unfamiliar, some quilters, including yours truly, have a practice to “sew over scraps” at the end of a line of sewing. This helps keep your thread from nesting and tangling when you start the next line. These scraps are often called leaders and enders and since you’re already taking the time to sew a few more inches, it’s a good opportunity to make that a real seam for a real block. I did this for my Split 9 Patch quilt over a few months and now I’ve moved on to using my Betsy 9 Patch pieces in the same way. I went on a tear a couple of weeks ago and cut all the pieces and finished up my in-progress blocks.

Pleased as punch that I went with pink – these are coming out great.

I have discovered a terrifying trend… my socks are really starting to wear out. Mine apparently wear most at the ball of the foot and now I have a big pile of darning. I’m thinking of having a little bit of cozy darning weekend over the holidays or in the new year, but in the meantime I’ve decided to start to cast on some socks. These were the first on that list and are first for me – worsted weight socks! I’m using Knit Picks Felici Worsted in the Aquarium colorway.

So all of that brings us to the current state of affairs. I was very inspired by an outfit post on instagram with a floral skirt and handknit sweater that just spoke to me. Around the same time, my craft friends were all talking about knitting the Zweig sweater and I had been resisting but this combination was too much for me to resist. I went to my stash…

I was so excited by this pull that I immediately swatched and cast on the next day.

Now about a week and a half later we’re really cooking with gas.

Can you stand it? This is the Zweig sweater by Caitlin Hunter. I’m using Woolberry Fiber Co in Deepest Ocean for the main color (dark green) and Farmhaus Fibres in Glacier (light blue). I haven’t picked anything up for a moment since.

Well, there you have it. Not as much #yearofwips progress as I’d have been expecting here in November, but the heart wants what the heart wants. And mine wants a new outfit for Thanksgiving.

Happy making!

Happy Year of WIPs!

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In typical style, I’ve been brainstorming lately about what my new year should be. My 2021 year of minis got a bit derailed by moving and all and I still have those big projects I wanted to finish. I was chatting with my SILs about it the other day and we went down to take a tour of the craft room and some of my WIPs. I wound up having a bit of a moon over all the bits and pieces laying around so yesterday afternoon, I made a list.

That, friends, is the current list of all my works in progress, plus my upcoming block of the month or club projects. Take a deep breath with me. Some things are very close to finished – quilt binding or a hat, for example. Some, not so much – I’m looking at you, applique. Let’s take a look at the list in another way…

Wowzers. Thats a big pile. That is a total of 18 current projects: 6 quilts, 1 crochet blanket, 7 knitting projects, and 4 cross stitches. Oh that’s right, I said cross stitch. My oldest unfinished project dates back to pre-blog times in 2015.

I think I’ll pull out the old project pictures and their history as I get to each project, but I couldn’t help myself from sharing this throw back. That’s my sweet old Twiggy, she was such a good kitty.

Perhaps you’ve guessed by now, but my 2022 goal is to turn that big ole pile of WIPs into a pile of FOs. Let’s take a quick look at what that would look like:
Quilts: The finished tops I want to turn into quilts, bound and finished. The quilt tops that are still in progress, I just want to finish the top and have it ready to go out for long-arm quilting.
Knitting/Crochet: Finished, ends woven in, blocked as needed and done.
Cross Stitch: Completed and ready for framing.

A wee stretch goal would be to finish the year with only projects that need outside help for finishing (quilting or framing), which means keeping up with the two club / block-of-the-months projects I have planned. Since this is a tall, tall order I’m trying to not start anything new for quite a while (except socks, of course). I’m really excited.

Well here we go friends, my Year of WIPs starts today. I’ve got a lasagna in the oven and some cozy knitting just waiting. The supervisor even told me that he’s ready to get to work in the sewing room.

Happy making!

In no particular order.

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Sometimes I struggle with writing a blog post. A crafty blog is an interesting thing – sometimes I have a finished object to talk about, sometimes I have a theme or idea that has been popping up in my making, and then, sometimes not. Sometimes I’m just putiting time into projects and there’s no take home message, no nugget of wisdom, just some stitches of this variety or that with pretty (or not) pictures. This is one of those times.

It took me a single night’s sleep after finishing my crochet blanket to want to cast on another one. I swatched a few different patterns and even cast on a different one before settling with this one. I’m still a crochet newbie and really just wanted another fairly rhythmic, easy pattern. This is the Hydrangea Stripe Blanket, a free pattern by Attic24. It hasn’t seen a ton of love yet, but it will get there.

I’m almost done hand quilting my latest mini quilt. I can’t say that I’ve really enjoyed the process. I used some white fabric that I had lying around for the background and the backing, since this will just be hanging on the wall. It turns out that something about the weave, or thread count, or whatever, makes it really difficult to hand quilt. Of course, I’ve chose to only quilt in the background, so you can imagine how fun that’s been.

I was so frustrated that I actually wound up going back to youtube looking for any tips or tricks to make it easier. I happened on a video that suggested using a silicon grippy on your pointer finger to help pull the needle – that made a world of differenc! I still can’t work on it for long periods, but I can’t recommend this enough. They’re very inexpensive, I’m using one on both hands to help with hand fatigue.

In other news – I finished a pair of socks! It’s been quite a hot minute since I last had a pair to share. These were my de-stress Christmas socks, cast on at the end of October, finished on Sunday. The yarn is from A Homespun House in the Holly Jolly Christmas colorway. My skein is quite different from other dye lots, it would seem. I’m not overly in love with the finished pair – I like the lighter sections much more than the dark. But that’s ok, I’ll wear them next holiday season with joy. At least they’re off the needles.

I was primarily motivated to finish the Holly Jolly socks becasue my oldest requested a pair of socks. Now, the teenager has been quite against handknits for some time, so I jumped at the chance to clad my child in wool once again. The kid has good taste too, this is a long hoarded skein of Hedgehog Fibres in Teacup. Even that little bit of cuff is just so sweet and pretty.

The last, barely started, project going now is this little basket. The Thimble Basket, from Rainy Day Sewing by Amy Sinibaldi, is a precious, teeny little basket that I’ve had my eye on for quite some time. The straw that finally broke the camel’s back has been this hand quilting project. It’s such a mess to move all my accroutement from desk to chair to couch… you get the idea. Plus it’s so cute! I’ve spent little bits of time all week pulling various teeny scraps and hopefully will get to putting it together soon.

Well that’s it for the current state of affairs, thank you for hanging out with me for today’s ramble!

Happy making!

Great Granny Stripe… bedspread

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Well, the day has come! I have a shiny and bright new FO and I am proud. I won’t bury the lead here, my Granny Stripe Blanket is finished! Over a year in the making, with a few pauses here and there but it’s all done. And believe me… it’s gigantic!

It hangs down on all sides on our king size bed. It finished around 100″ square all told. I mistakenly thought I should be bold and chain on about 50% more than called for in the pattern, but now it fells like a big accomplishment, so it worked out. I used the Granny Stripe Blanket pattern by Attic24, free on her blog here. For yarn, I used 17 colors of Stylecraft Special DK – the Attic24 pack. I wound up using about between 1 and 2 balls of each color. I followed the stipe order and then basically started over once the I went through the first sequence. I futzed around with the color order at that switch to still get a pretty good distribution.

It’s a little difficult to photograph such a huge project, especially since the yard is slushy, icy snow for the most part. Ugh, I just love how bright and colorful and happy this blanket is. It’s hard to believe it started out so small, just a long long ribbon this time last year. I cast it on on January 25, 2020 and I finished the border last night. You might have seen my love/hate relationship with picot edging on the blog before, but it really does add the sweetest finish.

I’ve got a mind to slowly pull Kevin away from our all grey, all the time bedding and this is the first step. I see a king size quilt in our future… one day.

Big projects are awfully fun to complete! This is the first of my big 3 to finish this year, and I’m pretty stunned that I knocked it out so quickly. I’m riding high on this soaring feeling of accomplishment. By the way, I crocheted a washcloth this year and other than that, this is my sole crochet project. Sometimes I jump in with both feet first.

Anyway, I think I’m going to go wrestle the blanket back from the cat, or maybe just join him and contemplate what’s up on the docket for the weekend. Here’s to big finishes and new ideas!

Happy making!

Bait and switch: 2021 Year of …

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So here we are, 2020 is in the books and we have a fresh and shiny new year ready for the taking. After I wrapped up my Year of Christmas last week, my thoughts turned to my next “year.” I’ve been mulling over ideas for a while, looking at stash and around the house for inspiration. I took stock of my current works in progress, and a few stood out to me.

I don’t usually have projects that languish around for very long. A couple of years at most and I will either finish or frog. I work on socks continuously, and my other projects–both quilts and bigger kntting projects–tend to just get finished up when I decide to really put the time in and concentrate on them. Recently though, in the last couple of years, I’ve started some bigger, longer projects.

These three projects are quite a bit more time consuming than my usual project choice. Let’s have a quick tour of these and talk about where they are and what they need.

My Granny’s Garden Quilt (whew my old phone took bad pictures!) has been going since 2019 and is my oldest WIP. I have about 16 blocks completed at this point, so we need another 26 blocks plus all the border applique before we can put this quilt top together.

Next up is my Granny Stripe afghan. This beauty was cast on last January and I’m over halfway done the stripes, then it will just be the border. Though, I guess “just the border” is a bit misleading since the thing is so darned big.

Finally, my Norah Quilt. Ugh, I love it everytime I look at it. I made the quilt top in pretty short order last spring, but stalled on the hand quilting. We need to quilt and bind this one.

I adore all three of these projects and really want to give myself the space to show them the love they deserve. Are you ready for the twist? Ok, so if you’re like Kevin you might be thinking that I’m gearing up to tell you that my goal this year is to finish these projects. But no! Well, sort of. One of my dilemnas with these projects is that the bulk of the creative energy is already spent. The idea has been had, the project commenced, much of the learning curve surmounted. They are all fully at the process stage, which is a bit of a challenge for me.

I love to finish things. If we’re really honest, a lot of my making comes in smaller or faster projects. Socks are a big part of that but also mug rugs and short cut quilts. I love the start and the finish, but that in-between part sometimes gets me hung up. So I started thinking of my “year of” in these terms – how do I keep the creative energy going with some finishes to keep me satisfied, but still have the time to work on the big guys?

Well, this year at least, the answer is mini quilts! In my ideal state of home decor, there are quilts everywhere–including the walls! I think this year will be the perfect time to boost the quilt to wall space ratio around here. My thinking is these smaller projects will provide the variety and gratification I know I need while also giving me the opportunity to try new ideas and new techniques. The bite size, low investment nature of minis can also leave time to put effort into the big 3.

Think about it – a whole year of minis! Mini quilts here, there, and everywhere! So here we go, a Year of Minis: 12 mini quilts in 2021. I’m not going to worry about monthly goals, that always goes awry for me. The only rule here is size – mug rugs don’t count and neither does anything I can cuddle under.

For a little nostalgic reference point, here’s a throwback to my very first mini quilt back in 2017! I’ve come a long way since and I am looking forward to seeing where this year takes me. This idea has me pretty excited and inspired. I know it was a little bit of a convuluted thought process to get here so thanks for sticking with me. I’m looking forward to sharing my progress on the long-term projects as well as all of the fun for the upcoming Year of Minis!

Happy {mini} making!

A summer update in two parts: progress

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As promised yesterday, I’m back to talk about all of my current works in progress. I’m focusing on the projects that are actually getting attention lately, so the languishing will continue languishing.

Back at the very beginning of August, I decided to try a new strategy with my slowest WIP and applique for 30 minutes every day. Overall this has worked really well, I made pretty steady progress on my Granny’s Garden quilt for several weeks.

I’ve finished fourteen blocks now. My routine got out of whack towards the end of August with some family stuff, but I’m working on getting back on track. Things have been a little more hand-sewing every day since I need to prep some more blocks, but I’m not mad.

I spent a bit of time with a practice piece learning the basics of big stitch hand quilting and once I was a little comfortable with a technique, I moved on to the real deal. I’ve basted my Norah quilt and started by quilting the center block. It is definitley slow going, but the look and feel is worth it.

I’ve been experimenting with machine binding to some success so I thought I’d give it a go on my Happy Christmas quilt. It didn’t go so well so I’ll be back to smaller practice projects for some more project. All I really got out of this try was a two hour date with my seam ripper.

I have since moved on to hand sewing the binding and this is my last corner! I have to say, the flannel backing makes for a pretty easy, smooth hand sewing experience.

Since I’ve been making such good headway with those other quilts, it seemed reasonable to start a few more, so here we are. This is a quilt pattern called Green Gables, a fun rainbow log cabin quilt in Liberty Fabrics. I “participated” in the block of the month club for this project from Duckadilly, but we should use participated loosely here. Let’s just say I’ve started, at least.

My other new start is another sewalong – the Quilter’s Cottage quilt by Lori Holt. She’s fast becoming a favorite designer of mine! This one is a weekly sewalong and I’m completey caught up and on pace! I am really proud of this project.

I decided to go ahead and assemble the quilt as I go – I’ve learned that assembly and sashing are my least favorite parts of the process. This method has the added bonus of fun in-progress shots like this one! I’ve only got 4 weeks to go, which will be the final row and some borders. I’ve cut out the blocks for the final row already.

A few months ago, when I finished the quilt top for my Fat Quarter Pile Up quilt – the kids loved it. Both loved the big blocks of pattern and the big throw size. Later on, Joshua specifically asked for a Christmas quilt and so I told them they could each pick out fabric and I’d make them holiday snuggle quilts. Once I finshed my bright and cheery version a few weeks ago, I spent a half day on a Sunday putting together their quilts.

This is Astra’s quilt – fabrics from the Polar Magic line from Lemonni.

And this is Joshua’s – fabrics from We Whisk You a Merry Christmas by Kimberbell. Seriously, this is the fastest quilt I can imagine. It’s a really fun canvas for some fun quilting and we went a bit nuts with the backing – you’ll see! My kids never ask for anything so I’m pretty happy to oblige when they put in a request.

Moving from quilts to blankets – my blanket grows. This is 55 rows out of a probable 120 or so and it’s folded into quarters width-wise. It’s postively massive. I’ve gotten much quicker with practice and have been putting several rows on each week. The nice thing about crochet is that it’s usable as a blanket all the time, so it’s cozy to work on.

And finally, I’ve got a pair of socks I’ve been working on. A few weeks ago I had some very stressful waiting time on my hands, so I grabbed the most rainbow skein of yarn in my stash and just started knitting. I got pretty far and didn’t have a tape measure or scales so I switched needles and started knitting from the othe side. I’m hoping to use all the yarn for the tubes and then I’ll cut in some contrast toes. Gosh I love a good rainbow. This is Color Study by Gauge Dyeworks.

I’ll leave with you a sweet shot of my crafting buddy in the quilt hoop. Cosi has been a constant companion with all this sewing going on. I think we’re all caught up and some of these things will be getting finished up soon, so until then.

Happy making!

One month later…

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Well, I’d venture to say it’s been a fairly crazy March for us all. Four weeks ago today, I arrived in Denver for my organization’s annual meeting and it was canceled that evening. It’s been crazy with work ever since, and now I’m working from full time with the kids and Kevin all in the house. I know it’s a crazy, scary, uncertain time for many. I’ve been really finding joy and comfort in the simple motion of my hands creating things, so I thought we’d have a little photo montage of the last month.

My only finished object since we last spoke, and I don’t really have a picture of it! I need to attach the pompom and take some real photos, but the knitting on my Skiff is all finished up.

I’ve put a bit of work into these socks but not much. I still don’t have much drive to knit patterned socks, but these are sooo pretty that I really want to finish them. One day. The pattern is Rhinebeck Roomies by Crazy Sock Lady.

My first cast on of the month was the Calan Mai cowl. I completely misread the pattern and had to rip back about 3 inches, but now we’re moving on it.

I finally decided to frog my Prim socks, I spoke about my dislike of the yarn base last post. I dug some trusty 80/20 out of my stash in these fun stripes and they kind of zoomed for a while. This is Gynx Yarn (a retired yarn dyer) in the Magical Girl colorway.

Completely out of character for me, it seemed that two pairs of socks weren’t quite enough so some Christmas socks went on the needles! This is Once Upon A Corgie Handmade in the Marie Cutie base (a squishy corriedale nylon blend) in the Christmas like it’s 1882 colorway.

In this flurry of startitis, I also managed to cast on a sweater! I’m knitting the Rosemont Cardigan in Quince & Co. Lark in the Pea Coat colorway. I’m looking for a cozy go-with-everything cardigan and I think this fits the bill.

And then last weekend, I finally finally finally finished up my Happy Christmas quilt top. I’m so pleased with how it came out! This is a pattern from Maker Valley, and I got the scrappy kit from her as well. This cutie is out getting quilted and I can’t wait to get it finished up.

Once I was in the sewing room, I haven’t been able to leave much. I decided to throw together a cute little mug rug for my #yearofchristams plans and this one came together pretty quickly. It’s a single block from Lori Holt’s granny square inspired quilt pattern. I used random scraps of Lori Holt fabric and I think it’s just precious!

While I was at it in the sewing room yesterday, I finally, months and months later, attached the binding to my Arithmetic quilt. Now I’m ready for my favorite part of quilt making, hand sewing the binding!

Last, but certainly not least, I’ve been rather obsessed with my Granny Stripe blanket. I figured out a few weeks ago that is way wider than I intended. That discouraged me for a while with how long it might take. I had a really inspiring talk with Kevin the other night about the process of my making and now I just can’t stop. I’m really enjoying the rythm and the slow progession.

Well. that’s it in pictures. I’ve been kind of all over the place these days with making all sorts of things — I’ve even picked up my applique a few times! — but I’m letting it take me wherever my heart and hands need to go.

Wherever you are, be well and happy making!

(Mostly) Never before seen WIPS!

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Well, now that it’s been three weeks I suppose we’re do for a bit of an update. I’ve been all over the place. Between the new sewing room, kicking off the year of Christmas, and a healthy audiobook obsession – I’m been doing quite a bit of making.

I am reasonably confident that the only active WIP that has even made a blog appearance is my Happy Christmas Quilt, so let’s do a montage. The current state of affairs of my crafting is as follows:

I cast these socks on over our holiday trip. My goal was a pair of utility socks, I love Patons Kroy yarn for hard wearing socks. I’m not in love with the color combination (Mexicali Stripes), but the socks will do their job.

I made Kevin a pair of pijama pants last year out of this flannel and he asked if I had enough left over to make him a pillow for the couch. I barely did, but I think it turned out cute.

I finally started these gorgeous socks this month. This is Gauge Dyeworks in the colorway All Together Now. I had some yarn management woes and a great deal of indecision with what color I wanted to start with, but they are kniting up quite nicely. This yarn is a plump dream to knit with, by the way.

I finished all the blocks for my Happy Christmas Quilt and here it is all laid out. I’ve since sewn all the rows up and just need to sew them together. For the beady eyed among you, yes, I fixed the mistake in the border before sewing. Thank goodness! I am in love with this one.

I made the top for a tree skirt, too. I’ve been talking about making a tree skirt for years and have, unsurprisingly, put off purchasing one because of that. So we have gone without a tree skirt for a long time. No more! This is a jelly roll pattern, which I thought would make it very easy, but the bias seams got me in the worst way. That was tough.

Since I started my year of Christmas with a quilt and a tree skirt that may as well be a full quilt, I thought it would be nice to get a bit of instant gratification. Enter the mug rug. I love making mug rugs and micro minis. They’re like snack sized quilts. This one included a paper pieced tree, which was a new skill to me. It was pretty easy and quite fun. I love the result! This is a free pattern from ThreadBare Creations and I used scraps from the Happy Christmas quilt and a bit of random stash.

The mug rug is my first project and the January entry in my year of Christmas. I think we’re off to a good start!

In the last few weeks, I’ve been obsessed with a couple of audiobook triologies. Nothing makes me quite so dedicated to a long knitting project as something compelling to listen to. Enter Marley. I cast it on in October, but hadn’t made much progress until about 10 days ago. Now I’m now only a few rows until the finish.

I’m still only halfway through the current amazing trilogy, so I decided to start another long project. This is not my first try at crochet, but it’s definitely the farthest I’ve ever come. I’m really enjoying the rhythym of it.

So that’s it. Quite a bit of variety these days. I’ve got some non-holiday ideas for the sewing room, we’ll see when I get to them. I’m also hoping I’ll be back very soon with a finished shawl and maybe even a finished quilt top.

Happy making!

Year of Making: 2017.

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On the first day of this year, I decided to commit to one small thing: “put energy into a making project every day.”

At first, that meant a conscious decision to sit down with a project every day. Sometimes it meant sleepily knitting a few rows before bed so that I would keep my commitment. As I went on, it became easier and easier. As I got more in the habit of doing something everyday, I found myself reaching for my projects more and more.

I’ve kept track of what I’ve worked on in a spreadsheet. I’ve been more than a little curious to see how the numbers would shake out. It’s no surprise that I spent 342 of the last 365 days knitting. I tend to reach for my knitting more than anything else. On 266 of those days, I worked on socks. I love knitting socks so it’s not much of a surprise that three quarters of my knitting days involved socks.

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I finished my box of socks a few months ago, but that didn’t stop me from continuing on. I’ve finished five more pairs of socks for myself since then. I love the look of them all laid out. This last pair was knit on Christmas vacation, so it hasn’t made it home to meet it’s new sock drawer mates.

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When I wasn’t knitting on socks, I knit up shawls, hats, mitts, and even a tiny owl for my mom. I’ve spent a significant bit of time cross stitching, quilting and sewing. There were even a few days of canning, fermenting, and crochet thrown in. Looking back it feels like a productive year:

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There is something about looking at a year’s worth of creating, thinking about how my hands knit every stitch, cut all the fabric, pitted every cherry. More than just the products of my hands though, my makes all feel like teeny time capsules, moments of my life molded into something tangible. Knitting socks at the beach with my family, figuring out how to sew my very first garment, picking cherries with Joshua.

Writing about everything has really crystallized that notion that there is a story in each of my makes. I love thinking about that and having the blog to look back at all of it.

Now that my year of making is coming to a close, I don’t believe I’m finished with it. I’m not sure that I will keep track of things daily like I have been, but that idea of putting “energy into a making project every day” still rings true for me. It’s exciting to think about a future full of years of making.

At any rate, I’ll be right here tomorrow, the first day of the new year, spending a bit of my day creating something.

Happy making!