Ready for 2019

It's almost 2019! I, for one, am ready to put 2018 behind me. There was quite a bit of good stuff, but overall the year was busy and overwhelming, and I'm sitting here at the end of it feeling a bit out of sorts. I haven't picked a word for the year before, but going into 2019 I think I'm going to start, and my word is "Balance."

I did some great things in 2018. I published some great patterns, I wrote some great poems and stories, and I did some great theater projects. I'm very proud of all of that, but I'm not proud of how "all or nothing" my progress felt like, or how exhausted I felt at times, or how I'd get something cool done at the expense of everything else in my life. I don't necessarily want to scale back any of what I'm working on, but I know there has to be a better way for me to go about doing it all, and I hope 2019 is the year I figure it out.

Tomorrow is the start of the 2019 Wayward KAL, and I can't wait to cast on. I've decided to knit Old Harry, but I'm going to skip the colorblocked yoke and sleeve caps. Instead, I'm going to hold together these two strands of fingering weight to get an allover marled effect. I think it's going to look great, and I can't wait to see what everyone else knits up over the next two months. We're chatting away in my Ravelry Group, so feel free to come join in! 

2018 in Review

Well, this year has been pretty non-stop, and it's not looking like it's going to wind down too much in this last week and a half. I didn't get as much knitting done this year as I have in years past, but I also moved into my apartment, which completely ate up my life for almost three months, and I got nothing else done during that time.

I finished nine garments this year (ten, if you count the fact that one of them had to be completely reknit after blocking). I still have two sweaters that I haven't shared with you yet because they only have half their buttons sewn on, oops! I finished eleven accessories (hopefully that number will go up by New Year's—I have my mum's xmas present still on the needles, and a couple quick accessories for myself on the needles that I might be able to bang out once that's done).

I released eleven patterns this year, including a couple shawls that I'd been working on and fighting with for quite a while, and I'm ultimately very pleased with how they came out. I also hosted the Easy A-long, and it was so much fun that we're doing another sweater KAL starting January 1st! 

This year I was in three plays, and my writing started taking off. I wrote over one hundred poems, four short stories, and I wrote 25k words on the first draft of my novel. I had a poem published and a story included in a collection.

As much as 2018 felt like a constant whirlwind, it was also a pretty good year. I made some great new friends and I got my apartment all set up (and I cannot stress how wonderful it is to have a space all my own, with all the things I love in it!). I already know that 2019 is going to be kind of a tough year in a few ways, but I strongly believe that it's going to be a year of intense growth, and I really can't wait to see what direction things take. 

Time to Catch Up

Boy howdy, has it been a weekend. I did pretty much nothing all weekend other than the play and sleep, although last night I did manage to squeeze in a couple hours of catching up on xmas knitting. I'm still behind, and I don't know how I'm going to get everything done this week, but every year it all comes together somehow.

The play went really well, and we had nearly sold-out houses every night. I brought along this little orange cowl to work on in the dressing room, and while I only managed to get one or two round done all weekend, it was nice to know I had it with me.

This week, I'm looking forward to watching a lot of GBBO, getting xmas presents finished, and drinking lots of hot beverages. You?

Linking up with Crafting On

Not Much to Show

I've been feeling like a terrible blogger lately, because I don't really have much to share with you. All my knitting time right now has been dedicated to gifts, and I can't blog those yet since their recipients read the blog.

I'm actually quite a bit further behind on gifts right now than I'd like to be, but once the play is done I should hopefully have time to crank them all out. We open tonight, and it's been a wild ride. I've definitely been missing my quiet evenings at home, and I'm looking forward to having them back next week.

I do miss you all, and I hope I'll have something to share with you next week—I might even find some time this weekend between shows to do a little selfish knitting! 

2019 Wayward KAL

I know I’ve been swamped with December activities and gift knitting, and I’m looking forward to some selfish knitting!

Starting January 1, 2019, come hang out and knit a sweater with us! The official patterns are Old Harry and Delwyn, so choose your favorite (or be ambitious and knit both!) and join in. The KAL will run through February 28, 2019, leaving you with plenty of winter to wear your new sweater!

Three winners will be chosen at random once the KAL is over to select two patterns from my Ravelry store.

I’m looking forward to knitting along with you all!

On Being Busy, and Painting

Sorry for disappearing this week! I've been crazy busy with music and theater rehearsals, but I just need to get through the next nine days, and then everything will be better.

(No it won't. Then it will be the solstice, and then xmas, and I'm going to be trying to finish up gifts and doing more baking than I have time for. It will not be better.)

Wednesday night I was feeling a bit overwhelmed—for the past couple of months, I've been working nearly nonstop on design work and drafting my novel, and once you add in my day job at the library, dance classes, and music and theater rehearsals, it's been a lot. It's all things I enjoy doing, but they have all been weighing me down as well.

So I painted.

I used to be a pretty serious painter, and it's something I love doing, and it felt so good to do something just for me. No pressure, no expectations, no deadlines, just doing something because I wanted to do it.

Friends, it felt so good. I haven't painted in ages, and it turns out that I missed it desperately. It's been so long since I took an hour to do something that just makes me happy, with no other expectations.

I really hope that I can hold onto this feeling and remember to make time for painting more regularly. I keep getting swept up in the feeling that I need to constantly be producing work—that if I'm not knitting a sample or polishing a poem or knocking out five thousand words on my novel—and if I'm not, I'm somehow not enough. Which is bullshit, and I know it, but it makes it difficult to say "I'm taking this weekend to just do things I like to do, with no pressure," and I need to remember that taking that time is important and healthy.