Looking Ahead at 2020

I didn't really set any crafting goals last year. Ultimately, this was fine, as the entire year went a bit sideways and I barely got anything done anyway, but as I was looking forward to this year, I knew that I wanted a bit of direction.

In terms of my design work, I have six garments planned and I have the yarn ready to go for five of them (the sixth one I'm just waiting on the dyer, so they're pretty much all ready to go). These are all things that I'm looking forward to making and am excited about designing and writing up, and I hope that I get them all finished this year.

I also pulled out some sock yarns with the intention of doing a Yarn Harlot-style self imposed sock club. I pulled out twelve skeins and picked out patterns, but I think I'm going to pare it down to six. I have three pairs of socks on the needles right now that I want to finish, and I also have some sweaters in my queue that I'd like to knit up with a few sweater quantities in my stash.

I also decided that this year is going to be the year that I learn more about making my own wardrobe. I've been meaning to get into sewing more for a while, and I think I'm finally ready to go from thinking and reading about it to actually doing it more. I also think it's really important for me to have another creative hobby that's not work. Yes, I still knit other patterns for my own enjoyment, but I'm always negotiating in my mind, "do I have time to knit this and also get my design work done?" I'm also planning on a pretty big change (but more on that later), and I know I'll need to be aware of carving out time for me to do something purely for my own enjoyment and gratification, and I think that sewing will be a good fit for that need.

What are your goals and plans for this year? 

2019 In Review

2019 was a really hard year for me. In fact, it was one of the worst years I can remember. There was a lot going on in my personal life, and while we all made it out to the other side, I definitely didn't make it here smoothly or easily. My mental health went from "pretty well-maintained" to "well, technically it's been worse than this, but wow this is really bad and I'm just going to go back to bed." The very end of the year was pretty rough, so I'm still recovering, but I'm hopeful that I'll get back to where I want to be before too long.

I didn't really get a whole lot done in terms of creative output, but I managed to avoid stopping knitting all together. I knit 20 projects last year and released 9 patterns, both of which are less than usual. My favorite projects are my Jeri and my Currituck Sound, and I'm very enamored with my cropped Filled With Secrets and Hell Creek.

My writing output was also really small this year. I managed to write poems and some short pieces for my Patreon, but that was about it. I stopped submitting pretty early on in 2019, but that's something I definitely want to pick back up this year. I also have some great short fiction plans floating around in my head that I can't wait to play with and put on the Patreon this year.

One great thing that happened in 2019 was that I changed jobs in my library! At the end of October I moved from Interlibrary Loan to a brand new position in Oral History. I love my new job (and my new office!), and I'm thrilled that I have this opportunity. I'm working in metadata, which I love, and I'm also doing some transcription work.

I'm letting myself plant the expectation that 2020 will be a good year for me and that I'll have lots of opportunity for growth. I have plenty of new things that I want to try, and lots of things that I want to keep doing, but more on my hopes for the next year on Monday! 

Finished: Rainbow Christmas Socks

I used to knit a lot for Christmas, but over the years I've scaled down quite a bit and now I only regularly knit for my mum. She'd mentioned in the past wanting a pair of rainbow striped socks, and I've had this rainbow Felici in my stash for her for a while, so this Christmas seemed like the perfect opportunity to knit it up.

These were knit using my basic sock recipe with my favorite garter-edged Eye of Partridge heel flap. I never knit any other heel, if I can help it. It was easy keeping these a secret from Mum, since we don't live together, and they only took a few evenings in front of Netflix and a night caroling at the bar to be finished.

I'm hoping to squeeze out one more FO this year—I have 68 rounds left on the second sleeve of my Arachne, so barring any major catastrophes, I should be able to bang the rest of it out long before the countdown tomorrow night!

Ravelry Page: Rainbow Socks

Pattern: none, just my basic sock recipe

Yarn: Knit Picks Felici, "Rainbow" 

Getting Handsy

As you can see, I've not made very much progress on my mitten this week.

This is because I didn't cut a long enough end to kitchener the cuff, and instead of fixing it right away, I tried leaving it on my table for several days to see if it'd fix itself.

I'm just a few rounds away from starting the really fun part of the chart, and it's going swimmingly so far. Pretty much all this progress was made last night while watching Christmas at Dollywood at my mum's house, and now that I've actually made it onto the hand portion I think I'll make some good progress this week (and just in time—it felt like -14F this morning!).

This weekend was crazy busy. Yesterday was my choir's Christmas service, and we sang the Vivaldi Gloria. Saturday morning we had rehearsal for it, and then I drove up to the city to see my brother's Christmas concert. Usually I meal prep on Sundays, but hopefully I have stuff to tide me over, because yesterday all I did between finishing my concert and going to mum's for dinner and the movie was nap! 

Humble Beginnings

Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been over a week already. Thanksgiving was great—it was quiet and cozy, just my mum and my siblings and me (and the dogs!), and we made way too much food and watched the parade. I spent the rest of my long weekend resting, catching up on reading, and working towards my NaKnitMo goal (which I met just in time on Saturday evening!). It was nice to have four days off, but now this week feels like it's dragging.

I haven't been knitting much yet this week (I did a LOT of knitting last week though, so of course I want a bit of a break), but I did start my 2019 Gift-a-long project. I'm finally knitting the Birch Bark Mittens, which have been in my queue since the 2017 GAL, and I seriously cannot wait to have these on my hands. I haven't counted the rows in a hot minute, but I'd guess I have about half of one cuff here, which is a decent enough start. Depending on how long it takes me to finish these, I may also jump into the Feet/Legs thread in the GAL group and knit up some Woodland Loafers out of a great gold wool-mohair blend I scored at a flea market last year.

I'm not doing much gift knitting—as usual, I'm knitting for my mum, and that's it. That project is started and is going really smoothly so far, and I'm already finished with the rest of my gift shopping, so I can just settle down into cozy mode and drink cocoa and eat cake to my heart's content! 

Finally Some FOs!

I finally managed to get some FO photos taken this weekend! Alas, I made the collar on my Villainous CYOAT so tight it won't go over my head, so I'll have to rip that out and redo it. But my Ripple Bralette and Currituck Sound are both gorgeous!

The only thing I'd change about my Ripple Bralette is making the straps two inches longer. I guessed on these ones, and I think I want more cleavage showing. I'm thrilled to bits with how this one came out, and I love wearing it. I already have yarn set aside for another one, and I'll remember to lengthen the straps on that one.

Ravelry Page: Ripple Bralette

Pattern: Ripple Bralette by Jessie Mae Martinson

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts 75/25 merino silk fingering "Ballet Slipper"

I finished my Currituck Sound on Friday night and I'm SO IN LOVE with it. I'm so glad I decided to cut out the second repeat of the zig-zag slipped stitches, because I definitely wouldn't have been able to do two-color brioche if I hadn't. In a more perfect world, I'd have been able to get another two or three inches of brioche out of the orange yarn, but I'm still super happy with how the shawl looks.

Ravelry Page: Currituck Sound

Pattern: Currituck Sound by Kristen Jancuk

Yarn: The Dyeing Arts Splendiferious Sock (blue) and The Dyeing Arts Superwash Sock (orange)- both dyed by me at a dye workshop several years ago

(I have no clue what my eye is doing in that picture, but the shawl looks GREAT)

We Have Brioche!

As you can see, I decided that three braids was enough, and I'm now on the final brioche section of my Currituck Sound. I've never done two-color brioche, and I've only ever done one practice swatch of single-color brioche, years ago, but it's going well. I messed up the setup rows and had to rip back and redo them, but in the scheme of things that was just a minor hiccup.

I'm hoping to get this finished tonight and then catch up on blocking over the weekend, but we'll see if I get distracted by one of my current books. My bell choir is playing on Sunday, so I have morning rehearsals tomorrow and Sunday before we preform. I'm also planning on making a couple of loaves of bread to use for stuffing on Thanksgiving, so I definitely have plenty to do this weekend! 

Currituck Sounding

My Currituck Sound is finally portable again, and I have delusions of finishing her early this weekend. Is that wildly optimistic? Probably!

I decided to cut out one of the repeats of the zig-zag slipped stitch section. I really, really love how that section looks, but it wasn't my favorite thing to knit, and I started running low on my orange yarn. I have the NMKAL version of the pattern, which includes options for twisted rib or fisherman's rib to finish the shawl, but I really love the look of two-color brioche and want to use it in my shawl, so I decided to cut a repeat and save the orange yarn for a nice big chunk of brioche.

I'm on the vikkel braids now—the sample used three, and I think I want five before starting the brioche. I had to look up Kristen's tutorial for the vikkel braids—I've done them before, but I always want to ktbl in the second stitch by going in between the stitches instead of going around behind both of them, which works, but it puts the braid on the wrong side of the work. It's all sorted now, and hey, if I ever need to work a vikkel braid from the back, I know how! 

WIP Wrangling

The past few years I've participated in NaKniSweMo and tried to knit a sweater from start to finish during November, but this year as November approached, I felt overwhelmed at the thought of casting on another big project when I have so many WIPs in various stages right now. So I'm participating in the more chill NaKnitMo, setting a stitch goal of 75k stitches for the month as well as an unofficial goal to finish up as many WIPs as possible.

I've already finished one project (my Villainous CYOAT, which just needs blocking), and I'm making great progress on my Currituck Sound, which has been sitting abandoned since last year. Currituck isn't especially portable right now (I'm in a fiddly section that really ought to be knit on a sofa), so this week I've been carrying around a shawl sample I cast on back in September and then promptly set aside. I'd love to get this finished and written this month, but I also just got the last skein I need for Arachne, and I can't wait to get that off the needles too.

(I also want to finish the sleeves for my Old Harry that's been languishing since last winter, and in a world where I had more time and no hand/wrist pain I'd think about finishing my Guernsey, Recharge, and Cormac, but it turns out there IS a limit to how much I can fantasize about actually getting done in a month.)

Weekends

I've reached the bottom ribbing on my Arachne and I've come to the unsettling conclusion that I don't have enough yarn. This is all my fault—when I was gathering materials, I thought I'd knit the size smaller, and then once I read the pattern I realized I needed the size 49, and it never occurred to me that knitting the next size up would mean I'd need an extra skein for the sleeves. I've ordered the yarn, and hopefully it will be here in a week or so.

This weekend was the holiday bazaar at the Lutheran church up in the city, and I went with my mum. It was, as always, a great day, and I got a ton of great stuff. Walking around a crowded building for almost three hours is no joke, though—I ended up taking a four-hour nap once I got home! Yesterday was a baking day, and I have fresh bread and coffee cake to show for it.

This week we're taking measurements at the dance studio, so I'm going to have some long days. Lee Lee's not going to be happy about that, but I'm leaving Friday night open for snuggles, and hopefully she'll forgive me.