It’s New Years Eve and I have about 30 minutes before I need to prep dinner. In other words, there’s no better time to reflect on my 2019 crafting and look ahead to 2020. Back in 2018, I was able to finish 30 projects and so I set that as my goal in 2019. Honestly, I felt that I would easily surpass it because back in 2018 I knit a California King size afghan for my husband as a wedding gift. Without that monstrosity, I figured I’d be able to finish a bunch more projects. Early in the year, I started testing out the idea of opening my hand dyed yarn shop, which eventually opened in May. The shop has been a lot of fun and I don’t think of it as ‘work,’ but it certainly has limited my knitting time. The leisure time I once spent crafting has now become time for dyeing, fulfilling orders, marketing, and all of the fun stuff that comes along with owning a shop. That being said, I was able to meet my goal of 30 projects this year and I’m proud of all of my finished makes.
Summary of 2019
30 total projects – all knitting.
I recommend clicking on links when available (underlined) because I didn’t want to post too many pictures in this post. You can also check out my Ravelry projects page, which I kept up to date.
Socks: 15. 12 DVD and 3 other.
This is somewhat surprising and somewhat unsurprising. I knew I would finish 12 pairs for the DVD knit a long, but I really didn’t have sock mojo this year. If it hadn’t been for that knit a long, I think I would have had a lot of larger projects and might not have reached my total goal. In any case, I have 10 new pairs, my husband has 4 new pairs and my mom has 1 (plus way more, but see that note in additional reflections below).
Shawls: 5.
Shawls are probably my most fun projects to plan. I love putting the different colors together and working on all different types of stitches in shawls. I think the amount of time they take can be overrated. This is probably due to the current style of huge shawls “shlankets” where we use so many skeins in each shawl. At Christmastime last year, I offered to knit two of my cousins shawls. They understood that they may not receive them for a while. Both of their birthdays are in the summer and I was very proud to have them finished before that time. One of them, the Mauvelous, is beautiful, but man that thing was huge. I think I’d knit a row a night and that was it. The other one, the Raina Shawl was a bit faster, but I think I traveled with this at some point and was able to work through a lot of it then.
I also knit the Ashbrook shawl which is still probably my favorite make of all time. The pattern is just so beautiful and I would love to make more of these. I think this was my most enjoyable knit as well as it just zoomed through it. I don’t think I was ready to cast it off, which isn’t like me at all. (I love checking boxes).
My Emelyn Mae shawl was one I had been planning forever! I had seen the doppleganger sets by GnomeAcres and knew the pattern and yarn were a perfect match. This was another fun and quick knit!
I definitely had plans for many more shawls this year, but as I mentioned, those take way longer than you think they will. I still have them (and the yarn for them) planned out and hope to knock a few out this upcoming year.
Sweaters: 3.
Before this year, I think I had knit two sweaters in total and so adding three new ones this year is really amazing. Two of the three were colorwork sweaters and 1 was a cable filled one. I love them all and am really glad to add them to my wardrobe. I’m planning on donating some of my commercial sweaters now that they are being replaced by the hand knit ones. I hope to keep knitting more sweaters in this coming year.
Hats: 3.
This is probably the most surprising. I’m not usually a hat knitter although I’m glad I made a few more because it’s nice to have the options. One of the hats was a quick baby hat I made for a gift, but the other two were for me. These are nice projects that just go so quickly and really add to the finished objects list.
Cowl: 1.
The one hat I made was out of a set for shop samples. It was the Ice Time hat and cowl (really fun by the way if you want a matching set. They also will be great individually!)
Mittens: 1.
I finally made myself a pair of fingerless mitts so that I can knit while watching my husband run races (when I’m not participating myself). Another great pattern (Wired Fingerless Mitts) and really a quick knit.
Miscellaneous: 2.
The miscellaneous category includes my Soldotna samples and shop swatches.
2019 – Other Accomplishments
1. Opening agirlandherwool. This was a huge accomplishment and a lot more work than I thought it would be. It definitely is still fun to do and I’m loving every minute of it. I’m so appreciative of all of the support I have received, from customers, community members, friends and family. This was without a doubt the right decision to do and I cannot wait to see what 2020 brings for my shop.
2. My mother is a knitter. Yup. A complete 100% knitter. She always shunned against it and one day it just took a complete 180. She now knits so much and I’m so glad we have this to share with each other.
2020 Goals – Crafting
The following are more general guidelines that I have for 2020 without strict rules that I need to follow.
1. For now, I’m not planning to set a number goal on my finished objects. I expect to not finish 30 projects next year as I’m hoping to continue expanding my shop and with that comes less time for my crafts. As I start to plan more for the year, I may set a total goal.
2. Knit more for charity. I haven’t figured out which direction I want to take this and will post about it when I have sorted through more details.
3. Continue spinning 3x per week and hopefully expand on that.
4. Knit through all of my untouched skeins. I know this sounds weird, but I don’t have too much of a stash. I have purchased skeins without plans (mostly sock yarn) and I really want to use these. I am a planner at heart and really only want to buy yarn as I need it. This way I know I’ll be using what I want and nothing will sit around. I don’t plan on not having any stash at the end of the year because I only use about half of a skein for socks, but I hope to turn all of the stash into scraps. I can then use them in my new scrap blanket (more details coming soon, but feel free to check out Instagram) and for charity knitting.
5. Work through a lot of scrap yarn through my scrap blanket and charity knitting.
2020 Goals – Crafting Adjacent
Again, the following are more general guidelines that I have for 2020 without strict rules that I need to follow.
1. Continue to work on the shop and introduce new colorways.
2. Try to have in-person shows for my yarn.
3. Continue to connect with others in the knitting community including participating in more Sit and Stitch events at my LYS, A Knit Sheep.
Reading back on these 2020 goals, it seems like my word for the year will be involvement. I want to become more involved in my local community, the online community and the charitable organizations near and far. You can also say I want to become more involved with my stash, but let’s leave that one at that. As I continue to plan and think through 2020, I will share right here on the blog! I hope you had a great 2019 and want to hear what you have planned for the upcoming year.
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