Posted on December 28, 2015
My top Instagram photos from 2015
If you’ve followed my blog for any amount of time you know that I love the new year, as a time of personal reflection and of fresh starts. Today I’m reflecting on my 2015 crafting, looking at what I liked and what I wish I’d done differently, to help me plan for a fun and productive 2016.
The first thing that strikes me when I look at the knitting I completed in 2015 is how few projects there were. Only 13??! And two of them are hats that only took a couple days? I have it in my head that I knit way more than this (no wonder my stash is growing!). I did spend most of the summer quilting, so that accounts for some “lost time,” but this is a useful thing to know given that I have a knitting queue with 20+ items in it (all of which I already have the yarn for, many of which are sweaters). Probably not going to accomplish all of that in 2016…
Summer seemed like the perfect time for piecing this baby quilt.
Looking at dates, it seems I also spent a lot of time on my Wellwood sweater, which is no surprise since it’s knit in fingering-weight yarn on US 2.5 (3 mm) needles. I signed up for Amy Herzog’s October sweater retreat and swore I would finish one sweater by then, and by gosh I did, although I was still weaving in some ends during the retreat. I’m really proud of the workmanship on this sweater, although there are some things I’m not thrilled with about the fit; which is why the next sweater I make will use Amy’s CustomFit system, since I don’t want to put another four months into a sweater I’m not thrilled with. #lessonlearned
Don’t tell anyone, but I clipped this sweater in the back while taking photos so that the waist would look more fitted!
One project I was really proud of was finally finishing this sweater. I started it in 2012 and was never quite happy with the waist shaping or the way it fit around the hips. So after years of it sitting awkwardly in a drawer with the idea that “someday I’d fix it,” I finally frogged it up to the armpits and re-knit it. It feels really good to have fixed something that I was never really happy with, instead of either wearing it and continuing to be unhappy with it, or letting it sit around unworn. I have another sweater in a similar situation—problematic collar and button bands—and I’m sure it would feel great to fix it in 2016.
Quilting-wise, my biggest accomplishment was finishing a roughly queen-sized quilt. I made it as a gift for a friend and it’s by far the most ambitious thing I’ve sewn so far. I did send it out for quilting because of its size, which I don’t regret, but it did make me think about how I’d like to get more quilting practice next year on my own machine. The baby quilt above should be manageable, and I’ve got a few placemats on the back burner that I may practice some free-motion quilting on.
photo posted by Susan Moskwa (@susanmoskwa) on
So what should I take away from all this? One thing is that I’d like to be more intentional about how I spend my free time. I should be able to finish more than 13 knitting projects in a year, especially if I spent less time doing forgettable things like playing solitaire. I also want to build my handmade sweater wardrobe, so I’m hoping that trying CustomFit will help in that arena; and I’ve learned that if I’m not wearing a sweater, there’s probably a reason why, and I should either fix it or learn from it. For example, I don’t wear most of my pullovers because I change temperature too much during the day (I’m constantly taking them off and on and off again), so I’m learning to only queue cardigans.
Lastly, this was my first year on Instagram, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing everyone’s crafty photos and trying to be better about documenting my own projects. (The photography is still my least favorite part.) So thanks for all your likes, and for inspiring me with your work, and I can’t wait to see what y’all make in 2016!
Comments
Pat
January 1, 2016Love this post and am happy to have spent some time knitting with you in 2015. Hoping to see you at least once in the new year.
Keep on creating adventure!