Another year is coming to a close and I was feeling like I hadn’t done as much as in previous years, but looking back I have, just less of some stuff and more of others.
We had the usual time in woods and other places, I went on an odd side quest of baking popovers, the garden was big and demanding and somewhat rewarding, the house repairs and projects have gotten smaller or shelved due to costs, and I changed jobs which was going to happen at some point but not when I thought it would (and the new is another temporary one which is part of the reason I ended up here in the first place, so it’s a little hard to swallow when I’m in the time of life when many folks are winding down and I’m in a half century failure to launch situation).
But in personal terms, things aren’t bad, so they’re good.
So here’s the shit that got made:
I worked on this cardigan mostly in 2022 and before – there were at least two attempts with another pattern that had those contiguous sleeves in which I couldn’t figure out sizing, and then several attempts with a basic raglan that I ended up just trying on and tweaking every few inches and gave up on taking notes. I regret that now because the fit is good and I managed to eek out a good length with what seemed like low-end yardage, but the sleeves have bare minimum yarn without being tight.
I was ready to start another right away but needed to finish spinning the yarn first which apparently I started in 2022 as well and still didn’t finish this year, but I’m working on it again now – it’s the one on the right. Spinning is the one hobby that has slowed substantially – mostly because I’m only doing sweater quantities at the moment, and I don’t spin in the summer (or when it’s warm out).
The yarn on the left became this woven scarf that I finished early in the year. What isn’t handspun is thrifted – I really like this one, though I have to admit I prefer the feeling of knit stuff rather than woven stuff around my neck.
At some point I finished a pair of socks. Unfortunately I only have one pair of public shoes left that accommodate these thicker socks, so I have to knit thin ones now (which I kinda hate to do).
That being said, I have an extra-thick pair on the needles now that I started beforehand, as well as a thin one that I haven’t picked up in months.
I wove a beach towel/beach blanket during the last month of winter, or early spring – we seem to go from autumn to spring here now….
I really like it and might start another soon but I’m not as enthusiastic about the colors left in my stash.
Somewhere along the line I struggled with another scarf – I’m happy with the end result but I used a very inappropriate yarn for the warp (too thick and thin, got stuck, broke easily).
It’s 100% thrifted yarn – cottons, silks, and rayon/viscose kind of stuff.
2023 was a very good thrifting year – I scored way more yarn, good yarn*, than usual, nearly all of the office clothes I needed for the new job, a small upholstered sewing rocker I’d been on the hunt for for years, and finally the treadle sewing machine that’s eluded me for decades.
(These are by no means elusive, but one at or under $30 has been.) And it’s also the reason I got an older used hatchback a couple of years ago when my 24-year-old corolla finally hauled off to rust, the afterlife.
But it needs a shitton of work – repairing and restoring the cabinet was going to be this winter’s project, but I’m dubious about that timeline now. The machine (a Singer 127 (I think)) is in very rough shape – has my favorite? sphinx decals that are nearly worn off – but its movements are smoooooth – I love having something that was so used and will continue to function indefinitely.
But I undid that bringing-back-something-useful-to-life with creating a big hunk of trash. The wildfires in the summer messed with my not-great lungs and legit air purifiers were sold out (or too expensive) but this one ended up working great, though a PIA to store…
At some point in the spring I also whipped out a thick boxy sweater.
It’s two strands of unraveled holey thrift store sweaters and I used another old sweater as a pattern. Again, I didn’t take better notes which is very regrettable because I would make another, though with the front neckline dropped down at least a couple of inches. It looks ok on – kinda like a ’60s ski sweater, but I can’t stand anything touching my throat right where this sometimes hits. (Blocking has helped drop it a bit more though.)
I got crafty with the lavender this year – had been wanting to make these wands for a bit and am usually tired of the garden at this point, but the one lavender plant has gotten massive.
And speaking of massive, the two fig trees reached the second story of the house this year and we had a bumper crop. They’ll die back a bit this winter though as they were too big to wrap up completely.
At some point before or after the beach towel I wove this towel for the half-bath. The colors match some atomic patterned curtains in there but I’m not really using the towels because they aren’t very thirsty – the orange yarn has a small percentage of acrylic in it and perhaps that’s part of the problem, but I just wove a cotton thing with thinner yarn on a smaller reed (that was going to be a tote bag) but it acts more like a towel, so note to self not to weave chunkier towels.
(And for future reference and because I haven’t bothered to dump my phone pics since September, it’s the white and purple houndstooth).
I also dug out an old project – I thought I’d frog it and weave the yarn, but it was a little longer than I remembered, so I decided to keep working on it.
But it’s one of those knits that seemingly unravels itself at night, so I’ve only ever been halfway done despite putting in many hours this fall. And it’s one that I can only do in daylight without my glasses within inches of my exposed eyeballs and pointy needle tips, so I might not get it done for another few years.
Sometime in the year little mitered squares started happening – I made several not pictured at a cabin in October too. They are very addictive or not at all (did I already forget them until I saw the pics?) so I have no plan except at some point maybe I’ll be done and they’ll become a pillow/pockets/cowl/pouch or they will be the blanket left unfinished and tossed out after my demise.
Oh and this rug got woven too – it was an experiment – I had to really pack it in on the loom and I messed up the math, so it ended up being too short for where I wanted it, but it was fun. I probably won’t make another rug unless/until I get a more appropriate loom for rugmaking but I enjoyed doing clasped weft this time (the first go around was less satisfying).
Also in the year was prepping more unraveled holey/stained/misshapen thrift store sweater yarn – I want to do another thin blanket, and this might be next up on the loom. I’ve also got a large bubble-ish vest on the needles since summer that I’m nearly sure I’m going to loose to yarn chicken and it’s un-recreatable handspun, so it’s likely going to be frogged soon and I’ll have to decide to restart it a few inches shorter (THIS IS WHY I ONLY LIKE TOP-DOWN) or just let it go for now. (I need another office cardigan, so I have a few patterns with stashed commercial yarn champing at the bit). And there are a couple of quilts slowly in the works – a sickly sweet aqua & red 9 patch?, and a large block scrap thing that I have to lay out in the yard because the floors are all too small, so that will have to wait until a dry spell (2023 was wet here). Oh, and I started another ribbed hat that has become waiting room knitting instead of socks, so maybe I’ll finish that before those.
I have no craft expectations for 2024 (though I have a bargello kit I’d like to do) except to try to make a few things I kinda need or can use and perhaps sell off a little of the stash or a sewing machine.
And yeah, this is only about craft, nothing about the current global atrocities – I do hope that USA people will vote in 2024, and not hope for anything better, but do all they can to prevent another tr!mp presidency.
(*I’m thinking that some folks are ditching the crafts they tried or fucked around with during quarantine – I’ve also been finding a lot of quality bakeware.)
ASTITCHMATISM 