Reflecting on 2021

This last week of the year between Christmas and New Year's Day always feels to me like it holds so much potential. The mad rush of the holidays is mostly over, there isn't any school, usually work schedules are lighter (if you aren't working retail or medical that is). It is a breather, but also a time to look back at the past year and look forward to the new one. 

For the past few years I have had a list of things I want to finish by the end of the year. One year I even finished all my WIPs. I actually don't recommend that, because then I didn't have anything going and I felt weirdly stuck and unable to figure out what the right thing to cast-on would be. I guess I have learned I really am happiest with having a) multiple projects going b) having those projects at various stages and c) having those projects require various levels of concentration. 

Even if I am not finishing everything, I still have a few things I want to finish before the end of the year. This year, I have one knitting and one spinning project that I want to complete. I have been knitting a pair of Christmas socks this year with the WYS colorway Candy Cane. As of this morning, I am on the heel of the second sock. I think I can finish this before Saturday. My other WIPS include another pair of socks and three sweaters. Two of those are top-down yoke sweaters and I wouldn't mind at least finishing the current colorwork motif on the one and finishing the yoke and dividing for the sleeves on the other. If I am able to do either of those things that would be great but I am not too fussed about it. The other pair of socks lives in my purse so I'm not putting any deadline on those. The other sweater I will get back to eventually. I am still knitting the body, but when I needed to add another ball of yarn I decided to go ahead and pick up the neck stitches and get that over with. Unfortunately, I had to stop halfway through that process because it was too hard on my wrists. About a month and half ago I fell and have radial head fractures in both my arms and probably some sprains too and I have had quite a bit of arm and wrist pain. The arm pain is getting better, but I am going to give it some more time before I pick it up again, I have other things to work on. 

As for the spinning, I am so close to being finished spinning all the singles from the Polled Dorset fleece I bought in 2019. That fleece deserves its own post, but I have maybe an ounce or less to go and will definitely finishing spinning it by the end of the week. I won't be plying yet, but that can wait for 2022. I am doing that on my Kiwi 3. Up in my attic room, I am spinning 4 oz of Leicester Longwool roving on my Flatiron. I just started spinning that this past week, and I am spinning relatively thin singles with that, I am unlikely to finish it before year end. So there are just a couple things I want to finish and be able to add to my count for 2021. I have been keeping track as I go this year of how much yarn and fiber I have purchased and how much of used and how much of that fiber has been converted into yarn. Counting the fiber that is converted into yarn can get a little tricky because I never know how to count samples. I have spun multiple 5 g samples of fiber to figure out how to spin the rest of it. I have also purchased 1 oz samples of various breeds and just spun those up. Likewise, sometimes I blend up batts and just spin them up to play. Anyway, not counting those tiny skeins, I have still spun up 50+ skeins of handspun yarn this year! That does include one full fleece that purchased in March, and it includes several skeins from Sheepspot's Breed School 2.0, but a lot of it is just me converting my fiber stash into yarn stash. I have more to say about my fiber stash but I will save that for my post looking forward at 2022. 

While I would say 2021 has been heavier on spinning than on knitting, I still had a fairly productive year for knitting. My notes record that I used up 42 full skeins of yarn, and 47 partial skeins. That yarn went into 8 hats, 7 sweaters, 7 pairs of mittens, 7 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of fingerless mitts, 1 pair of gloves, and I wove two scarves on my rigid heddle loom. I also destashed some yarn earlier this year. I am probably going to do that again soon. 

I definitely feel like it was a productive year. It is funny, because even though I do spend some time planning for the upcoming year, I can never fully predict where my creative energy is going to go. I definitely didn't predict that so much of it was going to go into spinning, especially because in the early part of the year I just didn't have a ton of enthusiasm for it. My spinning mojo waxes and wanes, and it was definitely at a low at that point. It really picked up this spring and then with Tour de Fleece I just took off. I took a look back at my lists I made at this time last year. I have checkmarks next to most of thing things. The only thing I really didn't get to was brioche. I keep intending to learn and I just haven't made the time yet. In 2022 I guess?