2016 Crafting Goals Recap

I set several crafting goals at the beginning of 2016 and since I just posted my 2017 crafting goals earlier this week, I thought I'd update how I did on the 2016 goals.

The Good

Knit 12 Pairs of Socks
I actually knit 17 pairs of socks in 2016, so I definitely exceeded this goal.  I won't bore you with pictures of all of them, but here are a few of my favorites from the year.

Knit 2 Projects with Laceweight Yarn
Yes, I knit the Newfoundland shawl and the Danse Macabre shawl.  You get crappy pics of both of them because they are still in the bag of things that need to be blocked.

Knit 2 Projects with Handspun Yarn
Also successful.  I knit the Quaker Yarnstretcher Boomerang and Traveling Woman, both out of my handspun yarn.  I've actually gotten around to blocking both of these.

Finish Marigold Moroccan
This is a project I started way back in January 2010.  Because it was heavily beaded and I was knitting both halves at the same time, it was a very time intensive project and I only worked on it sporadically until 2016.  It wasn't unpleasant to work on, just required focus and it was slow going because of the beads.  I sat down at the beginning of 2016 and counted the remaining rows and figured out how many I had to do a month to finish it in 2016.  And I did it.  Breaking it up into monthly chunks kept me on track and I did the final bind off, which joined the two halves on New Year's Eve.  I haven't had the time to block it yet, but here's a picture to prove it is in fact done! I'll post a better picture and some that show the beading detail once I've gotten it blocked.

Spin the Bin
At the beginning of 2016 I picked out 12 items in my fiber stash to spin in 2016.  Together, it was just over 3 lbs. of fiber, and I spun all of it.  I really should corral all the finished yarn together for a picture, but I haven't gotten around to it, so I'll just share a couple of my favorites.

This is the yarn that was knit into the Traveling Woman shawl above.

Learn to Sew
I did learn how to use my sewing machine.  I'm not very good at it yet, mainly because I haven't really sewn since early summer. I took a class at my local community college the first half of the year that was very helpful, but then work got busy and I couldn't make the class.  But I did make a few things and I can make a pretty good pillow case!

I've also made a small quilt that's finished except for hand stitching the back of the binding.  It's not exactly square, but I still like it.  However, I think I've decided that at this point in my life I don't have the patience needed to do serious quilting.  Maybe as I get better at sewing straight seams that will change.  But here's the top of the one I've mostly finished.

The Bad
 Knit a Steeked and Zippered Cardigan
This is the only actual knitting goal I didn't achieve this year.  But really, the primary reason I didn't is I still haven't found the pattern I really want to do.  I'm not sure exactly what I want, and I honestly haven't spent a ton of time searching for it.  I think I'll find it at the right time and this will happen.  In the mean time, I don't really feel bad that this goal didn't get achieved.

The Ugly
More Yardage Out Than In
This was a complete and total fail. On the positive side, I completed 64 projects in 2016, which used 25,879.4 yards of yarn.  That's 14.7 MILES of yarn folks.  So I certainly did some knitting.  I added less yarn than I did in 2015, but 2016 still saw a substantial increase in my stash yardage even with all that knit. It's not ugly though, it's beautiful yarn, and I'll use it eventually, so not going to beat myself up about it.

So there you have it.  2016 crafting goals were mostly successful and I'm hoping 2017 will be even better.