2017 is over and as with every year, I wanted to review and reflect on how things went for my crafty life this year. I planned to post this at the end of the year but came down with a bad cold.
I started the year a bit rough with things not so great on the work front. That forced things on the crafty side to grind to a screeching halt. And I started the year without a plan of action. As a result, I didn’t create a plan until February. It wasn’t that late but I felt ill prepared for the year and I never felt as if I ever truly caught up. In fact, my whole quilty life took a back seat as I fell in love with knitting and yarn. I didn’t stop quilting as I did get stuff finished but not nearly as much as I did in previous years. Oh well, life is an ebb and a flow and I am enjoying the ride.
And here’s my 2017 crafty plan and how I did …
- Quilting
- Finish 6 quilts == I finished 3 and they were Missing Ivy, Baby Quilt #1 for Mason, and Baby Quilt #2 for Averlee.
- Knitting
- Sweater “Kimono” – FINISHED
- Socks – 12 for the year.
- hat – 1 for each family member – I THINK I GOT ONE DONE FOR JACOB AND HE NEVER WORE IT SO I STOPPED. LATER I DID ONE FOR ME THAT KAYLA LIKED. I LIKE HAT KNITTING WITH CHUNKY YARN AS IT GOES BY FAST. SO I THINK I’LL HAVE ONE ON THE NEEDLES AT ALL TIMES.
- car knitting – Jacob’s beanie – DONE
- Use yarn stash (which as of 2/15/17, the following are being knitted from stash: 2 socks, Jacob’s beanie, Rikke hat for me or Kayla.) – NOT DONE. FOR 2018 I WOULD LIKE TO MONITOR THE NUMBERS SIMILAR TO HOW I MONITOR MY FABRIC STASH. I TRIED DOING THIS Sometime BEFORE AND THEN STOPPED. I AM GOING TO TRY AGAIN.
- Cross Stitching – continue working on Mama’s Bukid each week. DONE. I’M WORKING ON PAGE 5. I CALCULATED THAT IT WILL TAKE ME YEARS TO FINISH BASED ON HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO FINISH PAGE 1. I THINK BECAUSE OF THAT, I STARTED WORKING ON THIS MORE DILIGENTLY AND I’M GETTING THROUGH PAGE 5 MUCH FASTER.
- Bag Making – I DID GET A BUNCH OF BAGS DONE EARLIER IN THE YEAR AND I TOOK SOME CLASSES AT MY LQS AS WELL. I FEEL LIKE I AM ABLE TO DO THIS MORE COMPETENTLY BUT I NEED TO DEVOTE TIME TO ACTUALLY DO SOME WORK. I GAVE MOST OF THE BAGS I MADE AWAY AND I NEED TO MAKE MORE. I LIKE HAVING THEM TO GIVE AWAY WHENEVER I NEED SOMETHING HANDY.
- Clothes – I want to start learning how to sew garments. I’m not sure how or where to start so I guess my first step is to find an easy project to start learning on. I STARTED AND THEN I STOPPED. I GOT OVERWHELMED. I HAVE A FRIEND WHO WANTS TO LEARN THIS YEAR SO HOPEFULLY WE CAN FIND A CLASS TO TAKE.
And my overarching non-craft specific goals:
- use what I have
- my fabric stash
- my yarn stash
- my tools
- Get rid of the things that I don’t love anymore
- sell
- donate
- throw away
- Watch my spending
- only buy things I will use now
I really like this but didn’t fully implement these overarching values on to my monthly or weekly tasks so I wasn’t very good at remembering these. In fact in reviewing my 2017 plan I saw this and loved the simplicity of it. I know it’s going to be harder to follow as I’ve bought a lot of fabric and yarn this year and have not used as much as I would like.
Now that I’m feeling better, I’ll finalize my 2018 crafty plans!
Stay tuned!
Happy crafting…
~Melanie