New Year, New Plans, 2014 Recap, Knitting (and Spinning) as Self Care...

It's been a while since I last visited this space. One month to be exact.

I can say that 2014 was an interesting ride that ended with the realization that I wasn't always the driver. I'm fine being a passenger, as a matter of fact, I enjoy it on occasions, but I didn't do a lot of driving this year at all. And if I did, it was definitely more autopilot than truly active driving. Both challenging and chaotic for a recovering control freak. A lot of things 'got away' from me at the end of the year due to life changes and work obligations, the usual things that bog most of us down when they aren't persistently managed. By the end of 2014 I was worn out, exhausted, frustrated, and in desperate need of recharging and refocusing.

My 2015 focus is simple: live life on my own terms, dictated by things that energize me and recharge my creative battery. Eliminate unnecessary obligations and have zero guilt for saying 'no' more often.

When I'm stressed out, I tend to do the things that I love the most, the things that truly energize me, the least. It's a strange phenomenon, but I retreat. I get paralyzed when I'm overwhelmed and I get indecisive. And the ironic thing about it all is that, doing something productive and creative always brings me down from the ledge, and yet... I shut down. What's strange is that I kept my knitting and my spinning close as I slogged my way through grad school from 2011-2013. It was important for me to keep some semblance of my sanity through that craziness, but yeah... this year got away from me because I all to often allowed other 'things' to dictate my schedule. Fool me once.

In terms of my craftolutions, I'm going to focus on being project focused. Singularly focused, meaning, I'm going to try my hand at monogamy. I ended 2014 with a small basket full of knitting WIP's - 15 to be exact, which ain't bad at all - which I still am in love with that I want to finish and I do plan to wrap up in 2015, but in due time. 

NaKniSweMo was a fulfilling knitting opportunity, mostly because it got me to carve out time each night to knit. There's something about routine that is so... soothing and relaxing. I started to really look forward to those moments in the evening when things were calm and all the household obligations were taken care of and I could just curl up off the couch (after stacking all the other knitting projects into a pile onto the other side of the couch) and just sit and knit. Talk about a great feeling of balance.

Anyway...

On to the retrospective... (Yeah, I'm pretty sure you don't care about my 'feelings' and how overworked I've been... just show you the pretty stuff, right? Fine. Hahahaa and Wahhhh!)

My biggest almost finish of the year was my Calligraphy Cardigan (knit in November during NaKniSweMo). I got so close to finishing it. So close it's frustrating. I just needed to sew on the buttons and weave in ends, but alas... no energy to do so. Once December rolled around, my brain immediately wanted to focus on other things like knitting a ginormous blanket for my new nephew at the last minute. 

My sweater is awesome though and I'm so proud of my accomplishment, and mostly proud that I focused on one project for a month. Think about how much more productive we could all be with that kind of focus. (A collective 'duh,' from all of you who are monogamous crafters.) 

Anyway, I've been wearing this sweater NOW, buttonless, loose ends and all. It is a smidge big around the upper bust... should've listened to Amy Herzog and went down a size on the pattern. Next time Amy, next time...

Where I'm at on the sweater...

Still wearing it anyway! :P

I'm a Honey Badger, and I don't give a damn!!!

Spinning Recap:
For my spinning, I ended 2014 with 3 pending items - one bobbin of singles waiting to be chain plied (bottom right in the basket), 3 bobbins of singles of Cormo that needed to be plied (on my wheel), and 1/2 a braid of fiber that still needed to be spun (yellow fluff). 

I'm currently tackling these one-spin-at-a-time. A philosophy I'm going to be utilizing more this year. I started with the Cormo because it is the most daunting. I spun my 5 lb haul of Cormo during Tour de Fleece 2014 and I spun that up so fine that it's taking me hours to finish the plying. Great when the yarn is done and I can knit something amazing with it, but incredibly taxing when I'm plying it for hours and I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast. 

Yummy Cormo 2-ply. Slow spin. Slow ply.

Last year I was able to finish plying a 2-ply (above) of that same bottomless bag of Cormo over the summer and I remember that 400+ some odd yards of light fingering weight took me over 4 hrs to finish, so I'm in for at least equal if not a touch more on the 3-ply. But boy is it soooooft. Crazy soft. I can't even bear to think about how I'm going to get through spinning the other 4 lbs of this stuff... I'm not even going to think about it. That will give me the sads.

Ahem... back to the topic at hand, approximately 10 lbs of handspun goodness, mostly fingering-DK weight, vary plies, predominantly 3-plies in the mix, per usual. Lots of bold color from my favorite vendors. A decent amount of deeper stash was spun which always feels nice. 

Some of these goodies will be in my Etsy shop soon. Hopefully they will start to appear by the end of the week (so. much. labeling!). Be sure to save my shop to your RSS feed reader so you can stay up-to-date on the latest shop offerings and to see when my awesome handspun starts popping up so you can be the first in line to snag it. And you KNOW you want to! (Thank you so much for your support in advance!)

2014 handspun family photo

I abandoned my goal of trying to finish 14 pounds by the end of 2014 which equated to about 20 braids in about two months. Just not realistic for the amount of pushing myself that I already did throughout the year. 

Honestly, after NaKniSweMo, I threw in the towel. I haven't had much spinning mojo (or anything mojo for that matter), but additionally, what am I pushing for? I do love myself a personal challenge but not at the expense of undermining my craft life. My philosophy with practically everything is pick your battles and know when to concede.

Knitting Recap:
I finished ??? projects. Honestly, I don't know and I don't care. I finished a lot of larger, longer term projects which is fan-freakin-tastic. If you are curious about what was done/worked on in 2014, you can take a peak at my Raverly 2014 project page. I'm not an economist so I'm less concerned about final counts and all the numbers. My finished pile is all the proof I need.

My favorite (and most used) project of 2014 is Stella Luna! This shawl is AMAZING.

I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe how much I love this shawl and yarn combo. This was my first time using yarn from Beaverslide Dry Goods stash although I accumulated quite the stash before even trying it out. I really like their business model and because I am occasionally shallow, I like the way their yarn looks. It's pretty as hell all skeined up. 

By business model I mean, it's 'local' yarn, made in the US - BDG is located in Montana, they have a flock of Merino's, wool gets shipped about 2 hrs north to Canada for processing, and comes back to Montana, they don't market/advertise their products which means they can keep the cost super low for the consumer) - it's heathered which I love as it adds some depth and texture to solid colored yarn (which I seldom knit with because *snore*), it's affordable (which is relative, but compared to other woolen-spun yarns on the market, yes, it is VERY affordable for the amount of yardage you get which is outstanding), and the range of colors is fantastic. For a color and texture junkie, it's everything I want in a yarn. Go check them out and read more about their process here. And of course, buy some yarn and support this amazing vendor. Don't worry about saving a skein for me. I've got plenty!

If I had any knitting redo's it would be to make my Shaelyn much larger. (I'd also redo this photo, but when you are at the mercy of a husband who is NOT a photographer yet he is mildly willing to appease your photography request, you take what you get.) 

Redo, as in, I'd knit at least 2 additional pattern repeats. Granted, I was bound by the amount of fiber I had on hand, which I think was about 5 oz, but still, I definitely would've gone much larger on this one. It's what I would classify as a 'shawlette' with it's wingspan being roughly 4'. I'm a 6' wingspan kind of lady, minimum. 

With most of my shawlettes, I just gift them to my mom which, hey... she never complains and she is absolutely the most gracious knitwear receiver ever. She loves all the projects I work on. I would definitely make myself another one of these though. It's a great pattern and you can watch crazy stuff on tv/online while knitting it too. Win!

WIP's I'm carrying into 2015:
First, I'd have to remember how many I came into 2014 with... which, honestly, was probably about 20. That number is not shocking at all to me. I've culled the WIP basket throughout 2014 and I've frogged items that I'm no longer in love with, swapped out items for more suitable yarn, so on and so forth. 

My current number of projects that I'm going to focus on finishing in 2015 is roughly 15, which of course is subject to change based on if I just feel like moving on to something else. It happens all the time. I've put a few items on hibernate in Ravelry. It is what it is and none of it is a big deal. I'll work on it if I feel like it, otherwise, I'll cut the cord and move on.

I'll be posting the 2015 WIP count very soon on the slow cloth blog, so if you are interested, stay tuned!

Weaving and Sewing Recap... 
Errrr, uh... yeah... maybe in 2015.

Final Thoughts 
What I did find out was that I do really enjoy a big, long term, process project. Something that I can focus all of my knitting energy on for about 3 weeks and have a substantial finished item at the end of time period. 

I really enjoyed the focus and discipline that I achieved during NaKniSweMo so that was my tipping point. It is also a way for me to focus on monogamy, which honestly, is really the best way to go. But I do have a compromise. I am going to try monogamy out, but always have other things ready to work on for those times where I hit a snafu on my main project but still want to keep my hands busy. That's totally fair compromise, yes? Yes.

And there you have it. Practical, less specific goals for this year, but my most important focus is that of knitting EVERY single day, if only just one row. I'm calling it knit365 and so far, so good.

Knitting is self care and it's so important, not just during the bad times, but also as maintenance during the good times, to take moments for ourselves to soothe, to repair, to relax, to meditate, to reflect. 

Spinning Plans
For my spinning, I'm doing the CTA Spin the Bin Challenge again. I'm pretty sure I said I wouldn't do anymore deadline/obligation spinning sometime in October and then all of a sudden activity started happening at the end of December in the CTA group. And just like that I was sucked in. Funny how the new year's planning excitement gives you that zesty, bubbly feeling surrounding new possibilities. *cough* Sucker *cough*

 CTA Spin the Bin 2015 Haul

12 Bin Items

This time around (this is my second time participating), I've declared single items. You only need to declare 12 items, each being a minimum of 2 oz. Last year, I declared larger quantity spins as a single item (what was I thinking) instead of breaking my spins up into smaller doses. I also swapped out some items (because I'm finicky). When you swap out an item, the rule is you replace it with two. You can see now that for someone like me, who picks projects based on my mood that day (and I can be moody) how this was a disaster waiting to happen. By the end of October, I removed 3 items from my bin and ended up with 12 more jumping into the pile. (I'll let you try to figure out the math on that.) ;) Total spinning overload. New year, new strategy.

---------------------

If you got through all that, pat yourself on the back. I appreciate you revisiting some of my projects from 2014 and allowing me the chance to do the stream of conscious writing you've come to expect and love from me as a blogger. 

In a similar vein related to self care, I will be taking a hiatus from the videocast. Again, if you read through this entire post, you understand why. The infrastructure is in place, so I can come back to the videocast at any time, but for now, I'll be spending my time recharging and creating. I just can't promise that you will get the best version of myself right now and there is enough bad garbage going on in the world [insert any news story from the past few months here]. I turn to podcasts/videocasts, not as escapism, but for enjoyment and inspiration. 

If the creator is uninspired, you can tell. Or maybe not. But I can tell. And I don't want to be yet another videocaster sitting in front of the camera, sipping on my drink (unless it's a cocktail, in which case, "cheers!"), fiddling, boasting about yarn and fiber acquisition, and filling space with meaningless, unfocused blather. I want to be engaged (I want YOU to be engaged), have (some) focus, have something interesting to share, open up a dialogue about adjacent topics, possibly share interesting techniques I've stumbled upon, talk about process, give shout outs to designers and patterns that truly deserve being mentioned rather than overhyped because everyone else is talking about them... all the things that I hope you've come to enjoy when you watch my videocast. 

I will be blogging and documenting my process at my original blogspot slow cloth. I hope to be getting into some new and interesting things this year, for real this time. I hope you will join me on that journey. I'll be stopping by Ravelry periodically to feed my need to queue and favorite everything under the sun and stay abreast with new challenges, but I'm going to be spending less time there so I that I can get more done. If I'm not on Raverly or blogging, you know where to find me.

And on that note...
I wish you all the best in the new year! I hope you are happy, healthy, and taking time to take care of YOU. Thank you for being apart of my fiber journey.

Finger's crossed that this post wasn't riddled with typos and/or grammar errors. Oy vey!