2021 Knitting Year in Review
Welcome to the official Knitting Year in Review post for 2021. We're still in a pandemic, I still love knitting but I haven't set myself a 'challenge goal' this year. I didn't see the point of setting myself a goal for knitting if you do it for fun, and I didn't want to force myself into anything I didn't want to do.
I didn't knit as much as previous years, and spent more time gaming behind my PC. This was in part due to not having anything good to watch on Netflix and in part because I've played a lot of hours of Factorio this year (such fun!). After the lockdown ended in March work got so busy that there were a lot of times I was too tired to pick up my knitting. And I'm also still in Overcharged Egg's Discord, so staying behind the computer instead of moving to my knitting is still a thing. I recently tried to refocus back to knitting because the stash is not going to knit itself (if only!) and I really wanted to finish my Big Project so I could wear it this winter.
Socks are still a much loved project. I knit 9 pairs of socks this year, and two of those were for myself! The rest went to friends: four pairs to the UK, one pair for Eisirt and one pair (plus a pair from earlier year) to a dear Dutch friend for Christmas.
Both pairs of socks for myself were a bit more bother. The Kalajoki were dyed from grass green to a darker shade but are a bit splotchy now, and the Senbonzakura from the Qualifying Round of Sock Madness had a new cuff attached to them in autumn. They are still sagging and I usually wear them with a pair of cotton socks underneath now because they're not actually warm.
This was the fifth Sock Madness I participated in, and I didn't have a very good time. I was placed in a fast paced team and didn't enjoy the Madness as much as any of the previous years. The amount of enjoyment waned quickly over the years, and I think this will have been my last Sock Madness. Despite having semi-planned to knit every sock from those five years of Sock Madness I've participated in, I've frogged one I had on the needles (with beads) and decided I'd rather knit stuff I enjoyed than focus on such a made-up goal and force myself into something I don't enjoy as much.
I finished my one Big Project in time for winter weather -- any day now? I cast on Sprig in January and finished it on Christmas Day after having it tossed in a corner at times. I really did enjoy it, it has enough interesting things without being too hard and I'm very pleased with the result.
To stashbust, I knit four beanies for charity.
I finished 14 projects this year and I loved that I remembered to photograph all the socks the same way.
What became of last years plans?
Socks indeed made a bit of a come-back!
I did not pick up my hexagon quilt and haven't worked on it in several years.
I can't remember if I knit outside in the sunshine, so let's try and do that this year, but in the shade!
I wanted to finish Pumpkin Ale and Poison Oak. Both these projects were frogged. I guess that counts
The Bagtanker cardigan was donated to a friend of Tyldak and she gave me a huge skein of yarn to knit Eisirt a jumper from in trade!
Plans for next year:
Enjoy knitting! I decided not to wait until January to cast on my next big Project, Snowflake, because I was really looking forward to it!
It's been a while since I knit a pair of socks from my books, so I'll definitely want to knit the next one from my Soxx book and maybe I'll be inspired to knit another pair from the Op-art book as well.
In these crazy pandemic times it was such a wonderful, refreshing and love-filled experience to visit friends and hang out with a project in our laps that this is definitely on the list for this year as well!
I'm keeping it simple with my plans, let's enjoy 2022 instead.
I didn't knit as much as previous years, and spent more time gaming behind my PC. This was in part due to not having anything good to watch on Netflix and in part because I've played a lot of hours of Factorio this year (such fun!). After the lockdown ended in March work got so busy that there were a lot of times I was too tired to pick up my knitting. And I'm also still in Overcharged Egg's Discord, so staying behind the computer instead of moving to my knitting is still a thing. I recently tried to refocus back to knitting because the stash is not going to knit itself (if only!) and I really wanted to finish my Big Project so I could wear it this winter.
Both pairs of socks for myself were a bit more bother. The Kalajoki were dyed from grass green to a darker shade but are a bit splotchy now, and the Senbonzakura from the Qualifying Round of Sock Madness had a new cuff attached to them in autumn. They are still sagging and I usually wear them with a pair of cotton socks underneath now because they're not actually warm.
I finished 14 projects this year and I loved that I remembered to photograph all the socks the same way.
What became of last years plans?
Plans for next year:
I'm keeping it simple with my plans, let's enjoy 2022 instead.