2023 Not in Pictures

With a finishing spree at the end of the year, I have not got photos of all my finished projects but I wanted to get 2023’s round up posted on the last day of the year so I can start 2024 with all my exciting plans.

Looking back at 2022’s round up, I started 2023 with four projects and two of the projects are the same as they are the long term blankets. Which means that in 2023 I finished all (non-blanket) projects started before 1 January 2023. This is my biggest aim - not to have old projects. The number of WIPs at any time is less important.

I finished 25 projects, which is fewer than previous years and the yarn used is slightly lower than last year. I made nine hats; six pairs of socks; four cardigans/jackets; three shawls; one baby blanket; one baby jacket; and one tea cosy. I also started nine projects that were eventually frogged. Looking at my plans at the start of the year I did start all the items mentioned but some were more successful than others. The Tunisian project was one of the frogs and the Advent shawl is waiting for a decision. I made five and frogged a sixth hat from Kelborne Woolens.

I knit 8022 meters and crocheted 959 meters into completed projects. The yarn in that I purchased was very low as I only want to purchase yarn if there is a definite pattern I want to make and I need yarn for it. The two yarn purchases I made this year were to support small businesses. I have not counted all the yarn I was given when my friend downsized. Although I have been using a lot of it I did not want to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of it.

I am happy with my yarny achievements and am ready to cast on all the things.

A Cheeky Advent Cast On and a Bag to Put It In

I have been working away on my WIPs and haven’t wanted to add more but I was feeling at a bit of a loss around the start of the month because I didn’t have an Advent project and the post office had lost my Advent yarn.

Rather than choose a pattern specifically designed for Advent that would take away from my time spent on WIPs, I chose a small project and worked a few rows each day. I calculated three rows a day would get it finished on the 24^th but some days I worked two rows and some days four rows depending where I was in the pattern.

I chose the Clayoquot Toque by tincanknits and the yarn was some hand spun from Primrose yarns that I was given when my friend moved and it was very appropriate that I could give it back made into a hat.

 

 

I also made her a project bag out of fabric she had also given me when she moved. I tried a new-to-me pattern for the bag. It was not a hard make but I wish I had thought about the measurements before I started as I had intended to make a bigger bag.

 

What is the WIP Situation?

I haven’t written about my WIP achievements as after I finished the socks it seemed to be all knitting and no finishing. And as we are getting close to the end of the year I was wondering if it was even worth talking about projects. But as I have been quiet for so long it is about time they got a quick mention.

When I laid out my WIPs before the challenge there were 12 active ones. I snuck in a cheeky little (but not so little) cast on just before the challenge started as I really needed an easy project for vacation. There were a few projects that would be frogged but I didn’t want to do that straight away as I feared the satisfaction would deter me from completing projects.

The socks were finished quickly as they had their own deadline and then it was knit, knit, knit with nothing to show for two months. Do I work on projects in order of starting, closest to finished, most wanted? At the start it was a mixture of the latter two but one day I calculated how many rows I needed to knit each day to finish the edging on the shawl (my oldest non-blanket project) and it was doable and as I got going I realized I could actually finish it by the end of November. Which I did; blocked and ends sewn in. I won’t be any showing it yet as it is a gift.

While the shawl was blocking it was time to frog. A project I didn’t really like; a cardigan that was coming out too big, and another cardigan which I didn’t have enough yarn. I was sad about these two projects because they were so pretty.

 

I then tackled the three crochet hats. One was frogged and the other two were quickly finished. This did mean that I had no car projects and I had to start a hat on Sunday when I was a passenger. 

 

 

This month I have mostly been working on the cardigan I want to wear at Christmas. I realized that I should have been working on it most of the time because Christmas is just around the corner. But I was hoping that I could have finished another cardigan but sewing in the ends is taking forever.

Of the 13 projects at the start of WIP along, I have completed 4 and frogged 4. Not bad going. Now back to the Christmas project.

 

Women Hating On Women

It has been quite a while since I wrote anything. I have been knitting away on my WIPs and it is not very exciting to write every week – “been working on my WIPs, not yet finished”.

There have been a few thoughts running around my head about the yarn industry in general but the one I want to write about today has been bubbling under the surface and has come to the forefront when people have been mean about YouTube vlogs.

Yarn crafts are predominately a female hobby. My mother and others of her generation would knit and sew our clothes as it was cheaper than buying them. At some point this changed and crafting is for fun not money saving. I feel like this cost change occurred when women of my generation continued to work after marriage and family.

Whenever it changed from money saving to purely fun it still remained a women’s thing. I am not dismissing men here. There are plenty that knit and sew but this post is about how women treat women. Which I’m sad to say is not very well. We’re not talking critique or criticism but just downright nastiness for the fun of it.

Not only are the participants predominately female but the small business side of the industry is also predominately female. Mainly because having participated in the craft, they now wish to have a go at designing or dying yarn. Also with YouTube you can show off your work, whether as a hobby or your business or if YouTube is now your business. These all have relatively easy entry points and can be started from home so make it very favourable for women.

So why are other women hating on them. Why do they feel this is an OK thing?

As the entry point is easy, it also means that standards can be low and we should be critiquing badly written patterns and badly dyed yarn. But what I also read is:- Designers should be paid, designers should produce a free pattern, they shouldn’t even have bothered to write a pattern for this. If something is just not to your taste then don’t bad mouth other women who are trying to get a toe on the threshold of the industry. (Another post for another day is the oversaturation of the industry.)

YouTube is an interesting phenomenon and many of the popular YouTubers (in any genre) never imagined that when they started out they would become so popular. This does encourage others to give it a try and I imagine some of them expect to be big from the beginning. Especially as you hear about so many making a living from their videos – I hear about this a lot in the gaming industry.

The beauty of YouTube is that you don’t have to watch it or there is something for everyone. And in this case there is something for every complainer. Picking on YouTubers is becoming a popular hobby especially right now with everyone producing Vlogmasses. You could just not watch them or say that person isn’t for me instead it is picking apart the content maker. And as with patterns it is mostly women picking on other women. And it is unnecessary. It is to the point where watchers are picking apart the person and their home life and they shouldn’t be doing what they are doing and I don’t like their voice and what they spend their money on and how does their husband put up with them.

So let’s stop this and support women. Give a big hoorah to those who are brave enough to put themselves out there for our consumption; whether it be YouTube or selling their yarn at their first show or nervously posting their first pattern on Instagram.