TWELFTH Self-Imposed Year of Projects - THAT'S A WRAP (Update #52)

Happy Wednesday! This is the last post of my 12th Self-Imposed Year of Projects! Let's see how it went...or didn't go, depending your perspective. Also, we were traveling so there's updates that will happen about that, too :)

FOs (Finished Objects)
1. Josh's Winter Hat: started 20 December 2022; finished 2 January 2022
2. NEYCO Hat: started 31 December 2022; finished 20 January 2022
3. Hat: started 15 February 2023; finished 25 February 2023
4. Linen Stitch Scarf: started 2 June 2020; finished 12 April 2023
5. Kitty at Christmas: started 28 January 2023; finished 11 February 2023
6. Wasabi for Mr. K: started 10 March 2023; frogged 5 September 2023
7. Smile & Wave: started 15 November 2022; finished 11 September 2023
8. Sand Drift Blanket: started 17 January 2021; frogged 7 October 2023
9. Baby Blanket: started 30 June 2023; finished 8 October 2023
10. Rupee Bag for Little Man: started at some point; finished 30 October 2023
11. Rainbow Hat: started 21 November 2023; finished 22 December 2023

Oh, would you look at that?! I finished up a project. Well....mostly. I still need to make a pom for the top out of the remaining bit of red but the knitting is finished and the ends are woven in. It's super long and is meant to be folded up on itself. And there's no real pattern. I just did 2x2 ribbing the whole time and made up the decreases for the crown and it worked.

So......that was the last FO for 2023. I didn't do much this year. I'm okay with it because a few of the projects I did finish are...well, quite large. Baby blankets, especially with big yarn and big needles wind up making big projects. 

 

WIPs (Works-in-Progress) These are carried over year after year, if needed.
1. Wink: started 5 January 2015
2. Shetland Neck Wool (support spindle): started 8 September 2017
3. Returning: started 14 January 2018
4. Faerie Mountain Fibers Crazy Batt (EEW Mini): started 13 April 2018
5. Granny Square Blanket: started 28 April 2018
6. UW Ski Hat: started 11 July 2018
7. Purl & Loop Weaving Project: started 28 August 2018
8. Dishcloth: started 25 February 2022
9. Mixed BFL (Annie): started 18 March 2022
10. Lakeline Tank: started 18 March 2022
11. Socks: started 28 September 2022
12. Bonbon 2: started 15 October 2022
13. Star Stitch Shawl: started 8 June 2023 (link to the kit)
14. Vanilla Socks: started 7 October 2023
15. Baby Blanket: started 28 October 2023
16. Irma Hat: started 23 December 2023

I ended the year much the way I started: far too many WIPs. Oh well, just go with it. 

I started a new hat while we were on our trip. I actually pulled yarn for three projects but decided I didn't want to wrangle DPNs if I didn't need to...so the hat was the one I settled on when I finished up the aforementioned Rainbow Hat. 

I had a couple skeins of Knit Picks Swish Worsted banging around my stash that I pulled out for the Irma Hat. It's knitting up pretty quickly, though I'm adding a repeat to make sure it's going to be long enough. I'll have plenty of yarn so I'm not worried about that. 

But most of this past week was not spent on WIPs. Or new projects. We were traveling so I was doing things aside from knitting. 

 

 

OMGLSFWTFBBQ

Items for ME (FTW!)
1. Nottingham (worsted weight, ~1200 yds; Cascade 220 Heathers)
2. Ishbel (fingering weight, ~610 yds; Happy Hands Yarn)
3. NIN Hat (worsted weight, 2 colors, ~220 yds + scraps; partials bin)
4. Boneyard Shawl (fingering weight, ~750 yds; KP Hawthorne Fingering)
5. Wilf's Hat (worsted weight, ~240 yds; Psych Ward Yarns)
6. Skoufaki (DK weight, ~175 yds; handspun)
7. Kaweah Hat (DK weight, ~240 yds; Houndstooth DK)
8. Chunkeanie (bulky weight, ~160 yds; madelinetosh Chunky)
9. Sockhead (fingering weight, ~400 yds; so many choices)
10. Stranger Things Hat (worsted weight, ~200 yds; Malabrigo Rios)
11. Huj Tub (laceweight, ~900 yds; Laceweight Cashmere)
12. Rose City Rollers (fingering weight, ~250 yds; so many choices)

Children's Items/Knitting for others
1. Flax for Little Man (worsted weight; Baah Yarns Shasta)
2. Honey Badger: (worsted weight - black & white acrylic I have banging around the stash)*
3. The Mandolorian (sport weight, ~165 yds; need grey/black, white, and green...which I might have)*
4. Zelda Beanie (worsted weight, unknown yardage; black/grey and yellow)
5. Pig for Earle & Duane (worsted weight, ~300 yds; need pink, of course)
6. Hippo for Sweet Girl (fingering weight, ~400 yds total; purple & pink)
7. Elefante for Sassy Girl (worsted weight, ~250 yds; maybe if I can find the original...otherwise, something new/different)...but she's requested a cow as a replacement so we'll see what I can find.

Utilitarian/Household Items
1. Garter Chevron Blanket (worsted weight; KP Mighty Stitch - may need to get some more black or white)
2. Diagonal Knit Dishcloths (any weight; cotton of some sort, possibly a cotton/bamboo blend, depending on use)
3. Reusable Produce Bag (worsted weight; cotton or acrylic)
4. Harry Potter Blanket (worsted weight; superwash or acrylic - based on several dishcloth patterns to make blocks)
5. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth (any weight; cotton or a cotton/bamboo blend, again based on use)
6. Pop Blanket (worsted weight; superwash - a little of this and that?)
7. Holiday Countdown Stockings (worsted weight; various colors from partials bin)
8. Cat Butts (worsted weight; "cat" colors and pink for the butthole)
9. Yer Mom Licks Cat Butts (worsted weight; "cat" colors and pink for the butthole)

Other Fibery Endeavors:
1. Stash Fit
2. Create a project bag inventory
3. Update library inventory (on Ravelry)
4. Update stash inventory (on Ravelry) and reorganize yarn
5. Stitch markers: make kits and individual for Etsy shop
6. Destash as necessary/needed

 

 

So............yeah. That's what happened around here over the past year. Lots of things were planned and didn't get done. If you've been here awhile, you know that I need options in my life but that I also likely have ADHD so sometimes newshiny takes over. I've learned to be okay with that. I mean, we were traveling last week and I pulled yarn and needles and such for three projects and not a single one of those projects were on the list(s) above. Not one. They were in my Ravelry queue, but not my YoP lists. And I only started one of them.

Speaking of my Ravelry queue, I was going through it a few weeks ago because I was looking for something to start with for the MAL I'm doing over at Pardon My Stash. It's been curated over the last 16 or 17 years now. I've deleted things, added things, deleted and readded things...it's kind of a mess, honestly. I feel like I need to spend some time with that, as well. I did find a project for the MAL, though. Or, rather, several projects.....I'll likely need to narrow it down to one project (or two of the same project, as that will work with this MAL). But I was definitely noticing how much of a mess my Ravelry queue is right now. There are things on there that, while beautiful, I will never knit (even if I have the pattern)....and I need to have a Come to Jeebus talk about that and be okay with that. I guess we'll see what next year brings...

And now, traveling. We went on a cruise over the Christmas holiday. Usually, if we do a cruise this time of year, we're going over New Years but this was an inaugural cruise on a brand new ship so we went a week earlier than we normally would. 

Y'all.....we crammed four adults and two kids into the 2019 VW Atlas with all our luggage and accoutrements and drove to Galveston, Texas....from southern Wisconsin. It's an 18 hour drive (if we drove straight). We stopped in Texarkana, TX for the night, had some adventures in Houston for various reasons (mostly revolving around someone not bringing his cPAP machine - not anyone in my household)...but we got there on time and all was well.

We ate barbecue at a hole-in-the-wall place just outside St. Louis, Missouri. It was really good. We saw a sign and decided to stop. It worked out well.

The next day, we saw our ship and it was HUGE. I couldn't even fit it all in the photo from the car as we drove by.

We spent the first day trying to orient ourselves and fix some goofs and the boys wound up finding little rubber duckies all over the ship. I think by the end of the trip, they found somewhere around 25-30 but we came home with like 17. 

At one point, my friend and I ditched all the boys, found a spot on the "adults only" deck, and did some knitting. And people-watching. 

We also found our favorite bar on the ship: Dr. Ink's. We found a bartender we liked, had good drinks, and the menu was awesome to look at. Sadly, we did not spend nearly enough time there.

We did fancy things like cleaning up nicely...well, sort of. We were having some issues with the air conditioning (which were partly due to user error)...but it got hot in our room for a bit. So even though we were fancy, we were also sweaty.

Also, I got a pedicure. My toes are still pretty. And it was much needed and appreciated.

We did one shore excursion while we were in Honduras (Isla Rotan). We learned how to make chocolate - like from the cocoa beans to the grinding to the adding of sugar and more grinding and more sugar and so on. 

It was super hot while we were there, so I was glad that we had forest cover. Also, they had kitties on site and one made friends with my friend's husband.

We extracted the actual cocoa nibs from the bean shells and put them in bowls. After that, we did some grinding...and by "we" I mean my children.

There were some "modern" tools involved like a meat grinder and a mesh strainer for the sugar. In order to make good, velvety chocolate, you need to run it through a grinder something like 30-40 times...and then you mix in the sugar (powdered, not granulated). 

Because we only ground our chocolate nibs through the grinder a couple of times, the chocolate came out quite grainy, which was fine for the most part. We also needed to add more sugar. What we initially had was 100% pure dark chocolate. So sugar was added and we probably could have used more.

We were crammed onto this little....bus. It was about the size of an Amazon delivery van with double seats on both sides and the aisle was about 8" wide and I wish I were kidding. I'm not sure how I fit through that aisle. At least it had air conditioning. 

The next day, we were in Mexico and while our friends got off the ship, we did not. They went to one of the Mayan temple sites while we stayed on the ship. We were perfectly fine with that: we went swimming, ate good food, and had time to ourselves. 

The third shore day we were in Cozumel, Mexico, where we have been before. We didn't have any shore excursions planned but we did want to shop for a few things so we all got off the boat. I bought myself a birthday present: an octopus necklace. I'm not entirely sure if the color is enamel or if it's an actual stone but it's still lovely and I bought it. Our friends also picked up a bunch of stuff, mostly because they have nieces that will be graduating high school and/or college and possibly getting married. So, stuff for presents. I also picked up goofy shirts for the boys. 

Eventually, we wound our way back to Galveston and then had to make the drive home. But we spread it out differently on the way home. We stopped in Joplin, Missouri for our overnight, and then had authentic Kansas City, Missouri barbecue. We also stopped at Buc-ee's. Twice. If you've never been to one, it's quite an experience...I'm not sure how else to say it.

We got home around 9pm on Sunday evening and we were all zonked. Monday was a holiday and we spent it trying to get our bearings, and then we were back to "regular" life yesterday. 

Oh, and I completely forgot to mention that I wound up getting sick on like the 2nd or 3rd day of our cruise. It's likely RSV and I'm likely no longer contagious but I'm still coughing up a lung and am slowly regaining my voice. ::sigh:: 

So, here's to the backside of 2023. I didn't do as much as I wanted and I wanted to do much more than I could, which kind of sounds like a quote by Bilbo Baggins and I'm just going to be okay with that. 

I hope you've had a lovely weekend. We'll see if I move into a 13th year (let's be honest, I probably will).....