My Yarny Year In Review, 2018

Is it just me or did 2018 go by in a flash? I think that having a hobby that fills all my free time with projects and progress exacerbates this — time really does fly when you’re having fun!

Last year, according to Ravelry, I completed 59 crochet projects, though 3 are large afghan squares so I don’t really count them. My original goal when they introduced the “Challenge” feature last year, was 42 projects (for reasons obvious to Douglas Adams fans), which I later increased to 52.

This post is going to be a quick review of what I did in 2018, some thoughts on my favorites, then a brief reflection on how I did on my 2018 yarny intentions.

Breaking my makes down into categories, last year I made…

15 Blankets

You can click on the section heading or image to go to my Ravelry Projects notebook for the same list where you can click on the individual images for details.

This is a lot of blankets! I thought last year’s total of 12 was a lot. Of this year’s 15, seven have been gifted to family or friends, one has been sent off to a children’s charity, one sent to a silent auction to raise funds for my son’s school music program, two are in the growing pile of blankets to be delivered to Project Linus, and two are in the future gifts pile. That leaves just two that were added to the couch / blanket ladder crowd, further guaranteeing that nobody has a reason to be chilly when visiting my house.

My favorite blanket to make was the Vibrant Vintage, which is one of the two that are staying. My favorite to look at (and the most challenging) was the stunning Delft Blanket that I gifted to my Mom. My final favorite, both to make and for the product, is the Seaside Winter Blanket that went to my sister. The Chevrons & Diamonds (which was the one that went to the auction where it was bought by a family friend) gets an honorable mention both for fun and for final effect, though the inexpensive acrylic yarn wasn’t as pleasant to work with as the lovely Merino wool for the Delft or the Stylecraft Special for the other favorites.

Most of the ripple blankets were gifts for my daughter’s friends, though the Woodland ripple was an Attic24 Crochet-A-Long that was a lot of fun, as is always the case for Lucy’s CALs. Speaking of CALs, seven of these blankets were done for CALs!

2018 was certainly the year of the blanket.

To go along with (and to use up the left-overs from) two blankets, I also made a couple of pillows.

The next category with the most projects was…

11 Cowls & Scarfs

Five of these were gifts, but the rest are in my “basket of cozy things” to be used for dog walks or around the house when it’s chilly.

To go along with some of these, I made…

7 Hats & Other Headwear

Three of these were gifts and the rest for our use.

I also made…

7 Shawls / Wraps

3 Bags

The Malia Shoulder Bag was another CAL and I love how it came out — I’ll definitely be making more. I use all of these as project bags. (The Snarky Tote is snarky because it says “Not Knit” in filet crochet.)

New for me this year was making…

2 Pairs of Mittens, 1 Sweater/Shrug, 1 Pair of Socks, 1 Stuffed Animal

 

One of my goals last year was to try something new, so these are some new categories of projects that I tried. The Hippo was particularly fun to make (and has been claimed by my son). I’m still “meh” about crochet socks, but I’ll definitely be making more garments this coming year.

And finally…

6 Miscellaneous Things

All of these were also in new categories for me. The Knitted Knockers were for a CAL and they are breast prosthetics for women with cancer. Besides being The Year of the Blanket, I guess 2018 was also The Year of the CAL since 15 of my projects were for CALs this year.

So, quite a bit more variety this year, but still weighing heavily on the blankets.

How did I do on last year’s Yarny Intentions?

Keep It Balanced

As far as hobby/life balance, I did more reading and walking last year and didn’t let crochet suck up all my non-work & non-family time. I also took a break near the end of the year and made some progress on decluttering. As with dieting, it seems I’m an all-or-nothing crafter — when I was in decluttering mode I stopped crafting, and when I was crafting I stopped decluttering. This year I need to work on that aspect of balance.

As far as my intention to have a balanced yarn stash (equal in vs. out), I would have to call that a major fail. Below is the summary graph from my spreadsheet showing that I took in 48K yards more yarn than I used up. Still, I used 33.6 miles of yarn this year. I bought a rather lot of fingering/sport weight yarn though, which inflated the Incoming total, though the good news is it doesn’t take as much space to store as all the blanket yarn that I used up.

Try Something New

I did make items in 8 new categories and I tried several new techniques this year, but I lost steam on that goal as I switched into gift making mode during the second half of the year. I learned that I’m not too keen on crochet socks, though I will try a few more pair. The process of making is fine but the product is not really great, in my opinion. Some day I’ll learn to knit socks. I did enjoy making my first garment and my daughter liked the product, so this year I’ll definitely do more of that. Making my first stuffed animal was fun and I started an amigurumi that I will get around to finishing this year. Other than for gifts, I can’t see making a lot of these though.

Craft Social

The in-person social side has been fun this year — I’ve got two groups that I get together with regularly and I’ve discovered more though I don’t have the time to visit them. I’ve met some new friends through crafting which I love.

I didn’t do very well at updating social media this year. Facebook can be an annoying place to be these days because of the political situation in the country and because of the company’s evil ways. Still, Facebook is the best way to keep aware of and to participate in CALs, which I enjoy (so I’m not going to do like my business partner did and delete my account).

I didn’t exactly post regularly to Instagram but I do find scrolling through my feed to be relaxing and inspiring.

I continued to update Ravelry regularly with all the details about my projects, which is useful to me and social in a way. On Ravelry, I also discovered the A Year of Projects group who got me motivated to start updating my blog weekly starting in the summer, at least until the last few months when I’ve been slacking. I’ve decided that I enjoy making weekly goals and that it helps me stay motivated and get things done.

Finally, as far as my pro-social goals went, I did pretty well at that, donating 6 things to good causes. That’s something I’ll certainly be keeping up and hopefully expanding this coming year, but more about that will wait for my next blog post which will be about my 2019 Yarny Intentions.

As far as all those projects I listed that I wanted to make last year, I did make four of them and I started a few more but lots are still in my queue. I’ve decided that long-range project plans like that are not practical since I don’t know what will be coming up. This year my project choices were very much driven by CALs and by requests from my kids for things for themselves and for their friends. I’m fine with that, so my queue will be living thing that I keep on Ravelry where it can grow and shrink and be reordered frequently.

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2018 was kind to you and that 2019 will be even better.