Day Two: 29th March. Skill + 1UP
Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?
So I had a spare few minutes while waiting for my turn to say goodnight to the boys and I decided to take a sneak peek at today's topic (unlike yesterday when I didn't really know the topic until it was time to write it). Look back over the year, eh? Well, cool, the blog makes that easy...just start clicking on the archives...
Holy cotton, that was just last year?!?!
Now, last year was my first full year of business and blogging and...wow! I knew that both my knitting speed and skills had been kicked up a notch but I didn't realize how much until I looked back. To save you all the trouble of reading everything I have written in the past year, this is my brief synopsis of 2010 knitting adventures:
- Mid-February: started knitting my first ever sock. Which I decided to make a knee sock. With a lace pattern found in a friend's lace pattern book. So increases and decreases had to be improvised. That one over-industrious sock took me months, but I finshed it and it's lovely!
- Mid-April: the Recycled Bag Pool Bag Experiment. A very intruiging experiment that still haunts me as something I reeeally wish had worked, but alas... It involved fusing plastic grocery bags together into a tube, which was then cut in a spiral to make plarn. The results will forever keep the beginning of the Yarn Tasting nice and taught!
- Early May: Plarn Experiment #2 involving non-fused strips looped together and a drill. Still intruiged, but not enough to progress beyond the tasting at the time.
- End of May: learned Tunisian Crochet to work on my lack of crochet skills. Made a mini tablerunner embroidered with fireworks and I really enjoyed the technique, but it sure does eat up the yarn!
- Early September: my first stuffties! An owl apiece for my two Harry-Potter-lovin' boys.
- Sometime in September: ok, don't think I posted about it specificly, but we worked on some granny squares in there somewhere, bumpin' up those crochet skills.
- End of October: going patternless for my first thumb gusset, paving the way for finally making up a pattern for the ponytail hat that I've had in my head for years.
And those are just the projects that pushed my limits - there were many others mixed in there as well. Projects for myself, for the shop, and for gifts...
Whew!
I have to say that I am very grateful for this topic today. Looking back, I am proud of all I have accomplished in the past year and am very much looking forward to seeing where I am at this time next year. After all, looking back naturally begs the question "where do I go from here?"
What else do I want to learn? What goals do I wish to accomplish?
And here's my answer: Anywhere.
Everything. As many as I can.
