2016 Projects in Review

At the end of each year, usually just a few weeks before Christmas, I compile all the photos my family took throughout the year and create a “Best of” Photo Book that we give to our parents and keep one for ourselves. Every year, we seem to have more and more photos, especially since all four of us actively take pictures now on all our phones and our “real” cameras. It’s always a huge undertaking at a very busy time of year, and every year I complain and stress and lament about why I don’t work on it earlier and throughout the year.

And yet, every year, once I’m actually working on our book, I find such joy in reliving our year through the pictures. Trips I had almost forgotten even taking come back to me in full technicolor detail, I revisit people we got to see, and am reminded of beautiful moments which become even more beautiful upon the recollection.

It is only upon actually hunkering down and doing the work that I realize how important it is to take the time to reflect on our lives. I have written before about how busy my family is and how frenetic our lives can be, but upon reflection, I can appreciate all the beauty that was there. It has become an almost sacred act for me to create this book, keep it on our coffee table for a while, and then place it on its shelf next to the ones that came before.

As a knitter, I’ve found it equally fulfilling to look back on my year’s projects and appreciate all that I have created throughout the year. This doesn’t involve anything nearly as laborious as creating a book, but is usually as simple as me going to my Ravelry project page and adding tics to a post-it which I then wander around my house with exclaiming in shock to anyone who will listen to me over how much more I knit than I even thought.

Since I have a blog this year, I thought I’d use this space to more publicly exclaim in shock and catalog my finished projects (because I really can’t believe I knit so many things!).

Here’s hoping you care a little more than my fourteen-year-old–and that you don’t think I’m too nutty after I let you look inside my crazy…

Projects Finished in 2016

• 4 Sweaters
  • Bare Branches
  • Rift for Adam
  • Dawn
  • Atelier
• 1 Baby Sweater
  • Antler for my cousin’s baby
• 11 Shawls (over half of which were for the Shawl Society Knitalong–we had a ball doing that, didn’t we?!)
  • Girasole
  • Jujuy (with the Jujuy Knitalong)
  • On the Spice Market
  • Talisman
  • Miss Winkle
  • Amulet
  • Baltic Blossoms
  • Asana
  • Quill
  • Aurorae
  • Sonder
• 7 Hats
  • Dinky Hat
  • Liguria
  • Saudade
  • 2 Anenome Hats, one for Jonah and one for Adam
  • Divide Hat for Matt
  • Fairy Snow Cap
• 1 Pair of Socks for Grace (guess I really didn’t have sock mojo this year…)
• 6 Cowls
  • 2 Starshower Cowls, one for Melissa and one for Jenn
  • 2 Adama Cowls, one for me and one for Anna
  • Present Cowl for my mom
  • Viewfinder Cowl
• 2 Pairs of Mitts
  • Maize Mitts for Amy
  • Verdure Mitts for Grace
• 1 Pair of French Press Felted Slippers for Anna

In total, I knit thirty-three things, I frogged one sweater (of dye-lot-issue-fail-fame) and I have six things that I started this year (or earlier) that I have yet to finish.

Knowing all I have knit this year, I really am shocked (and a little embarrassed). Any sane person would recognize I probably have enough knitwear, right?

And yet, I admit that I can’t wait to cast the next thing on…

With that, I wish everyone a Happy New Year filled with warm wool, successful projects, and lots of opportunities to learn new skills. We all have lots left to learn, don’t we? And that is the very best news of all!