Well, every year I say that it has been the strangest year yet, and this year is no exception. My work life was all over the map and my personal life was dragged behind on that roller coaster ride.
However, we have come to the year end tradition where I tally up what I've managed to get done in a year and then see how that matches up with the goals I set for myself back in January.
If you want to see previous years Looking Back Posts you can find them here - Looking Back 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.
So as this is the 5th year of the retrospective, (when did all that time pass), the format will remain the same as it is the 31st and I don't think I will get the chance to overhaul it today. So the previous years numbers are in brackets and the current year in front.
2014 by the Numbers:
- 14.3 (24.39, 20.56, 14, 23) miles of yarn acquired during the year
- 34 (44, 33, 22, 18) miles of yarn currently in my stash
- 5.2 (5.9, 8.7, 6.2, 4.5) miles of yarn knit/crocheted/woven into projects
- 0.58 (1.83, 1.82, 2.15, 3.93) Ratio of yarn acquired to used
- 1,292 (1,327, 1,092, 2,771, 426) yards of handspun yarn
- 6.65 (4.23, 2.5, 6, 5.7) pounds of spinning fiber acquired
- 30 (24, 12.7, 12, 5) pounds of spinning fiber in stash
- 0.99 (1.42, 1.37, 2.85, 4.68) ratio of stashed fluff to spun yarn
- 0 (1, 1, 6, 7) pairs of mittens
- 2 (2, 4, 5, 14) hats
- 3 (6, 7, 3, 6) shawls or stoles
- 3 (3, 10, 0, 3) scarves
- 0 (0, 0, 2, 2) bags
- 0 (3, 0, 2, 0) blankets
- 0 (2, 8, 6, 1) cowls
- 16 (6, 13, 3, 1) pairs of socks
- 0 (2, 1, 10, 0) dishclothes
- 0 (2, 2, 0, 1) baby sweaters
- 0 (10, 3, 0, 0) toys
The big thing this year for me as destashing - through some donation to the local grade school knitting club, rehoming yarn to fellow guild and knitting group members, and selling through Ravelry (there is still some good stuff left if you are interested) I managed to get my stash to a more manageable state. Mostly I got rid of yarn I was not interested in knitting, and totally let myself of the guilt hook for stashing it in the first place.
This behavior was also totally enabled by the other big thing to happen this year, my sister launched her yarn company, Georgian Bay Fibre Co. . Knowing that there is a source of amazing yarns just a short drive away really curbed my stashing tendencies. However, since finding a new indie source of sport-weight self striping yarn, Nomadic Yarns, I stashed a bit towards the end of the year. However, much like a diet, there are places a person can splurge and save, and for me self-striping yarn is always a total splurge.
So now to look at the goals I set for myself in 2014 - and as I've done in past years - I've annotated my goals from January 1 to let you know how I did on them.
In 2014, I want to ...
Do the projects (knitting, spinning, weaving, crocheting, tatting, embroidery) I want when I want to do them. - ell, sort of. I went through a summer of basically no crafting because I was in a bit of a funk (and totally exhausted from work) but I did try out cross stitch, and discovered Satsuma Street's amazing patterns. I could do more work to balance out my crafts and go with the flow, because my looms spend far too much time in the closet this year.
Quantities
- Spin 5lbs of fluff - Nope, not even close - I did 2lbs. Curse you Summer Funk!
- Use up 10 miles of yarn - Nope, again not even close - I did 5.2mi. But I didn't do any big stash busting projects, I just destashed the yarn instead.
- Create 40 items (knit, crocheted or woven) - Another big fat Nope! This year I made 24 projects, but I did 16 pairs of socks so does that count as 32 items plus the 8 other projects then I totally made 40 items.
- Knit 14 pairs of socks (I'm using the hashtag #14pairsin2014 on Instagram if you want to follow along) - Sort of - I made the sock knitting goal with 16 pairs, however I didn't stick to the hashtag thing.
- Knit an adult sweater for myself - I'm calling this a sorta win, I'm currently an inch into the body of an adult vest. I should have it done for the next GBFibreCo yarn show so I have something to wear.
Yarn and Stash
- Use my handspun yarns in knitting, crochet and weaving projects - Nope, but I gave some to my aunt so she would use it! But I'm finally spinning yarns I want to knit, so maybe next year.
- Use more yarn than I stash -- More specifically get my stash ratio to less than 1.0 for the year and try to get my lifetime ratio to less than 2.0 by the end of the year - YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!!!!! My ratio for this year was 0.58 and my lifetime ratio is currently 1.55! I'm so happy with this outcome that I expect I will be able to carry it forward into 2015. Although it will be more through buying less yarn and knitting more than destashing, because I really like my stash.
- Destash yarns I don't absolutely love and probably won't ever use. - YES! I managed to find new homes for nearly 19 miles of yarn, which effectively neutralized the stashing I did in 2013, which was my biggest stash year to date.
Business
- Develop a good repertoire of classes to be taught in and around Muskoka - Sort of, I did teach a couple of classes in Muskoka however I didn't invest the time in pushing that part of my business forward because of the Summer Slump. However, I'm really proud of the teaching I did do in 2014 and hope to do more in 2015.
- Self-publish at least one pattern (but hopefully more) - Yes! Well they were published by GBFibreCo. and included 3 pairs of socks and a shawl.
So, looking over my 2014 goals, I'm calling the year a win! Because I'm the boss and I get to make decisions like that. Oh, and I love knitting socks!
So how was your year? Did you meet or exceed your goals, or did your year take you in an unexpected direction?
Well I'm going to watch the snow fall and think bout the goals I want to set for 2015, some of them are gimmies because of what I know is in my WIP basket right now, but hey she who makes the list makes the rules, so why not set myself up for success!