2021 has been a much better year than 2020. In 2021, COVID-19 vaccines became widely available to the public and a good chunk of the wealthy part of the world took advantage of it to "get back to normal". Unfortunately, some people seemed to believe that by simply being vaccinated, we could get back to normal immediately (the vaccine was simply to reduce severe illness and hospitalization, it was never meant to "stop" COVID-19) so, we went through several more "waves" of COVID-19 infections because once people were able to "go back to normal", no one wanted to wear masks or socially distance. That meant that it was difficult for some of my family members to understand why we still wouldn't see them (even though we were all vaccinated). Fortunately, my friends seemed to understand how I felt about it (especially since they felt the same way too) so, that helped. Life remained much the same for us as it was in 2020. Oddly, many still feel that there's a way for us to "get back to normal"; unfortunately, as we saw how this year unfolded (many people got vaccinated, many people did not get vaccinated; a much more deadly strain of COVID-19 emerged which nearly teetered the world back to where we were at in 2020; despite it all, people still held on hoping that we would be able to go back to the way it was before), it seems like hoping we can vaguely move back to "normal" next year is but a pipe dream and that it may be yet another year (or more!) before we can even vaguely think about what our new "normal" will be. Now, with the more virulent Omicron variant, it's even risky being a vaccinated person so, we have to be even more vigilant now about our interactions with each other.
On the bright side, I was able to transition to a new job in the later half of the year where I'm much happier at. My new organization is amazing; everyone is super nice and helpful - there's always someone to reach out to to lend a hand, offer advice, and/or point me in the right direction. My job itself, is also very interesting as it's a cumulation of everything I've done over my career so, I get to use all my skills now. The only very new thing about my job is that I'm now a supervisor - the most harrowing part of my job; fortunately, the staff I've inherited is great and (thankfully) very self-sufficient so, they really help to keep me on track while I figure out all the "other things" that hasn't been done since my last permanent predecessor (which is a lot!). Because of this, I've been putting in long days (and sometimes nights) but I'm loving my new job. Unfortunately, because of this, some days, after I'm done with "work", despite not having to commute home, I'm just plain exhausted so, there's no brain power or energy left to knit. πππ
So, here's my accomplishments for the year:
- Made Hubs three (3) pairs of socks
- Made my SIL a pair of surprise socks
- Made my MIL a pair of socks she actually loves now π
- (and five (5) more pairs since she loved it so much and is wearing them daily now!)
- Made my friend a pair of surprise socks
- Finally found my Cinderella pattern for my socks (& tested it again to make sure it was really my Cinderella pattern).
- Finished "fixing" my yoke sweater! π π
- Upgraded Hubs CPAP headgear (twice)
- Made a "bag" to hold my sock ruler & blockers
- Made some play food for my little one
- Made a Compass sweater
- Yarn bombed Hub's guitar stand
- Crocheted a couple of giant snowflakes! ❄️
- Crocheted a Halloween Ghostie for my friend π»
- Started to crocheted a bug doll (that I may very well keep for myself! ππ₯° at least for a little while! π€)
- Started an adventure making a Wryit sweater
- Started my first 100% wool blanket
- I was also able to:
- Mostly keep up with my blogging! π π Although I actually had less posts this year though (only 26 posts)! π (and in my defense, I did start a new job in the last quarter of the year which has taken time away from my knitting. Once I get my "groove" on, I'm sure I'll get my knitting groove back too! π€π€π€)
- Continue to enjoy all of my knitting purchases from 2020 and items I purchased this year (plus "gifts" from my MIL & Mom) π π ππ₯°π
- I also had some knitting burnout where I just didn't/couldn't knit for like a month (maybe a little more). Perhaps it was work burnout, mulling over issues I had with my Compass sweater in which I couldn't decide how to proceed, waiting for my ball winder (because I simply couldn't bear to hand wind nine (9!) ball of yarn), or starting a new job in which there was a lot of things I needed to learn and pick up on, I really don't know what it was. All I do know was that that month of not knitting really made me realize how boring life is actually not knitting. π€¦π³π
- (As always), Use more stash! My goal is to get down to 1 (not overly stuffed) sock yarn box (got there!ππ I actually can stash my leftover sock yarn in it now!π π), 1 polyester yarn box (I still need easy to care for yarn for my little ones to have fun stuff to play with and be able to destroy) (maintained!), 0 sweater yarn box (need to work on this as I really want to stash my made sweaters in this box!), and 1 "other"/leftover yarn box (not there yet but, I do want to complete other miscellaneous projects to clear out this box as I don't really want any "other" yarn anymore (as most of the yarn that is in this box is "inherited" yarn)).
- Ultimate goal: not to actually have that much (if any) stash! π±π³ What?! you say? Reduce stash to ... nothing?! π±π³ What is this madness you are speaking of?? I'm nearing (extremely slowly) to retirement and I've realized that if I'd like to spend a good chunk of my retirement years traveling and knitting, the best thing for me would be to lug around my knitting accessories and buy yarn as I go instead of having a stash of yarn to (also) lug around. I know, I know: Well, what about when you "stop" traveling; well, I figured when I stop traveling, I can simply do what I've been doing now in the pandemic: buy yarn as I need on-line or at my local yarn shop. In reality, when I buy yarn (short of my polyester yarn and my sock yarn), most of the yarn I've purchased is specifically for a project so, I should just buy the yarn when I'm ready to start a project. So, no more yarn crawls for the sake of just buying yarn and for the most part, no more buying yarn on travel unless I need it for a project.
- Knit more sweaters! Particularly since I didn't make as many sweaters as I had hoped to this year!πππ π π (Goal: beat my 2 sweater goal from last year!) My (ultimate) goal is to actually have a combination of winter and three (3) season sweaters so I don't have to travel to wear my sweaters. I would love to be able to enjoy wearing lighter sweaters (on a more daily basis) while at home (even if I'm just at home). They say that wool helps to regulate your body temperature to keep you warm when you're cold and keep you cool when you're hot so, I am definitely up to testing that theory! ππ π π
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