My 2023 Yearly Recap

2023 has been a year of everyone else going back to normal and thinking that "COVID is over" (even when it was NOT and had actually started to pick up again).  It was a year in which we realized that we were completely on our own and we had to protect ourselves from everyone else who was "so over COVID".  It was a year in which a good chunk of our family caught COVID (at one point or another) where for some of them, they were mildly sick while for others, they were pretty damn sick.  One of our relatives was even diagnosed with long COVID.  It was a year in which I finally had to make a change for myself at work and made the decision to find another job: one that would allow me to work regular hours (not the hours of 2+ full-time employees) and that was a remote job so I would not be required to go into the office.

On the bright side, I was still able to continue to work from home (for now) and as our lifestyle hasn't changed, it also meant that (in theory) there was more time to knit so, here's my accomplishments for the year:

• Finished another sweater: REViVAL
• Made five (5) pairs of socks for my Mom
• Made a pair of stranded socks for myself
• Made a Christmas Tree for everyone in my clan
• Made a yubikaki (指掛け) for Hubs
• Participated in a test knit sweater project
• Made (and ripped out!) another Phillips Dreamwear Headgear-Cover for Hubs
• Started and frogged an attempt for another sweater for myself
• Made a pair of house socks for my friend
• Finished and frogged a set of knitted "friends" and made a pair of other stuffed animals instead for my niece
• Made another Phillips Dreamwear Headgear-Cover for Hubs (part 2!)
• Started a new sweater for myself and Hubs over the holiday season

and ... 

• Started a jacket for myself (and barely made a dent in it as I struggled to figure out how it's supposed to look); it's currently on hold - for now.
• Thought about finishing a crochet bug doll collection (that I may very well keep for myself! 😉🥰 at least for a little while! 🤭) but I didn't feel like I had the brain power to learn enough crochet skills to move forward. 😳😔😭🤦🤷
• Thought about continuing to work on my first 100% (superwash) wool blanket but by the end of the year, I still haven't gone back to it (yet).

• I was also able to:
• Not keep up with my blogging! 🙌 🎉  Although I actually had significantly less posts this year though (only 15 posts) - my new LOW! 😭 (and in my defense, since my job is still an all consuming monster taking precious physical and mental energy as well as time away from my knitting (& blogging).😭🤦🤷😔  It has simply become too much working 10-12+ hours days and still not be able to keep up with my ever growing workload; I finally had to concede that it was time to make the decision for a change of pace (aka I needed to find a new job) which in turn, turned into a full-time job in and of itself! 😭🤦 Hopefully, I find something soon that will allow me much needed work-life balance and home and knitting (& blogging!!) time.🤞🍀🐰
• On the bright side, I was able to continue to enjoy all of my knitting purchases from 2020-2022 and items I purchased this year (at the very least) 😁🙌🎉🥰💕
• On a non-knitting note, I've always been curious about water colouring so, this year, I decided that I would give it a try (instead of waiting until I retire).  Now that I'm dabbling in it, I find it interesting and refreshing as I have quite a ways to go but it's a nice change in pace (and also nice to know that this is a hobby that I could remain a beginner at this for quite sometime and be completely ok with 😋🙌👍).

And, here's my new year's resolution for 2024:

• (As always), Use more stash!  My goal is to get down to 1 (not overly stuffed) sock yarn box (got there!🙌🎉 My stash is slowly going down - I actually don't have too much leftover sock yarn now!🙌🎉; in fact I had some space in my sock box to cram some polyester yarn in here now; 1 polyester converted to a Scheepjes Catona yarn box (my polyester yarn has shrunk enough so that I can split it now between my sock and sweater boxes), and 1 sweater/"other"/polyester/leftover yarn box (almost there! I think that I have only enough for 3-4 more sweaters!🙌🎉🥳 and while there's still 1 layer of "other"/inherited yarn as there are still a couple of other miscellaneous projects in there to clear out, I know I'm getting closer to turning over another yarn box to a completed sweater box!😉😁🙌🎉).  
• Ultimate goal: not to actually have that much (if any) stash! (ok, well maybe just "some" sock stash 😉😁🤭)
• Knit more sweaters! Particularly since my new goals is to meet or beat my 3 sweater goal set in 2022! 😉😁🙌🎉 (And, I probably still have enough yarn in my sweater stash for 3-4 more sweaters.)  My (ultimate) goal is to actually have a combination of fall-winter and three (3) season sweaters for myself 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). 😉😁 🙌 🎉 Unfortunately, my current sweater stash has much heavier DK weight yarn so, it's a tad too warm to wear them other than in the dead of winter where I live (even then, I can't necessarily wear it all day because it simply gets too hot) ... I might need to get bulk up my sock yarn stash to make more three-season sweaters ... 🤔😉😁🤭
• Along with this goal is to knit Hubs a practice sock weight sweater and a gansey sweater! 😳🥳  This will help to expand my repertoire on sweaters!

I wonder what the new year will bring ...🤔🤞🍀