Farewell, 2022.

2022 was a hard year. It was a year of loss: two of our three cats died 3 weeks apart during the first half of the year, and their deaths cast a long shadow over the rest of the year. And there were the more ambiguous losses that came with Twitter being taken over by a billionaire right-wing troll, too. I’m also realizing just how burnt out I’ve been this year; in my 3rd year of pandemic teaching, I’ve lost a lot of the joy that my work used to bring, and I hope I can find it again in this new normal. I’m just…exhausted and scattered, and it shows.

Here’s everything I knit in 2022:

Ok, not quite everything: missing are the Joy Mitts that I knit for my friend (which are finished, but have not yet been gifted to their recipient) and the Pressed Flowers Shawl which is currently blocking in the basement (but which almost certainly won’t be dry and wearable until 2023, anyway).

7 socks. A pair of DRK Everyday Socks for literally every day of the week! I’m glad to have found this pattern, because it works very well for me, and it does bring me a bit of joy to match my socks to my outfit every day when I’m wearing skirts/dresses with boots. So I’m going to just keep knitting these until I have all the colors my color-loving heart desires.

4 toys. The second Sleepy Kitten, Olive the Pig, Odile the Bunny (with pajamas!), and the still shell-less Turtle. Toy knitting is a fairly new discovery this year. Something about knitting “tiny nonsense” just felt right to me, and between Susan B. Anderson and From Cinthia Designs, there are enough patterns to knit quite a menagerie in 2023 and beyond.

3 hats. Elska was, I think, my first finished non-sock project of 2022, and the two Beelores were the last. I don’t really need any more hats, but they’re so fun to knit, and I’m also thinking of using the same tuck pattern as in Beelore to make myself a cowl or two in 2023. We’ll see.

2 sweaters. One for me (my third Farmhouse Cardigan) and one for my kid (Professor Meow). The smallest number of sweaters I’ve knit in a year in a long time. There are a few more on the needles in various stages of completion (Waterbearer Cardigan, Birch, and my 3rd Vita de Vie), but I just didn’t really have the energy, attention, or patience for sweater-knitting this year. I’m hoping this changes in 2023, because I do want to finish those sweaters I have on the needles, and I’ve got a lot of ideas for sweaters I can make from yarns in my stash.

1 pair of pants. I finally got brave enough to try to sew pants this year, and successfully made a pair of Luna pants. I’m still hoping to try the Arenite pants pattern, and hoping that will be something I do in Summer ’23.

1 dress. My 5th Demeter Dress, in a gorgeous almost iridescent linen fabric. I wear this one a LOT; it goes with so many of my sweaters. In 2023, I’m hoping to expand my dress-making skills and sew a Hinterland Dress, but first, I’m going to go through the tutorials from Sew Liberated for the Studio Tunic.

1 skirt. My…gosh, I’ve lost count, I think it’s the 6th?…Cleo Skirt, sewn somewhat on a whim in sparkly green fabric to wear on Christmas Eve. In 2023, I’m hoping to level up my skirt-making skills with the Estuary Skirt (I’m intimidated by the button band & button holes, but it’s something I really want to learn).

I know that’s still quite a few things that I’ve made, but it’s a noticeably shorter list than a lot of years. Which is fine; it’s not a race, there are no prizes, but I do think my exhausted, scattered, burnt-out state this year is visible in my making. And also in my reading; I was looking at My Year in Books from Goodreads, and when I scroll back through previous years, it’s obvious that this year is quite a lot lower in terms of page count. And again, it’s not a race, but as someone who loves to read, it’s a little sad to realize that I’ve not been in the right headspace to do as much of it this year. My favorite books of this year were N. K. Jemisin’s “Inheritance” series, which I’ve been recommending to everybody. Seriously, they’re so good! And right now, I’m reading Ed Yong’s “An Immense World” and it’s fantastic – I’m just not finished with it yet, so it will be my first book of ’23 instead of my last book of ’22.

Well, I already mentioned some of my plans for 2023 in my summary of the things I’ve made in 2022, but I’ll save the rest of my thoughts about that for a post welcoming the New Year (and showing off that Pressed Flowers Shawl once it’s dry!). Here’s hoping that 2023 has some good things in store.

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