Sooooo ... it has been a hot minute.
I haven't posted on this blog since 2018 so let's have a quick run-down of things that have happened between then and now:
- finished my MBA
- the pandemic (duh)
- got a puppy
- bought a house
- got another puppy
- stopped crafting for 4+ years
- got back into reading
- started crafting again 6 weeks ago
I think those are the highlights - hope everyone is doing well
When we moved into the new house in 2019, I got some cute shelves to keep all my yarn on, unpacked and sorted everything, and then promptly did not pick up anything until January of this year (2024!). I don't have one big reason why this was, but I think a lot of little things were just adding up and crafting was the thing that had to give. But in December, I was getting together my new year resolutions - just like everyone else, lol - and I was looking over at all the hundreds of dollars in yarn that has been literally collecting dust for 4+ years and put 'get back into knitting/crochet' on the list.
I wasn't super unrealistic - I set myself a goal of finishing 1 project per quarter this year. I have a number of new hobbies including reading (my book review blog is here), gardening, and slowly getting into more food preservation and homemade items. In reflection, I also think I had started putting a lot of pressure on myself back then to keep 'leveling up' with each project. I needed to constantly be upgrading my skills or improving in some measurable and obvious way. I wasn't letting myself pick the more simple patterns because I already knew all the stitches and techniques - even if I would have loved the finished object. That mindset is really one that I'm actively fighting against and I want to focus more on enjoying the process, even if it is just on a simple garter stitch scarf.
In the before times - I did a lot of my knitting at my call center office job while waiting for calls to come in or during meetings. I have a management position in the company now and my fiance pointed out the other day that I should pick my knitting back up now that I spend a lot of my day in meetings where I don't usually have to present anything. It has felt so good to get back to having something for my hands to do during these meetings - I hadn't realized I was such a fidgety person. This is also where having a pretty simple project to reach for really comes in handy. I don't have to worry about putting my work down in the middle of a row to answer an IM.
It is still a bit of a slow process - a lot of stopping and starting and I haven't quite migrated my projects outside of my home office as my new puppy is a big fan of chewing yarn. However, I did find myself logging back into instagram for the first time in years and seeing all the accounts I used to follow still creating beautiful things really inspired me to want to keep up with it.
We are now almost to the end of February and I'm about 75% of the way done with my first finished project in 4 years and it is feeling really good.
Hopefully I'll be back soon with a FO update :)
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