Hello darling. The end of 2022 is nigh, and it is doubtful that I will complete any more projects before the end of the year (5 days from now). I guess now is a good time to reflect on the year’s makes and talk about my highs and lows. I will try to capture all of the categories to list the bests and worsts.
Total knits: 44
6 pairs of socks
16 charity knits
1 cocoon
8 hats
2 ear warmers
5 baby sweaters
4 adult sweater
1 cowl
1 large shawl
Total sewn garments: 8
5 sets of pajamas
2 skirts
1 top
Favorite make: the Betty Cardigan. I knit this cardigan as my grandmother was dying, hence the rebrand from the Switchback sweater to the Betty Cardigan. It turned out beautiful and it will always make me happy when I see it. It is also my most complex knit, to date.
Least favorite make: the matching pajamas that I sewed for The Husband and Feebs. I don’t know how I messed the up so much, but I messed them up. They were simply thrilled with them, but I made some weird and big errors. I may still take them completely apart and resew them. The jury is out, only because I serged all of my seams, and the thought of ripping all that out is devastating.
Most teachable make: The Abb tee for Feebs. It was many firsts for me. It was my first t-shirt, first jersey, and the first time I sewed a garment with my serger. It came out terribly, but I learned so much from making it. I am still initimidated by it, but I will make more of them and learn how to make it properly.
Will make again: The Lawly skirt. I picked the worst fabric to make this, but I love how it came out and I wore it all summer. I already have plans to make another one using a firm pink/ white checked gingham cotton. I am currently battling over if I want to fuss with pattern matching, or just go with it.
Most worn make: In the warm weather I wore the Lawly the most. In the cold weather I wore Calliope the most.
There were many other crafts this year, but those get harder to quantify. The candles were a hot mess, and none of them came out properly. I hopefully learned some lessons and will be more successful in the future. The tye-dye was fun and came out really great, but each time we do it is a big commitment. The dye containers are big, and are single use. We had to find a lot of things to tye-dye each time. There were other miscellaneous crafts that we did, but they may not have registered as important enough to make it onto the blog.
So, I am pretty proud of what I accomplished in 2022. Considering that 4 months of the year were hard no-making months, I think I was pretty productive. I am really happy that I tried some new things, especially sewing-wise. I want to keep learning and practicing and not being afraid of imperfect. We will see what 2023 brings. I want to be adventurous and not afraid to make mistakes and I want to learn to fix them. 5 days to go, till we have a clean slate. Wish me luck!
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 