So long, 2023! I refuse to say that this was a bad year, considering all of the good that it held. I will say that it was an uncomfortable year, instead. There were many growing pains and trials and tribulations that my sweet, naive 2023 goals didn’t prepare for. I found myself saying, “Oh, girl…” several times as I read my posting from the end of 2022. She was not prepared for the year ahead of her, but she adapted as best she could. While I do want to document the past year and all of her highs and lows, I really don’t want to dwell on the negative. What I can say about the lows is that I learned a lot from this year. I am still learning, and I will take those lessons with me into the future.
Some of the highlights from the year are all of the traveling we did. We went to Hawaii, camping, Santa Cruz, Mendocino, and Europe. I also had a weekend in Chico with LouHoo, and we will start making that an annual tradition, even though we would like to do it more. We had a lot of adventures, and I loved each one. The Mother moved closer to me, and I am thrilled to have her near. My big work project went live and is something that I am proud to say that I was a part of. We celebrated 9 years of life for Feebs, and the Husband and I celebrated 11 years of marriage. I made connections with friends and some family. I will keep trying to connect with my loved ones, even if they don’t always reciprocate. We celebrated 1 year with our kitties, and they have brought so much joy into our lives. I made new friends, people that I can see being friends for a long time. I made some very big self-realizations, and I acted on them, even when they were painful. I stood up for myself and did uncomfortable things. I made some enemies along the way, but I am learning to not let them affect my mental or physical health and well-being.
From a making standpoint, I didn’t do great. I didn’t sew a single thing in 2023. It’s not a huge deal, but it was disappointing. I kept dreaming and hyping but never found the courage or the gumption to do it. Knitting happened, but looking at my Ravelry projects, I see that most of the knitting was small items like hats and socks. I didn’t technically meet the 25-item challenge that I set at the beginning of the year, but I really did. If I hadn’t grouped my charity knitting by month and didn’t double up some hat projects, I would have exceeded the goal. Oh well.
Finished Objects:
Socks: 6 pairs
Hats: 4
Charity: 9
Sweaters: 3
Scarfs: 2
Shawls: 1
Mitts: 1 pair
Tops: 2
As for my Bingo cards… Ack! I didn’t make it! I was four squares short of completing my Knitting Bingo card. I didn’t check a single square on my Sewing Bingo card. I could technically loophole and check Zippered Project since I did hand sew a zipper into Harris, but that feels a bit like cheating. I was knitting a charity hat up till 2300 on NYE so that I could check one of my remaining 3 Charity Knits boxes (I made it!). I have to say, overall, I had So Much Fun with the Bingo cards. I love setting goals and being able to check them off one by one. I feel like I pushed myself a little bit and had a happy dance when a project allowed me to check more than one box. I have already updated and posted about my 2024 Bingo cards. I can’t wait to get started on them. Two of the unchecked boxes from this year made it onto the new knitting card.
I struggled more this year with pain, especially in my elbows. I think my body isn’t a big fan of colorwork and left-handed knitting. I also struggled with finding projects that I wanted to knit. I don’t recall the number of frog ponds that I visited this year, but there were many. There was also a lack of time to knit. Life got very busy this year, and I wasn’t able to knit as much as I wanted to. Gone are my days of knitting during Zoom calls. Between taekwondo and my need for regular workouts, the time to knit at the end of the day gets tight. I intend to do better next year.
So, it’s short and sweet, but this was the year. I do not go out of 2023 as I intend to go into 2024. I am saying goodbye to this year and taking the precious memories with me. This year was a lot, and I am happy to put it behind me. As a parting gift, I left a sacrifice to the gods of time. The hair that I cut from my head will be given back to the earth. I am going to let it nourish the ground and release the spirits it held back into the atmosphere. It may seem silly, but I think it will give me a sense of peace. So onward and forward into 2024, we go!
Loves,
M
Mrs. Collins Makes Stuff 