Carole has me reviewing my year to determine the following:
10 Things You Did in 2015 That Made You Feel Proud
Wow, this one is a bit of a challenge! I am certainly proud of my new granddaughter, Genevieve – but she is not something I did. I am also proud of my children for a variety of reasons, but especially now that they are all out of school I am so proud of how well they are all doing at “being adults” – but again, not something I did either.
For me, 2015 was a “Year of Making” coupled with lots of learning! Please join me as I look at the things I did, learned, and made this year – things that make me proud of myself!
- 2015 was a very good year for knitting at Casa del KatKnits – I took a fantastic class with Amy Herzog and finished knitting not one, but three sweaters that fit! This was truly a herculean task as in my 15 years of knitting, I had, to date, never knit a sweater that fit. I also knit a good bit for Genevieve, and I completed my third summer at Camp Loopy! Sixteen projects in the “complete” column prove that I did lots of knitting this year!
- It was also a good year for spinning, I spun more yardage for Spinzilla than I ever have before and the yarn made from that spinning was pretty darn impressive as well!
For Spinzilla, I spun 5,066 yards of yarn!
- Sewing is now a “thing” in my life again after a decades long hiatus, my trusty Bernina is back in use and I have used it to create several items of clothing for myself (thanks to 100 Acts of Sewing) as well as some new quilts for Genevieve!
- Gardening!! This year was a banner year for my garden. We harvested hundreds of tomatoes, peppers, and over 30 lbs. of potatoes.
- Preserving much of what I grew! I canned tomatoes for sauce. I canned whole tomatoes. I made pans and pans of stuffed peppers to freeze. In addition, the herbs were prolific this year! It produced so many things to dry, chop and combine with butter, or blanch and freeze! And, if I did not grow it, I was lucky to have so many options for local Farmers Market’s available to me. Thanks to them I made jams, jellies, and butters, roasted peppers for freezing, blanched broccoli and corn for freezing, and pumpkins for roasting and freezing.
- Improving my photography skills by using my camera more, especially since I got a new camera for an early birthday gift!
- Completing a successful NaBloPoMo! It was a challenge and I succeeded! And that success led to improved and sustained blogging!
- Twelve months of Eating Local!! Knowing where my food comes from is important to me. I am blessed to have so many local options for eating well.
- Writing daily – I did not start the year doing this, but I am now a daily journal writer and so happy with this self improvement!
- Staying the course with weaving! While the learning curve is steep I am learning and, more importantly, improving!
There you have it, Gentle Reader – those things that I am most proud of in 2015!
You have so much to be proud of! Yes, certainly your children and granddaughter, but I’m impressed with the quantity, quality, and learning you managed with all of your creative pursuits. Your weaving is beautiful and so is your garden, sewing, knitting, and spinning!
What a wonderful year! You are an inspiration. XO
Impressive! I wanna be *you* when I grow up!
Wowow! Your projects are creative and gorgeous!
Your year of making is fabulously inspirational! You have multiple skills that are reward and beautiful. Go you!
Sounds like you’ve had a great year – I think keeping a journal daily is especially fantastic!
What a productive year you had! I’ll bet those summer tomatoes smell amazing and taste even better!
I am just finishing up an Amy Herzog pattern – very jealous that you got to take her class. All the best for 2016.
Ah, that’s one thing I did last year for the first time ever and did not manage at all this year – taking a live class with a knitting hero/heroine. There’s just something about it that cannot be duplicated any other way. You’re motivating me to seek out a class in 2016 to get my mojo revved up again.
Wow! Your knitting and weaving projects are stunning! And I want to reach in and take one of those tomatoes. You have inspired me to learn how to sew this year!