Back at the start of the year, I posted a list of crafty resolutions. Let’s see how I did.
- Design a new crochet pattern every month, on average.
Let’s count: purple barn owl, rainbow squid and a friend of his I haven’t shown you yet, the thumbnail hippo, a mutant marshmallow bunny, my winter hat, and four snowflakes, though only one has been posted. That makes 6 posted, 10 total, though it occurs to me I’ve omitted at least one that hasn’t been blogged yet. However, I also made a lot of patterns for my crochet class; definitely enough to bring me up to 12 even if we’re stingy with which ones count. - Try a craft I’ve never done before. Possibilities include soapmaking (the right way), candlemaking, quilling, wood carving, macrame, needle felting, Chinese knotting, tatting, and throwing pottery on the wheel.
I did soapmaking a “righter” way, but I also made a flexagon, so I’m calling this good. - Finish two more pieces for my Children’s Book Quilt.
Last one of 2011 was Lowly Worm, completed on New Year’s Eve. In 2012 I made Harold and One Fish, for success on this resolution! - Make my summer hat, before it is in season.
Ha ha ha ha ha! - Finish my Fibonacci-themed wall quilt pattern.
Likewise, this did not happen. - Make a clothing pattern template for myself, following the directions in How To Make Sewing Patterns.
Nor this. I don’t make clothes for myself from scratch very often, so it just wasn’t a high priority. - Take better and more creative pictures of my finished projects. This is complicated by the fact that I live in northern New England, where (especially in the winter, but to some extent in the summer) natural light is in short supply even during the day.
This I think I succeeded in, especially in the light aspect. I am still working on it, though!
Four out of seven… well, could be better but I’m not too disappointed. Now it’s time for the next batch of resolutions!
- Take all my crafting photos either in natural light or in the photo tent I constructed this weekend out of a cardboard box.
- Design at least twelve crochet patterns.
- Design at least four embroidery patterns (any kind of embroidery; most likely to be cross-stitch).
- Get my crochet class materials into shape for a self-study course.
- Write and teach an amigurumi class.
- Try another crochet pattern and an embroidery design out of my Japanese crafting books.
- Stitch an embroidery art piece of my own design.
- Do some writing exercises: at least the first 5 chapters of Writing the Natural Way, which a lovely friend bought for me for Christmas.
The photo resolution will not be realized instantly, as I have some photos taken prior to the weekend and not yet blogged, but it should be a mainstay by the end of the month. I’ll blog the box itself, too, once I have used it a few times.
Number 7 will be a first. Although I’ve made art embroidery pieces before, my spaceman was from a book cover and Saturation was not designed, per se. I have some ideas, but I’ll have to prioritize it to get it done this year.
The last one, though, is my real stretch resolution. Although I think I communicate well, I do not consider myself a writer. Opinion pieces, technical writing, expository work – those things I can do, but fiction and persuasive writing are a lot more difficult for me. I’m hoping that not only will my blog posts improve, but my crochet design will too. I want to design lots of monsters and other unreal creatures, which means they have to come out of my brain, not out of nature. I put the book on my Amazon wishlist because a landscape quilter said she had always made attractive quilts, but they didn’t tell a story, and after working through this book her quilts tell a story and are much improved. I figure half a chapter a month, with some pad time, is a reasonable amount. If I really take to it, I may get through the whole book!
Happy New Year!