Year of Projects 2 - an early roundup

The second Year of Projects comes to an end on the 30th June. Immediately afterwards, we will plunge recklessly into a third year! I'm rounding off my second year a few weeks early, as I want to have some time to carefully consider what to do with my list this time around. In the first year, I focused on a list of patterns that would push and challenge me, teaching me new techniques and skills to broaden my knowledge and experience as both a knitter and crocheter.

In my second year, I took a different strategy. I went through my stash, and put together a list of yarns I wanted to use. Now the year draws to a close, so it's time to see what that approach yielded.

These are the yarns that made it onto my list. A mix of fibres and weights, gifts and self purchases. A slightly broader colour palette perhaps than I am used to, but pinks and purples still dominate. I seem to be developing a taste for blue as well!

I think when I put the list together I was being very optimistic. My hope was, with so much to choose from, I'd never get bored of it. This is what I turned it into over the course of the last eleven months (well, more like eight months or so, as I've not got much crafting done in the last few months between the house move and the wedding!).

Nineteen finished projects, using eleven of the yarns I added to the list. In addition to these finished items, I have three projects still listed as WIPs in my project page which come from the list: Starlight, a beaded lace shrug using the gorgeously purple Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, which is nowhere near finished, the Cwtch Shawl in the Natural Dye Studio Scheherazade, which needs to have its bind off undone and re-done in a stretchier stitch, and Peerie Flooers, in the Rowan Fine Tweed, which has been finished since Christmas but needs the ends weaving in and blocking. I hope to get that done by the time winter knocks on our doors again!

The other projects not displayed here represent my failed efforts. I tried to make a start on the Ishbel shawl once I'd finished the hat, but didn't get anywhere with it. I picked up the Artesano 100% Alpaca DK and tried to knit the Baskerville hat, but obviously wasn't concentrating well enough on it as I went wrong so many times I gave up in disgust. I still want to knit them though, so they might find their way onto the list for year three!

Nineteen beats my eleven from the previous year, although I think I was less distracted this year because of the way I designed the challenge for myself. Last year's list has so much revision, so many patterns crossed off and added, whereas this year I felt far less guilty about doing something else. A quick look at my Ravelry page shows thirteen finished projects alongside the above, completed since this second Year of Projects started, but most are small, quick distractions. The only things I did that weren't were the sofa bed afghan and our Christmas stockings, but that was ok because I'd planned for both of those to take time away from the list.

I'm not sure which is my favourite project from the year. I wore Phannie and Ishbel beret alternately almost every day through the winter and early spring. I can't choose between the three shawls I knit this year, as they are all fabulous, but I think the Lazy Katy just might win, on the basis that I knit it so quickly and it's such a quirky shape. I'm proud of knitting my first toe up socks, and the hot water bottle platypus was the difference between a good night's sleep and hypothermia when I went camping last November.

What I do know is that it would be a lot harder to stick to the challenge without all the other wonderful people who are challenging themselves right alongside me. Year two saw a lot of new folks joining the group and getting involved, and it's been great to share this journey with you all again. Looking forward to seeing you all back for round three!