2025 in Review: A Finish Parade

I'll be posting my Annual Airing of the WIP™ pile here in a few days, but I thought I might take a moment first to share some of my finishes from 2025.  Maybe that will make us all feel better about the length of the list I'm about to drop on y'all. 

Let's start with some quick numbers.

• I completed 26 projects and used 15,485 yards of yarn.
• Of those 26, 16 were pairs of socks.  We do like a sock around these parts.
• I knit or crocheted 3 shawls and 1 poncho.
• I finished 1 substantial blanket project.
• I knit 3 pairs of fingerless mitts as Christmas gifts.
• I knit 2 stuffies: an Emotional Support Chicken and a gnome.

That feels like a healthy mix of projects (er, if you call 60% socks healthy...and I do).  Notably, there were no finished garments.  I have Riptide nearly done, but I am struggling with maintaining any momentum there. But we'll talk about that when we look at WIPs later.

Want to see some pictures?  Of course you do.

You saw the first whack of socks earlier when I was taking stock of my goal completion back in November, but here's the entirety of my 2025 output in one place:

There's a nice balance of vanilla, textured, and fun cables. Most have a Fish Lips Kiss heel, with the odd Fleegle or two in the mix for variety.  Will I finish more pairs in 2026 than I did in 2025?  Time will tell, but I can share that I'm already done one pair and expect another finish by end of week, so...

The shawl and poncho category is nicely balanced between knit and crochet. There's also good variety in size and weight (and color!)  I definitely didn't get bored making these.  (I lie.  The border on that Stephen West shawl nearly killed me.)

The blanket I finished is another Marion Mitchell - this was one is the Beachwalk Blanket.  I love it.  The colors are gorgeous, and it is a great size.  Those little 1 round grannies were a lot, but worth it, I think.

Some holiday mitts - all DK weight (or, well, the bottom pair is fingering held double, but same difference).

And then finally the stuffies.  I haven't made a ton of these kinds of projects in the past, but I got a big kick out of both of these, so there may be more in my future.

So that's a wrap on what I accomplished last year.  I am really happy with what I got done.

Looking ahead, there will for sure be more socks, likely another shawl or two, and hopefully some sweaters or sweater vests.  And given the number of blankets I'm working on, surely I will finish one of those someday too.

I hope.

A Season of Expectation and Hope

 Note: This was written on December 17, 2025, but never published. It's fully a month later, but I've decided to post and back-date it, so I'd have the record of what I was thinking about the week before Christmas.  

We're about a week out from the Big Day, and I am feeling remarkably zen about it.  I have very nearly finished my shopping, know more or less what I bought for whom (more or less), and am embracing a sense of chill merriment for the season.

This is so historically unlike me that I am not sure I know who I am anymore.  Maybe it's because my children are all adults now or maybe it's because I am fully embracing my fairy light era -- I don't know exactly what combination of holiday magic is conspiring to holly my jollies, but you better believe I'm taking notes so I can try to recreate it next year.

One thing that I know for sure is contributing to my delight in the season is an aggressive pursuit of coziness (see above, re: fairy lights) coupled with some intentional crafting.   I'm often comfortably ensconced on my couch, under a festive holiday blanket of my own making, staring at a beautiful tree and other festive bits and bobs, and this year I'm knitting not one, but two pairs of advent socks. 

I am not sure why I decided to two pairs exactly -- I usually only knit one in December, but here we are.  Shockingly I'm keeping up with both pairs -- heel day was a bit of a marathon, but otherwise it's been smooth sailing. 

Future Bekah here again.  I didn't have a photo from that week, but (SPOILERS!) I finished both pair a day or two after Christmas.

In fact I'm enjoying it so much, and had so much success with the "few rows a day" experiment with the cabled sock, that I am planning to carry on with something similar in January.  I'm not making any big announcements about an annual goal or anything, but in January I'm planning to cast on a patterned sock and knit somewhere around 12 rounds a day until they are done.  

Basically, I'm riffing off of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Self-Imposed Sock Club, but one month at a time and I'm picking the patterns as I go.  If I do it more than once.  

If it goes well and if I still like it, I might do it again in February.  You don't know.

Welcome to 2020!

Friends of the show will remember that we have a New Years tradition here at chez woolly.  My two besties and I have been gathering on New Year's Eve to ring in the new year, and then share brunch on New Year's Day to make plans and set intentions for ... gosh... probably over 15 years.   It's a lovely part of my personal wheel of the year, and it's a tradition I cherish.

We had to get a little creative this year, because some dear friends of ours got married on New Years Day, and asked me to be their officiant.  It was an incredible honor, and a beautiful wedding. 

Darling, You Look Wonderful Tonight

My best Koren caught a snap of Carl and I dancing to some Eric Clapton.  I'm normally not a fan of pictures of me, but I just love how he's looking at me here.  My heart!

Beautiful or no, the wedding jacked our plans up a bit, but we're clever and flexible people and we made it work.  We switched our brunch to New Year's Eve, set intentions, did some tarot readings, and worked on finishing projects.  (As an aside, my tarot reading said I should write more.  Hello!)

A second piece of our New Years tradition is to finish a project, either New Years Eve or Day (Jess does one, I do the other) and then cast on something new on New Years Day.  May we finish as many things as we start, so say we all.

I finished up these cheerful holiday socks. 

They're Rock and String Creations "Merry and Bright" in her Sashay base. I used the Heel, Toe, Do-Si-Do pattern, with very slight modification (68 stitches instead of 64).  They're sparkly, and pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself. 

My New Year's cast ons (plural, because if one is good then two is better, right?) were the Odyssey Shawl by Joji Locatelli, and a pair of vanilla socks using Valkyrie Fibers Matte Sock in the "Tinuviel" colorway. 

And can we just talk about how well that contrast color in the socks works with the main yarn?  Not only did they not come together, they're not from the same dyer.  The contrast is Soft Sock from Teenybutton Studio.

I'm excited about this year.  I feel good, I've got plans that inspire me, and plenty of beautiful yarn to keep me busy. 

Advent Knitting

When I was little we had an Advent Wreath with candles that we lit right before supper every Sunday in December.  I have very clear, very warm memories of watching the light grow, and watching CHRISTMAS OH MY GOSH get closer and closer with every passing week.   The symbolism is not dissimilar to lighting the menorah during Hanukkah, or any other ritual that honors the growth and birth of light at the apex of the darkest part of the year. 

While I still have my mom's Advent Wreath, I don't use it.  It would feel (to me) disrespectful to set it out as purely secular decoration, and I no longer observe the rituals and prayers that go along with it. But still there is something really meaningful about marking the time in December leading up to Christmas. 

Advent is a Latin word that at it's simplest definition means "coming."  It is a time of "expectant waiting and of preparation."   As a parent, and as the person in charge of Making Holidays Happen, my experience with Christmas tends to weigh more heavily on the preparation side, and less on the expectant waiting bit.

It's with that in mind that I decided to undertake an Advent knitting project this year.  I want to cultivate a sense of peace and mindfulness each day, even as I'm running around wrapping presents, putting up trees, baking all the things, making lists, ignoring the lists, buying more things, and making sure the stacks of presents are more or less the same size.   Just writing all of that out makes me want to clutch my planner to my bosom and rock back and forth, eyes wide and staring.

Last year I knit Project Peace in December, finishing it up right at the new year.   There is another Peace Project for 2017, but I think I'm going to wait until January to knit that one.

This year, I'm knitting the Land of Sweets Cowl by Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade.  She designed it specifically to go along with the yarny Advent calendars that several yarn companies and indie dyers are selling.   The cowl is designed for 24 different colors (less than 8 grams each).  I didn't buy an Advent calendar kit, so I went stash-diving into my bits and bobs and scrap yarn blanket collection.

It's shaking out to about 8 rounds of 150 stitches in each section.  Just enough to take the edge off of the day and to let me focus just on me, just on peace, just on the knit stitch or the purl stitch. 

So far (it is only Day 3) I've spent some of the time knitting this cowl in mindfulness meditation.  It's rather lovely, and just feels good to do it.   I've also spent some of the time reading Tony/Steve Avengers fanfiction, and I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty great too.

The point is that I'm taking a little space in my life every day to mark the passage of time, in a quiet, reflective way.   Making the time for the "expectant waiting" is helping me remember what it was like, as a little girl, to view the entire month of December as a magical time of wonder and build up towards something incredible. 

When you're the adult in charge of making the magic, sometimes it's easy to forget to stop and enjoy the miracles and wonders of the holiday season.