Ringing in the New Year with Intention

Welcome to 2023!

This marks the beginning of my fifth year creating crafting content to put out into the world, and I'd like to pause and reflect on some things I've learned, as well as things I still hope to learn and accomplish.

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A Look Back (and Forward)

In January 2018, I began my journey into the crafting content world by going live on Twitch for the very first time. I had a single camera, perched precariously on top of an upended shoebox, to show my knitting work. I had no lights, no face camera, no "production quality." By summer, I was streaming fairly regularly, and slowly gained a second camera, photography lights, and a better sense for setup.

The small community that joined me then is largely still the same today, with additions of course. In December 2018, I was incredibly surprised to see a larger turnout than expected for my holiday jar candle stream—something I had never attempted before, that wasn't in my standard wheelhouse, and that had lots of hiccups and mishaps!

In 2019, we uprooted and undertook a large move. While looking for work, I focused on building up my Twitch channel and the small webshop I had opened. By September, I was dyeing fiber and blending batts for sale. The community helped me choose names for colorways, and was very supportive while I found my way.

Toward the end of 2019, I purchased a rigid heddle loom and started getting more serious about weaving. Soon after, we realized we would be moving for work again in the late spring. Streaming, dyeing, and weaving all took the back burner while we packed, prepped, and stressed. My new job required travel, and I couldn't see a way to keep the shop open while I was away from home for half the year, so I didn't. Everything went on hiatus, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have lots of feelings about it, though I don't love dyeing the way I once did.

2020 came and went, with moving into an apartment sight unseen during the pandemic, starting a new job, traveling, and never really feeling truly settled in at home. 

2021 started much the same, though we were already looking for our next step. I continued traveling for work, and in the middle of a trip, I got word that my husband was selected for his dream job. We would be moving just five weeks after I returned home, and after our road trip across the country, stopping to see family, and settling in, I'd be off again in another three weeks. In an absolute whirlwind of August and September, we made the move and traded our tiny apartment for a real house.

I set off again, and while away I applied, interviewed, and was selected for a new job. Returning home just a couple days before Christmas, it took some time to settle into really feeling at home. It's a difficult thing to come and go so often, because just as you feel sort of settled and at peace, you're off to the races again. It was probably February 2022, when I officially started my new job, that it felt real that I was home for good.

2022 has brought good fortune as well as challenges, and I'm thankful to be in the position we are now. We're secure in our jobs, in our sense of self, and in the hobbies we share as well as those we keep for ourselves. We were finally able to start going camping on a regular basis again, and hiking, and biking, and taking day trips. Even so, when it came time this winter to purchase a floor loom for myself, the thought still crept up that "this is going to be a pain to move when we leave this house." And it will be, but that won't be for several years if we can help it.

This isn't the end goal, but it's a long layover while we work toward it.

A few days ago, we celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary, which roughly coincides with my tenth knitting anniversary. My husband has been such a beacon of support over the years, and we've truly grown into the couple I always hoped to be. We've come such a long way from both questioning if I would really use the spinning wheel I pined after in 2016 to him fully encouraging my purchase of a floor loom just a few weeks ago—and honestly being just as excited about it as I am. Growing together has been a joy no one could have ever prepared me for.

We spent the morning of our anniversary at our favorite local coffee shop, with books and knitting.

Being part of the larger crafting community for ten years is something special. I've made so many friends, connections, successes, and mistakes. I've learned all about tools, techniques, and skills, and taken up adjacent crafts I never thought possible for myself. If anyone had told me in 2010 that I'd be a weaver in 2022, I'd have been very confused.

I hope to be more active in the larger community in 2023, and to not be so afraid of reaching out to others, and joining events, alongs, and classes. I've signed up for the School of SweetGeorgia in order to advance my skills this year, as well as to meet an entirely new community of folks.

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2023 Goals

In my own corner, I've been working out some goals and ideas for the 2023 crafting year. Here are a few things I keep coming back to:

• Working from stash
• Spin neutral fibers (white, gray, brown) into yarn to use as solid weaving warps.
• Pair loud or dark colors in stash with the neutrals to create high-contrast projects.
• Creating with intention
• Avoid starting a new project just because you're bored with a current WIP or feel like you "should" be making something.
• Sit with your goals—Are you wanting to learn a new technique? Do you want the finished product? What is the goal of the process or end result?
• Resist the fear of missing out; if a project isn't appealing to you, don't start it.
• Do the thing
• Stop trying to do the thing, and instead just do it.
• If you fail, you've still learned something.
• And what if you succeed?

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Project Plans

Note: This section contains affiliate links denoted by asterisks (*). If a purchase is made through an affiliate link, I will receive a commission based on the sale at no extra cost to you. The products I have chosen are ones I have personally used and would recommend.

I did not finish my Archange sweater (partially seen above, with the weaving book) before the new year, but it won't be long until it's finished since it's stockinette from here on out. I'm very much looking forward to wearing this sweater. The pattern was chosen based on a sweater I brought home from my great-grandmother's closet just before she passed away over the summer. That sweater became my cozy house sweater, and I absolutely live in it on cold days. Archange isn't an exact duplicate, but it's close enough that I know I'll love wearing it.

My New Year's Eve cast-on wasn't really a cast-on, but rather a spinning start. I chose to begin my first-ever fully white spinning project, 9 ounces of undyed white alpaca fiber (which is already shedding all over my black shirt). This falls into the working from stash category twofold, as it will also become a neutral background color for a future weaving project.

My next weaving project has been chosen, and I plan to use what was originally a handspun sweater quantity of yarn to make a throw blanket for our living room sofa. This will be my first double-width weaving project, and I haven't yet decided if it's going to be plain weave or twill, but it will have stripes along the warp and will be woven in a single weft color.

I also have plans to choose or design a weaving project using a Knit Picks Hawthorne Value Pack* this year. I have long loved Hawthorne, and the colors chosen for the value packs take all the guesswork out of choosing multiple colors that coordinate—something I often struggle with. I would like this project to be workable on a rigid heddle loom, and it might very well be the project I warp up and take with me when we go camping this spring. Currently I'm eyeing up this Green Gradient* set because it's springy and green, and far outside the past year's default range of purples and burgundies and blues.

Instead of starting the year off with a full knitting queue like last year, I've cleared out my Ravelry queue and started keeping a notebook and planner with project ideas and plans in it. I hardly got around to any of my queue last year, and I think it was just too overwhelming and didn't leave enough room for new ideas as the year progressed.

If the method doesn't work, try something new!

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Content Plans

In addition to my 2023 crafting goals, I have some thoughts about content creation for the year. As many of you know, this is something I continue to be conflicted about in various ways, and it often leaves me feeling vulnerable, guilty, or incapable. I feel that being open is the way forward and hope that I will look back after jumping the hurdles in front of me and see that they were smaller than they initially appeared.

I have learned over the years that the Twitch content that fulfills me most as a creator is catching up with the community over coffee and crafting, without the pressure of making sure the project is consistently in view or trying to teach technical ideas.

Detail photos and tutorial or timelapse videos are better shown on Instagram (for short-form) and YouTube (for long-form). I'm looking forward to improving my photography and filming of projects to share in these places, and putting less pressure on myself to show every step of the process when I'm live. When I'm truly focused on making, I don't do much talking, and the process becomes very rhythmic and relaxing. I love the idea of showcasing the crafting process, and this is a way I can pursue doing that.

Along the same lines, this very blog gives me a fantastic outlet for discussing plans, parts of the crafting process that don't lend themselves to visual depictions, and general thoughts. The other beauty of photos, videos, and blog posts is that they stick around to look back at and reference.

Taking these things into consideration, my rough plans for the year include regular monthly or semi-monthly Twitch catch-up streams, regular Instagram posts and reels, and a slow progression into YouTube videos as I learn more about videography and video editing. Blog posts will continue as projects arise, progress, and conclude.

All of the above really plays into the "stop trying to do the thing, and just do the thing" part of my goals. I spend a lot of time thinking about doing things, realizing they're difficult, and psyching myself out. The idea here is to make what I want to make, film and photograph as best I can along the way, and make the content I want to see. The first cuts are going to be rough, and that's how we learn and improve!

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All in all, I'm thrilled to be ringing in the new year with our community as well as those I've long been a part of. Self-discipline and reflection are going to be integral to my own goals, and I'm looking forward to what 2023 has in store for all of us.

Take care, be at peace, and aim for enjoyment of your craft.

Cheers,
💕 Liz