Osborn Fiber Studio

Hi folks. It’s that time again, where I take some time to look back on my making this year. As I churn through one project after another, I don’t always appreciate the time and energy I’m expending, so this benchmark ends up being a huge exercise in appreciating myself, which is another form of self-compassion.

I haven’t tried to exhaustively comb through to find every project; I pulled everything major and everything that was easy to find. That was plenty! It was a huge year for making, especially spinning and knitting. I didn’t make a “goals” post last January, or even an outline of expectations, which was probably smart. I can say, however, that I generally used stash, and carried out some long-term intentions.

Spinning

This has been a banner year for spinning. I spun for at least fifteen minutes every day, realistically more like 30-60 minutes nearly every day. I made a grid of most of my spins:

• Year of Colour Capstone yarn: ~800 yards 2-ply DK weight
• Silk/yak lace: 838 yards 2-ply lace weight
• “What a Stupid Bucket” chain ply: 192 yards 3-ply worsted weight
• “Tapestry” sock yarn: 274 yards 4-ply fingering weight
• “Spring Flowers” sock yarn: 280 yards cable-plied fingering weight
• “Graffiti” sock yarn: 300 yards hawser yarn fingering weight
• “Highlighter” sock yarn: 268 yards 3-ply fingering weight.
• Tunis fleece sample skein: ~120 yards 2-ply DK weight
• Jethro main colour: 810 yards 2-ply light worsted weight
• Not pictured: “Lava Love” sock skein, will be shown in the first January wool circle. 261 yards crepe yarn, fingering weight.

These were all non-trivial spins, taking anywhere from a few days (the Tunis and Bucket yarns) to around two weeks (the rest of them). But my biggest spin this year, by far, was the qiviut blending project. I worked on a huge chunk of that this summer.

These ten skeins were all spun on vacation. Four were spun on my CPW at my mom’s house; six were spun on supported spindles and mostly plied on a drop spindle. Total yardage: 2079 yards DK(ish) 2-ply. Due to the variety of wools and tools, the grist varies from 932-1587 YPP, but total average is 1194 YPP. Doing this big chunk in the summer was massively rewarding, and gives me hope of doing the same thing next year.

The final category of spinning this year was the YEAR OF YARN content Rachel and I produced for Wool n’ Spinning. On the Wool Circle, I was responsible for doing a close-up study, walking everyone through the yarns in the book.

We divided the year up into three “modules”: first, back in the late winter and spring, we went back to basics, talking about twist, direction, sampling, drafts, and default spinning. For this I mostly spun super-small samples, though I also spun the Year of Colour Capstone yarn (above) as a large default spin. Second, we talked about singles in the summer. I spun two braids of BFL into 462 yards of eight different types of worsted-weight singles, and knit them into this super-fun shawl.

Third, we’ve been digging into yarn structure over the fall and winter. I spun some fun chunky samples (below) for teaching purposes, but was also so inspired that I spun larger quantities of each structure as well. That’s where the chain plied yarns (above) came from, as well as the sock spins.

Total yarn spun in 2024: 6,867 yards. Total yardage spun, including both singles and plying: 23,971 yards. That’s almost 22 kilometers, over twice as much as I spun last year.

I’ve really loved having spinning as such a high priority this year. That has meant that not as much other crafting got its time in the sun; that’s just the nature of how hours in the day work, and I have no regrets. I think having the Wool Circle to spin for has been massively motivating, and has helped me keep things fresh – I want to create interesting videos, and that means the spinning has to be interesting for me, too! What’s more, creating and sharing the podcast is profoundly life-giving in itself, so I’m happy to spend to much time spinning for it.

Knitting (& Crochet)

This has been the year of the sweater. Lots of sweaters that I’ve envisioned for a long time finally came to completion, and a few went from start to finish in a short time. Of these sweaters, four were 100% handspun, two had handspun as a major feature, and three were from commercial yarn (purchased within the last two years). My sweater-quantity stash has gotten much shallower and fresher, and that feels really good.

• Solaris vest
• Puffin pullover
• Evendoon/Party mix pullover
• Wervel pullover
• Port Charlotte pullover
• Afloat pullover
• Weekender/Metamorphic pullover
• Lilia’s Day pullover
• Jethro cardigan

I also made three little sweaters this year! They happened to all be Dooner-sized. These are a crochet hoodie from stash, a tee from yarn we bought on vacation, and a sweater made of Wervel leftovers that we’ve since gifted to a small friend who wears the heck out of it.

The sweaters have been the star attractions, but there have been plenty of accessories knit as well.

• 1-2: two batches of hats made from Year of Yarn samples; these and a few others were gifted to my nieces and nephews.
• 3: The “bucket” yarn (above) has become my toque for daily use.
• 4: Socks in Kaffe Fasset Regia yarn (gifted to Jared aeons ago; now mine)
• 5: Socks in yarn from a Swiss grocery store
• 6: Boot socks from emergency yarn purchased in the Scottish Highlands
• 7: Pillow covers made of giant granny squares in gifted acrylic yarn
• 8: Emotional support chicken, mostly from yarn made while playing with my blending board
• 9: Leftovers hat from boot sock yarn

There are others I didn’t bother to chase down. These are all projects that just take a day or two, or that sit in my purse for “emergencies.” I feel like this is going to be more of my knitting next year, since I have a lot of small quantities of yarn to use up. But I could be wrong.

Believe it or not, I almost forgot to mention Skep. Knitting and documenting this massive set of spinning experiments was a huge creative undertaking. I basically do not want to use this blanket until I don’t have dogs anymore, which is quite silly, but I haven’t gotten over it yet.

One more special mention, that doesn’t fit into any other category, is the Goff Mystery knit-along. This was a special companion throughout my summer.

At a rough guesstimate from what I’ve listed here, I’d say I’ve knit or crocheted around 20,300 yards of yarn, or about eighteen and a half kilometers. Most of my knitting time is in the evening, while Jared and I are chatting or catching up on TV series. (This year it’s been the Defenders series, which we really enjoy.) I also knit a ton on vacation while we’re driving, something we don’t do at home.

At the present moment I’m in a phase of playing video games and board games, which will mean less knitting for a minute, but I’m sure I’ll be back to it. Knitting is a mainstay of my free moments, and while I don’t have the emotional need to be constantly knitting as much as I used to, it’s not going anywhere.

Sewing

I thought I would sew some clothes for myself this year, but that didn’t materialize (har har). I did, however, finish three quilt tops for my girls, using fabric that they all received as gifts. Stringbean’s was Harry Potter themed, MiniMighty’s was Star Wars, and Dooner’s was Paw Patrol. I’ve now purchased minky to back all these projects, but the first has sat basted and ignored for a month now. I need to get these done this year, before Dooner is too old for Paw Patrol at least!

I also finished the individual units of the EPP quilt I started like three years ago. I’ve started putting the units together, but it’s cumbersome. It’s back in the time out corner, but it doesn’t fit so neatly there anymore. Here’s hoping that 2025 is the year I finish it.

I also made this wee wall hanging which I haven’t showed you yet! It was part of a swap that my friend Kelly set up. It was fun to make something so small, and to play with different designs in walking foot quilting. I made a whole whack of spool blocks that I’d like to put together, but they’re quite low on my priority list.

Designing

This year has been a roller coaster for my book project. I crossed a lot of huge benchmarks: all the samples were test knit, the patterns were finalized and tech edited, and charts and schematics were made using new software. I thought I was about to hand the project off to surer hands than mine, but that was not to be. I have absolutely no hard feelings about this, but it does mean that the last hurdle of bringing this project to publication is going to be on me. I’m confident it will happen, but right now it’s requiring patience.

A big boost to my confidence came this fall, when two patterns that I had cut from the book for space reasons were accepted for publication by Knitty, the internet’s oldest and most prestigious digital knitting magazine. The first pattern came out early this month, and you can imagine how pleased I was to see Akumalik’s lovely face, with my pattern, on the cover.

The second pattern is much more involved, and because of a lengthy tech editing process will come out in the “surprise” addendum to Knitty next month. Watch this space.

Kate and Amy at Knitty were very kind and great to work with. Publishing these two patterns with them was a big encouragement at a time that I needed it. Migraineur is coming in 2025, Lord willing and the crick don’t rise, as they say where I come from.

Health

I began 2024 determined to lose about 20 lbs. I lost about 15, and have managed to keep it off since. I have learned a lot about my body, my habits, and how to have realistic age-appropriate goals that allow me a balanced quality of life.

I’ve also grown a lot in how to just cook FOOD and not get to stuck on cooking RECIPES. With global food prices on the rise, I’ve had to become much less ambitious and precious, and be creative with less.

I’m really thankful to have a healthy body that does what I want it to do, and my goal for this year is to just appreciate it and accept it and keep it where it is right now.

As I mentioned last post, my mental health took a dip this fall. Nothing to be concerned about, but I will be pursuing some different options in the spring. It’s hard to make myself follow through on changing routines in medication and care – really hard – but it’s gotta be done.

Family

Obviously, our year was dominated by our sabbatical. This enormous trip, which took us in four months through Maryland, Switzerland, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, was many years in the making. We had a really special time in our own way.

With friends Darren, Karen, and Liam, overlooking Carrickfergus

My kids have had a great year. I’m really enjoying them at this stage, watching the amazing humans they are growing into, starting to really share interests and activities. I hope and pray we can stay close as they grow.

In conclusion, we did a lot! There was plenty I didn’t do. I did not weave one thing this year; I’ve just never made the time or space to set the loom up. I didn’t get out the dye pots again in 2024. I didn’t do any gardening, and made precious little bread. We didn’t reno anything; we hardly got to the cabin. All that is a fair trade for the incredible amount of traveling we did, to say nothing of all the spinning and knitting. Oh, and I brew kombucha now.

That has been the shape of my year. It has been a big one for our family, hitting our stride and enjoying each other, despite some bumps along the way. Thank you for reading, for being along on this ride. It means so much that you’d spend your life-minutes reading about our adventures. I hope this time of year finds you celebrating, in the way that seems best to you. Stay safe, stay warm. Happy New Year!