Osborn Fiber Studio

I haven’t done this for the last couple of years. I don’t like to put pressure on myself in a new year; if I have goals, I prefer to start them early or late, just to take the perfectionism out of it! But this year, as I looked back at what I’d done, I was curious if reality matched my expectations. So this year, I will make some predictions – not really goals, only sort of intentions, just loosely held hopes.

Designing

My biggest hope is about my knitting pattern book project. I’m waiting right now because I might be able to get some top-notch assistance in the photography department, so I have a break of a few months from working on it. In the meantime, another free pattern will be coming out very soon. Regardless, I am hopeful that my book will be available in 2025. I am nervous, for sure! Putting a book-child out into the world all on my own feels both presumptuous and vulnerable, and I genuinely have no idea what is going to happen. But I feel rationally hopeful, and after all the work that has gone in already by myself and others, I’m going to follow through.

What I’m really here to talk about today is the STUFF I want to make this year! I’ve given my stash a good toss, and made a bunch of 9-grids. I think 9-grids are pretty, but I don’t expect to make 9 of everything – I’ve just used it to prioritize what I’d like to make, which is almost entirely from stuff I already have.

Spinning

2025 is beginning in the middle of a series of sock spins! Here is a grid of all the braids I hope to use in 2025, most of which I expect to become socks.

1. Panda Sock Spin no. 5: Arctic Berries, Opposing Ply. I’ve just started this one.
2. Panda Sock Spin no. 6: Shipwrecked, Gimp.
3. Panda Sock Spin no. 7: Leftovers! I’m undecided whether to do a traditional 6-ply, hawser, or cable.
4. Bramble Ridge Masham/BFL: This will start a second set of sock experiments, this time on longer wool.
5. Random braid of Merino! This will be one of probably several braids that go into samples for Y2 of the YEAR OF YARN! Not sock yarn, but some fun ply structures and novelty yarns.
6. Second Sock Spin no. 2: Rogue, superwash BFL
7. – 9.: Breed Blend and Colour Study! These will be socks. Today the announcement goes up about what these three colourways are, but in case it’s not 100% public yet, I’ll be vague. [EDIT: It’s all public now, so I’ve updated the grid with the new colourways. I love them! Bet you can’t guess my favourite.] They’re dyed by Meghan at Bramble Ridge, and I’m still deciding which ply structures to use.

Beyond and between these sock spins, I will be working up samples for the YEAR OF YARN. And, when I need a more substantial break, there are a few larger spins I’m excited to work on this year.

This is Valais Blacknose wool from Switzerland, and it’s going to be my next sweater spin. I think I will give myself the gift of starting this in January.

This is a pile of three half-fleeces, plus 2 x 1lbs of other fleece. My plan is to dye them, hopefully soon, and make heathers with different prep methods. I’ve been quite excited to start this, hopefully earlier in the year. I’d like two or three sweaters out of this lot; I will dye all of it, and probably prep all of it, and if I spin up two sweater quantities I’ll be over the moon.

Finally, there’s the Qiviut Blending Project. I’m moving on to adding other mix-ins beyond wool and qiviut, particularly silk, and I’ve carded up these six blends to decide on two percentage settings to finish the project. After these, I’ll have eight more like it, then I’d like to spin up each wool breed by itself. That’s 23 more skeins, so I’m not expecting to finish this year.

Knitting

I did a lot of knitting last year! I knit no less than nine sweaters. This year, I’d like to shift that a bit. I’d like to make a few sweaters, but more slowly, and I’d like to use stash and make more accessories. I’ve made a 9-grid here, more just as a way to arrange my priorities than anything else, and identify my unanswered questions.

1. These are all yarns I’ve bought or made for my daughters. High on my list is making these into things for them.
2. I have a few serious skeins from the Year of Colour that I haven’t used yet. They are awkward because they are small, but not soft enough to make into accessories, and I can’t turn everything into a sweater yoke. I’ve paired each with a neutral, but I’m not sure what I’m going to make. Bags maybe? This first one is a gradient of dyeing experiments on suffolk.
3. Same, this being a rainbow gradient of carding waste.
4. Same, this being the natural-dyed colour wheel that produced said waste. Along with the natural brown, this could be enough for a slipover.
5. These three handspun skeins are lovely, and look rather nice together, but haven’t decided what they want to be.
6. These two skeins were dyed by me during a workshop with my mom, and are destined for assigned pooling projects.
7. This pile of two merino-silk skeins and some beautiful handspun merino are supposed to become headbands.
8. This pile of leftovers from Lilia’s Day is paired with some handspun, perhaps to knit through Buachaille?
9. At a certain point, sock spins will be done, and I’m going to knit a whack of socks! 11 or 12 pairs, Lord willing. These will be much higher on the priority list once the spinning is done.

I know this is insane. The grid above represents like 36 projects. But let the record show, I’m ready to crank through some small knits.

I do have some larger knits that I’m planning: some to use stash, and some engage in some lovely slow zero-to-hero making.

1. This is a Fitton’s Dynamo that I’m almost halfway finished. It’s a slipover, and I’m curious to see if I use it. I don’t have any other pieces like this, but that would open new category of garment if I like it.
2. This is a handspun quantity I made many years ago, then knit into a capelet that was utterly useless. I plan to knit it into… a slipover. I’ve got some eggs in this basket apparently.
3. This is 1 kilo of aran-weight wool from Donegal yarns, a special treat. I think I’ll knit it into a Gansey from Beth Brown-Reinsel’s book.
4. I have a truly shocking stash of Milarrochy Tweed, thanks to work on my book. I think I have enough for two or three Kate Davies patterns: An allover colourwork sweater like Ursula, a colourwork yoke like Coofle, and a using-up-bits pattern like Dathan.
5. Ditto no. 4. If I can knit at least one of these leftovers sweaters this year, I’ll be quite happy, but I’ve given it two slots.
6. Since I plan to spin this sweater quantity early, I’ll put knitting it on this year’s queue.
7. – 9. The fleeces from above. Honestly I don’t expect to knit these up this year, but one would be nice!

In total, I’ll set my prediction at five sweaters this year. That seems achievable.

Sewing

I have a lot of sewing to do this year, but I’d really like to not start many new sewing projects. Just finishing what I’ve started will be quite enough work.

I will be quilting these three quilts for the girls this year, and I think this might be the year I finish my epic EPP wall hanging. I predict that I will at least finish the hand piecing.

I may need to make some winter clothes for one or more of the girls this fall. Will have to see.

Weaving reset?!

So, I didn’t weave at all in 2024. I made a bunch of warps at the end of 2020 (!!!), some of which I have used with mixed results, and a few of them are still sitting. There’s one that I couldn’t even find. This year if I don’t use them, I might just have to bin them, and put my loom in storage for another season. I don’t like how it sits in a corner, disassembled and accusing. I’m not in a weaving season! I feel no guilt about that whatsoever, and I want my space to reflect that. So yeah, I give myself this challenge for January: warp it or store it!

1. Kidsilk haze for a scarf
2. Jamieson’s & smith for a plaid table runner (I swear I have another warp and weft made up for the same in Brooklyn Tweed Loft but I can’t find it)
3. Some plain sock yarn to weave a bit of yardage to go with something else I wove that was not the right shape to use. This was silly; I should just turn the something else into some zippered pouches.
4. I warped these up to make dishcloths/washcloths. It just doesn’t appeal.
5. I’ve been saving these, ahem, “treasures” from 51 yarns to make some kind of tapestry. I have an idea that I think is pretty good, but it’s an old idea and I don’t know if I still care about it. It bothers me when yarn is orphaned like this.

Health & Family

My goals for my health are very maintenance-focused and balance-focused. I don’t expect to attain the weight I had in high school; I want to stay right where I am within 5 lbs or so as my body changes over the next 10-20 years. I don’t expect to become an athlete, but I want to move my body a few times a week, enjoy the outdoors with my dogs, and do strength training with my friends. I don’t expect to be 100% plant based – my priorities are to make food that we can afford, that the kids will eat, that gives us enough energy to take on our day – and the more potatoes and green things, the better, but meat and dairy provides joy in our house that I embrace as a guilt-free occasional celebration.

As I’ve said before, I’m making fewer recipes and more just cooking food. Just as with sweaters, I’m following fewer patterns and adapting designs to the same couple of silhouettes that I know I like. However, there’s some recipe making I’m embarking on that is pure joy and connection with my middlest child.

We all love Stardew Valley in this house, and MiniMighty is like me in that she also really enjoys spreadsheets and obsessive completionism. I’m going to embark on making every recipe in this book with MiniMighty. It’s going to be a good exercise for both of us, and hopefully I can pass on to her how to complete a satisfying fandom-based project while rejecting perfectionism – there are some bonkers ingredients in this book that we will be adapting to things we can get locally! (In 10 years I have never found fennel in an arctic grocery store. Hilariously, I have found fiddleheads.)

In Conclusion

My kids are at lovely ages and stages, and every day that goes by, I want to lean into that more. Teen years are coming, and this is in some ways my last chance to dump all the love and connection I can into them while their hearts are open.

There are a lot of unknowns in our future. Two out of three kids will for sure go to different schools in the fall, and they are all growing up fast. The big pieces of our life might stay exactly the same, or they might change. And I can only be thankful for the health that we enjoy; I’m trying not to take that for granted.

I predict there will be some changes. I predict we will keep growing as people. I predict I’ll make about five sweaters, four quilts, a little woven fabric, twenty accessories, ten pairs of socks, and a whole big whack of yarn. I predict we’ll travel south in the summer for another epic road trip. My only real non-negotiable hope is that we’re all together at the end of the year. Self, cherish your dear ones as well as you can.

Thank you again for being here. I appreciate your reading, and I so appreciate when you take the time to comment with kind words and share your own experiences. Blogs are rather dinosaurs of the internet, so it means a lot that you take the detour from social media scrolling to read and really be here. I hope we can keep hanging out and encouraging one another.

In the ironic quotation of James 2:16 that I borrow from the late Dr. Dwight Peterson, I commend you to go in peace, be warm and well-fed. Happy New Year!