Crafts in 2013—what did you all make?

What did you all make in 2013 when it comes to crocheting, knitting, sewing, and embroidery?
Or rather: How much yarn did you use, in grams or meters?
How many square meters of fabric did you need to complete your projects?
I hope all your crochet hooks, knitting needles, embroidery needles, and sewing needles are still in one piece.

Calculating it for the whole year would be a bit much :-) But in December, it was about 3.5 kg of yarn and 6 new knitting needles and crochet hooks, since I needed some other sizes; on the other hand, that month was fabric-free. Sewing won’t be back on the agenda until January.
On top of that, this year I used 4 packs of printer paper for sewing patterns and to jot down pattern notes, two notebooks, and quite a few boxes to store the finished projects.

Wow
I’m truly speechless at such industriousness.

Seriously, wow—kudos to orimono—that’s quite a feat.
I hope you’ll actually do something with the finished pieces—that is, that you’ll find a use for them and not just store them away?
It would be a shame if they just stayed in a box forever.
Four packs of printer paper for sewing patterns, etc.—that’s really a lot.

Things will probably really take off for you in 2014 when it comes to crafts.
Not much was going on for me.

I was a beginner at crocheting when I stumbled in here a few months ago.
You could follow my crocheting progress and experiments with other craft techniques—I had my own thread for quite a while.
So, this year I found out that acrylic yarn really isn’t my thing at all, because I seem to have some kind of allergic reaction to it.
Which is a real shame, because acrylic yarn is available pretty much everywhere.
So that only leaves cotton and, sometimes, polyester yarn, viscose, and microfiber for me.
Polyester somehow isn’t as bad as that acrylic stuff.

Anyway, I worked with crochet hooks of various sizes, as well as ribbon yarn and a few novelty yarns.
I made
- a scarf—blue/white, with ribbon yarn, 100% cotton, very fine
- a blanket for the cats, because the windowsill is always so icy, but the cats like watching cars and they shouldn’t have to freeze while doing it.
- I tried making a hat, but stupidly the thing turned out far too big, so now it’s become a sort of cozy nest for the cats.
- I crocheted several decorative flowers, each in two colors and different sizes
- several crooked potholders, see my avatar picture ;) but my crochet work isn’t that crooked anymore
- aside from that, I tried out all sorts of things, partly with patterns from crazypatterns, and partly with videos from YouTube.

I also tried knitting, but it wasn’t my thing, so I stopped again.
I didn’t do any embroidery—that’s not really my thing.
Sewing—well, I sewed a head on this year, does that count too? ;)
And other than that, lots of crocheting and unraveling again. I’m really good at that.

I had thought about crocheting a blanket—lots of little squares in a granny-square pattern and then joining them together.
That way, the blanket could have grown bit by bit, and I also would have had a good use for leftover yarn.
But I’m currently not in the mood for blankets.
At least not if I have to crochet them first. If they’re already finished, I’ll gladly take them.
Otherwise not.

Then I thought about making a kind of hooded jacket with front pockets to go with my ribbon-yarn scarf.
Two small front pockets, one on the right and one on the left, and then putting little kitten patches on the pockets. Unfortunately, I can’t sew in zippers, and with a button placket it would probably look a bit odd, at least the way I imagine it.
It would definitely need a hood, and I don’t quite trust myself to knit a hooded jacket yet.
The number of stitches and rows wouldn’t be the problem—I can manage that.
But making it so that the front and back, including the sleeves, all fit together properly, and then adding the hood as well—I still need a lot more practice for that.
But it would be nice.

That ribbon yarn I had, that super-soft ribbon yarn in blue and white,
costs 5 euros per 30 meters.
I don’t exactly think that’s cheap. I used four balls of yarn just for the scarf; for the jacket it would be at least
well, at least quite a lot.
I like oversized hoodies. Of course you need an awful lot of yarn for that, especially if there are only 29 or 30 meters on each ball. And first I’d have to find a decent pattern for a hoodie or a hooded jacket, especially if you can’t sew in a zipper. That’s really a big problem. I assume I’ll have to practice diligently and then cobble something together without a pattern. That will involve a lot of crocheting and unraveling. :)

So that’s about what it looks like for me.
I’m curious to see what the others will say.

In any case, I wish you all a productive 2014 with lots of beautiful handmade projects

It’s my job, so I have to do a lot—but I love this work :-)

I keep all the finished pieces; they’re stored away so I always have the originals. Well, of course I wear some of them too *grin*

@mützekatze
Why don’t you use pure wool? There’s a huge selection out there, so you don’t have to use synthetic fibers.

Oops, typos can’t be edited . . .

One more thing comes to mind: For your hoodie, you can also use felting yarn—the thicker kind that’s 50 meters per 50 grams. It’s also inexpensive, starting at 1.79 per skein.

Oh, I’ve never actually counted that. I create a folder for each year and put all the pictures in there.
Anyone who’s interested is welcome to take a look at the album.
muschele.magix.net

In 2013, a new cactus resident saw the light of day at my place — the rainbow snail :-)

Very cute little snail! :-)

Oh, that’s so cute—I’d like that one even without the cactus.