Year End Challenge: My Crochet Year 2023 in Review

At the start of this year, I had high hopes that I'll be able to open up my online store in Shopee. I did, actually. But whenever I gear up to stock up on supplies, life always happens. I have just gotten the groove of our new homeschooling journey and being that we picked a different homeschooling provider last year, I was all about joining any community initiated activities. This pulled me a little bit away from my online selling goals but still I can say that 2023 has been a productive year for me in all aspects of my life but more importantly in my crocheting journey. Thanks to @needleworkmonday's Yearend Challenge, it gave me a chance to look back to the year that was.

Everybody has goals in January. It's the month of New Years' resolutions. All the negativity of last year are being avoided, and everybody just wants to live healthy. I, too, wanted to do that. This was the month I wanted to start my online shop. I have already clicked on the options to opening a shop in Shopee but did not really push through because I could not start with entering the item description. For some reason, I can blabber on about my projects here, but when in comes to making my listing, I couldn't really thoroughly describe it. I was too afraid I'll end up making a long ass blog post on my product listing. Then I got an excuse not to push through with listing my products. I was pulled to family reunions, homeschool activities, and others. Still, I was able to finish quite a few creations. These were gifted to different people on different occasions.

My bestfriend in highschool loved my crochet tulips so she made a bulk order of single stem tulips to be given away to the teachers of her kids. Funny story, her youngest thought she loved the single stem tulip too much, she took the flower out of the wrapper, kept it, and then gave her teacher just the wrapper. LOL. Kids are so adorable. I made quite a lot of tulips last February. I made a 3 stem bouquet for my previous co-worker, he gave it to his girlfriend. I love it when she posted it on her social media, she was so happy and surprised. I too, am surprised because I never pegged that co-worker to be the flower giving type. I also made bouquets for my mother-in-law for valentines, and grandmother-in-law for her 84th birthday.

Last March, people were raving about the Aquaflask tumblers. I had quite a few MTOs for these. At first, I just played the sizing by ear. I even purchased a pattern for one. Then I decided on buying ourselves our very own Aquaflasks and then I went ahead and made tumbler holders and sleeves of different sizes.

I also made several soap bags just because. I won a buttload of yarns last 2021 and I haven't really used up all of it so I make as much projects as I can whenever I can. March was the time for exams and gradings and family outing so I was pulled away from crocheting a lot of times.

April was one of the busiest months I had. It was the month of the Hive PH Meetup. It would be the first time I'll meet most of the people in Visayas and some of the HivePH peeps in Luzon. Together with @jonalyn2020, we made several crochet articles as souvenirs. We both just wanted to give something to everyone that made the time and effort to get there.

I am so thankful to @wittyzell for buying these Tulip Etimo crochet hooks from Japan. I bought 2 online, and my sister in crochet, Jonalyn gifted me one last December, but I really wanted to have all the different sizes. I had them on the cart already but I'm still waiting for a sale to check them all out. Thank you so much Witty, now, this is one of the essentials I have in my bag everytime I go out. I have my eye on the gray and pink ones, but those will have to wait until Witty's next trip home to the Philippines.

My biggest project last May was my mom's crochet cardigan. She has always wanted one. I thought about us having a crochet together date but since we're both always busy, I just went ahead and made her one for mothers' day. In a way, this is my thanks to her for teaching me how to crochet when I was young. To be honest, I couldn't figure out for the life of me how she was able to teach me. She's a right hander, I'm a leftie. You do the math. I am trying to teach my daughter how to crochet too, but she's a right hander too. We're still trying to figure it out. I hope she gets to love crocheting as well.

June was one of the months where I didn't have that much projects. This was the start of our schoolyear 2023-2024. I started early because I knew we'll be going out of town a lot of times and we did. I have planned a lot of field trips for this year as part of our homeschooling journey. This basket weave cardigan was requested by my daughter because she was starting to fall in love with the Harry Potter series. As part of her pretend play, she pretends to be one of the professors in the wizarding world. Naturally, she needed a professor's vest. And this is what she wanted to wear.

I made another big project last July. This is already a big project for me. 😅 The stitches I used here are the BLO and FPDC. I am truly amazed at the outcomes of the combinations of different stitches. I have always wanted to be able to produce a pattern of my own, one that I did not see off of the internet or from other books. This one, I created on my own, from scratch. This crochet longsleeves top is mine to be used on cold weathers. So far, I have only used this during times I get sick and it's too cold for me.

My August crochet projects is just full of random trinkets. My daughter requested the crochet zookeepers and I finished one this month. The youngsters were going on about cat ear beanies and naturally, I wanted to make one. I also learned a new stitch called the Jacob's Ladder stitch. I made a pouch with that stitch. I gave that pouch to my daughter and now, she's using it as her beauty bag with all her hair clips, hair pins, baby powder and all the other stuff she uses during her performance.

Our homeschooling journey is all about baskets so I updated my daughter's learning basket. I made a long chain and glued it on the box that she's using and made an aesthetic looking basket.

September is the season of mug holders and bag charms. I made several of these bag charms and sold quite a few. I gifted the Poring bag charms to my fellow Ragnarok player and party mate. I have also finished the second doll that my daughter requested. So that's 2 down, 1 more to go. I noticed that as I was making the bag charms, another bag charm idea pops in my mind. This somehow inspired me even more to finish one bag charm after another.

I made a crochet wallet for myself. I used my leftover yarns for the wallet. It turns out, it's not just a quick project, it also doesn't use that much yarns. Perfect for leftover yarns and just for feeling fulfilled for having finished a project after a busy day at home.

October is my birth month. My daughter gifted me 3 skeins of 8 ply milk cotton yarns. She picked her favorite color and it's fine because the projects I made for the yarns she gave me were all for her. I made her a jellyfish bag charm, a pair of socks, and a beanie. I love that she did her best to keep this from me, she enlisted her father in keeping this surprise and even used her own money for the gift.

My November is full on frantic mode. I had to go out tons of times because it was the month before my daughter's recital. We went from rehearsals to rehearsals and I went from shop to shop looking for costumes and everything needed for their performance. This was also the month I received another bulk order of the year. 100 crochet mushroom keychains. I love how colorful my milk cotton yarn collections is now that I stocked up for this order. I also snuck a bit of a quick project in the middle of the bulk order to make my daughter's crochet flower bouquet.

I originally planned on selling crochet hair clips early this year. All the supplies needed have been purchased, I also stocked up on lots and lots of glue stick. Somehow, I couldn't find the inspiration to start working on the hair clips. Don't worry, I found it finally. At the end of the year. I was able to make several designs in one sitting one morning. And that's it. I've tried drawing drafts of designs, it turns out all I need is just a peaceful morning with no interruptions. LOL

What a year that was!

Looking back at the year that was, I can say I have indeed been productive despite of everything. I only wanted to make sure that I have 1 project each month, that would have made me so happy. Finishing more than 1 project on most month makes me so happy. And for each project, there's always something new to learn. Some skill to improve. Some new stitch to discover. Some new pattern to make. Next year, I think I'll stick with the 1 project a month target but I'll add stocking up on crochet trinkets so that I won't have to twice as hard when a bulk order comes in. You'll never really know when the next one will knock. As I learned in the Richest Man in Babylon, Lady Luck is a fickle one, once she knocks, you have to be prepared.

If you reached up to here, thank you so much for taking the time to read my post. Sending holiday cheers to you and yours!