A little “ena wrapped” for 2025! I spent most of 2024 unable to do anything due to an injury, and slowly ramped up my ability to do things like sewing again in 2025. It was a really fun year. I don’t feel like going in depth into absolutely everything, but I’ll highlight my favourites and most challenging projects, and also throw in some fun statistics like “do I actually use these things still?”

Quickly before the crafts: Reading!

I love the easy graphs Storygraph gives me. I read a LOT in January because for Christmas 2024 I got a Kobo, then it slowed down a bit through the year. I’m hoping to read one more book before the end of the year, but it might look less likely now (edit: close but not there!). I only gave 2 books 5 stars this year (both in the murderbot series) and that is a big drop from last year. I procrastinated reading a lot of good books and instead just read a lot of fun silly books, which rarely get 5 stars from me, but maybe was what I needed in 2025.

My favourite book I overall read this year was … I hate to pick a book in a series, but this wasn’t really the year of 5 star books for me… So I think the book that gripped me the most was Network Effect by Martha Wells, book 5 (or something? the order can be confusing) of the murderbot series. I love murderbot so much (tv show was acceptable), I think almost anyone would enjoy it. In the second half of my year (a bit of a slump), I really enjoyed “Several People are Typing”, a great comedy book based on a guy having his consciousness sucked into slack. Very relatable.

In a separate category because I have a love/hate relationship with romance books but for some reason keep reading romance books, I think the best romance book(s) I read this year was the Mead Mishap series by Kimberly Lemming, just for how much fun it was and how it didn’t take itself too seriously. I love a fun book, but when it overinflates itself and pretends it has a super deep plot but then ends up only being romance, I get very annoyed at the lost potential. Kimberly Lemming knows how to write a fun book.

Some fun stats

My top genres were very much what I expected:

…aaand a very quick overview of every book I read in order:

I read more non-fiction this year than previous years, partially due to using books to learn new skills instead of relying on the internet, which was a bit of an experiment that I really enjoyed. Two non-fictions I read were the Clojure book for my new job and also “Respect the Spindle” because I started spinning (yarn)! I often don’t rate non-fiction though, because I feel like the scale is so different to fiction. I also often struggle with fiction audiobooks, but non-fiction audiobooks are like an incredibly well researched podcast!

I think this also works well for cookbooks (not counted obviously), to avoid the online recipe trap (tons of ads and preludes), and I want to try relying on them more. It can be tricky though, becuase I’m looking for easy meals and a lot of cookbook recipes are like 4+ hour affairs.

Plans for 2026

There a few books I’m dying to read. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries was my favourite book of 2024 and I pre-ordered the last in the series which I received in February… and I still haven’t read it. I’m making myself do it as soon as possible (… which is when my library books allow it. Does anyone else have this problem, where they fail to read books they own because the library ones have deadlines?) I also have the second book in the Hierarchy series by James Islington which I really want to read.

The Crafts! Sewing, Knitting, Spinning, and more!

Will this mainly be notion screenshots after all the storygraph screenshots? … Drum roll? … Yes it will be, I’m sorry… I track basically everything on notion so it just makes it easiest for me, and I’m running on fumes writing this so I don’t feel like editing nice collages when all the info is already collected and indexed well by me.

Summary & Statistics

In 2025 I did 33 projects that were significant enough I logged them in my notion.

I’m a little surprised sewing is higher than knitting, because I spent significantly more time knitting than sewing this year. I think that makes sense because each project was much longer, and a lot of my sewing projects were 1 day projects. Knitting projects rarely are that quick, and as I’m more experienced in knitting than sewing I tend to take on more complex knitting projects. It was not a big crochet year, I think I did more crochet in 2024.

There’s only 1 cross-stitch project because I did it for a friend, I don’t plan to do more soon. There’s only 1 spinning project because I only just learned how to spin (drop spindle!), and am excited to do a lot more. The 3 mending projects were all in the last week, and they were incredibly quick and easy. I want to do more mending going forward, obviously I care about the things in my to-mend pile enough to put them in the pile rather than donate or scrap.

SOCKS get their own category because this month I finally (after 2 years and a longterm injury!) finished my circular sock knitting machine. I 3d printed this one and it took a long time due to the complicated assembly and me procrastinating it a lot. I’m very proud of my socks though, so far I’ve only done afterthought heels/toes but I plan to learn very soon how to do heels/toes on the machine!

Now onto one of the most important category, I added a new field to my notion db called “Do I still use/wear it?” as a metric of how successful my craft year was. A summary:

2 of the “sometimes” projects are my Picnic Palace crown and my Bub Bonnet. These were both more costume-y pieces for my Birthday and Halloween, respectively, so I don’t count them as a failure even if they get less use.

There is one aspect I failed in. I said that in 2025, I was going to make less gifts, because I noticed in 2024 I really prioritized gifts because they have a deadline, similar to how I rarely read books I own because library books have a deadline. This “failed”, maybe 2026 will be my selfish year finally? I hope so, because I also deserve things I make!! I need to remember to prioritize myself.

The only fail was my Adriana Dress, I used a terribly stiff fabric and didn’t have enough and it was a giant mess that fit terribly. I didn’t want to go find it buried in my craft closet to take a photo, so enjoy the pattern image below. I don’t want to think about it more.

I think for an entire year that is an amazing achievement! In 2023 & 2024 I made a lot of things I no longer use, mainly due to mistakes in material/fibre type (I hate wearing acrylic), and I’ve really done well at learning what does and doesn’t work for me.

Knitting

If you want to see more of my knitting/crochet projects in detail (more photos, yarn, gauge, etc) see my ravelry.

Crochet

Sewing

Why is there no easy website like ravelry for sewing? If the projects name is just a description (eg. “red tiered skirt”) then that is not following a pattern, but if it’s something like “June Pants” or “Orchard dress” then you can google that for the pattern (both of these are by Helen’s closet, great for beginners!)

Mending

I hope to see this section grow in 2026! These projects were max 1 hour to fix and were very rewarding.

Cross-stitch

Spinning

Socks

I can’t wait to learn how to do heels on my machine, that’s my next main focus on my CSM (circular sock machine). Maybe I’ll do a little summary of all my socks once I get a good pace going, but I’ve been struggling to find a good tutorial for machine heels & toes that makes sense to me. I might look into Sweet Georgia’s new CSM classes, although a bit frustrating I can’t just buy the one class I want… although I did just buy a loom.

Highlight projects

The projects I want to talk more about are the three sweaters I made this year, because I am the most proud of them and put the most time and effort into all three of them. Also all three of them got a bonus side project? which might be my favourite thing to do.

Project 1: Handsome Chris Sweater

The first was the Handsome Chris sweater (based on Knives out) which I made for my boyfriend.

I also made a matching sweater with leftover yarn for our cat Riki! (She has worn it for maybe 10 minutes total, but they’re still adorable together)

This project was really the only project I worked on in the first half of 2025. It took me a total of 9 months from Nov 2023 to July 2025, where it was woefully out of season. This thing is incredibly warm, I can really see the cables shine at trapping warmth, which makes sense since cables originate from sweaters made for fishermen, I believe? Luckily, it has gotten a lot of wear this winter.

Actually, when I told people I was knitting a sweater for my boyfriend, there was a lot of scary “ooohs” regarding the boyfriend sweater curse. I think this curse happens because people realize the gift-ee is not adequately deserving of the amount of time invested in the gift. My boyfriend, obviously, was an amazing gift-ee. A couple weeks before I finished the sweater, I told him he wasn’t going to be allowed to hang it (hanging is terrible for knits, even non-hand knits! it stretches terribly. I wasn’t going to spend this long on a sweater for him to hang it). Then a few days later I ran into him clearing off a space in his closet for the sweater to go. It was incredibly touching, and solidified to me that he was obviously deserving of the sweater. He loves it, wears it all the time, and has asked for more… although I had to tell him maybe it’s time for him to learn to knit.

Also, maybe a bit egotistical, but I love knitting for him because then I get to look at my knits when out and about. When we’re sitting by the campfire, or across a table in a restaurant, I get to zone out looking at the sweater like “wow, I did that” and it’s an amazing feeling. When I’m wearing a sweater I knit, with beautiful colourwork I don’t get to see it! This really feels like a scam run by Big Boyfriend to get me to knit him more things. This is also why I rarely gift knits to other people, I did not spend this much time knitting something to risk never seeing it ever again. Lost in a drawer? Would break my heart, so I don’t risk it unless I get a specific request. (I know, I still did a lot of gifts this year… I’m a work in progress)

I did however, have many a mental breakdowns working on this sweater. I wanted to use this yarn (wooldreamers mota, it’s so amazing! very rustic, but it softens a lot up with the first wash, and it holds the cables so well as a result) and despite it being labeled DK (like the pattern) it really should be labeled worseted. For my usual M-wearing boyfriend, I knit a small, and the fit turned out well.

There was a point in time when I undid 60 rows of a single cable because the repeat was mismatched, only to realize I had done an accidental short row (knit the wrong direction, right at the point of a beefy cable so the hole was hidden) and that was why it was mismatched. I guess that’s a lesson you learn once and never make again, right? I hope so. I did fix it, although I had to segment the strands of yarns into groups of 4 to be able to keep the spaghetti mess straight.

I did make one mistake though, I didn’t account for the width of the neckline when I resized. Each size has the same width, so my different gauge resulted in a overly wide neckline. Unfortunately I didn’t realize until I had finished seaming the sides and the sleeves. (Have I mentioned I hate seaming? I may never do such an intense seamed sweater again…) So what I did instead was undo the seaming on the shoulders, undo the seaming on the top of the sleeves (basically unseam the minimal required amount) and reknit the top front piece of the sweater… with it all loose an wonky, then seamed it back up! It worked, somehow, and I didn’t create a spaghetti mess!

I can’t find photos of any of this, unfortunate since it was an epic mess, I’ll try and document better in 2025.

And it all worked out great! He loves it! …There’s only one problem. It’s slightly too short. I may have had another minor mental breakdown about this. We decided he would wear it for the winter, and in the summer I would try some different ways to lengthen it. Unfortunately, it’s a bottom-up twisted rib and seamed on the sides, so I don’t think it’ll be easy. Placing a lifeline & unraveling the ribbing and re-doing it will be difficult due to the seams, and picking up stitches probably won’t look good because of the twisted rib and wrong direction. There is the unhinged idea to knit extra ribbing and graft it on (twisted), but I’m thinking about just adding a stockinette rolled hem at the bottom… I’m going to do a couple trial squares and ask my boyfriend which he prefers (and strongly encourage him towards the easiest option).

Project 2: Norma sweater

Then I made the Norma sweater!

And my other cat got a matching sweater too :)

I had spent enough time knitting for other people, now it was my turn. Is it bragging if I tell you this was my first ever colourwork project? I practised a lot with the swatch and committed. I was really afraid of colourwork because I have a slightly tight tension, and I was so scared of puckering. 1x1 colourwork was was a great beginner project, and I tried holding the contrast colour in my left hand (I usually hold yarn in my right) and it was pretty easy!

I got this amazing alpaca yarn at a local yarn festival, although my blue was slightly darker than the original pattern, and I decided the contrast between the tan & blue was stronger than tan & red, so I decided to put the blue right against the tan instead. AKA I just flipped the red & blue from the original pattern. I love the colours, and I love how well it pairs with my clothes because of the hint of red (I have a lot of red) without being too much (… I have a lot of red).

It took me only one month to knit and it was a very easy breezy project. I did something for the first time that I will do in all sweaters from now on, I cast on the required number of stitches and skipped the collar ribbing. Then when I was partly done the body, I picked up stitches for the collar and knit it bottom up. I like doing this for two reasons:

1. Knitting the collar first makes it impossible to check fit, as there is no more sweater. I may want a different length rib, and changing it later would be difficult.
2. The cast-on edge is much stronger at the top of the sweater, and prevents it stretching out at the neck.

I think I will do this going forward in reverse too with a bottom-up sweater, start after the rib and come back to add it. Then I don’t have to fear the length not being long enough, and if it is then it’s super easy to fix.

I went a bit mad with colourwork after this for the rest of the year, and started adding it to every project I was doing, slowly ramping up difficulty. In achieving so much colourwork this year (in this and later projects), I feel like an unstoppable knitter. Is there anything I can’t make? I don’t think so >:) Is this audacity? Or over-confidence? I don’t feel afraid of any technique, I’m confident with enough time and practice I could do anything. It’s such a freeing feeling, but also I’m a bit stressed about the raw number of projects I want to make. I guess artist overwhelm is better than artist block (I chant to myself on repeat).

Project 3: Nocturnal sweater

And my last big project of the year was the Nocturnal sweater! Affectionately I call this my “Riki sweater”, and I moved the white spot on the cat from the original pattern to the cat’s chest, because my Riki has a white spot on her chest.

I don’t think I have any photos of it being worn, and I’m warm in bed writing this with Riki sitting on me and I don’t want to move… but also I want to get this out soon or I won’t finish it in 2025, so we’ll just go with the flat view.

I also knit a lewsky hood using the leftover yarn, and threw a bonus cat on the back, since I had the yarn and chart anyways. I did this one actually using intarsia instead of stranded colourwork, and did duplicate stitching for a lot of the small details.

Leftover yarn is why I did so many accessory projects to go with my main sweater projects. The first reason is because accessories and matching things are fun, I love it when my clothes match. When the colour of my pants match a shade in my tops exactly? Absolutely magic, un-describable joy. Also, I am a chronic over-yarn buyer. Yarn chicken? I don’t know her, because again I have anxiety and it will absolutely ruin the entire relaxing part of knitting if I’m worried about running out of yarn.

Was it a bit ambitious for me to try and knit it entirely in one month (so I could wear it on Halloween)? Yes, and I knew it was. Halfway through the month I decided it would be my “Halloween project” and it was appropriately coloured to be my Christmas sweater (I did wear it on Christmas despite overheating, art demands sacrifice). The Norma sweater set my sights too high, I was also working on Christmas gifts at the time (the giant garlic pillows I crocheted were for my boyfriend) and three stranded colourwork was much slower than two stranded. There’s the smallest amount of puckering at the top of the moon that I am actively trying to force my brain to step far away enough so I don’t notice. I’m still incredibly happy with how it turned out.

(I did the neck thing again, and shortened it again like the Norma sweater. I don’t like long funnel necks, they really limit wearing options. If I need a high neck, I’ll wear a scarf, hood, or turtleneck underlayer).

Plans for 2026

Current WIPS

My oldest wip… the lacey bolero… I have barely worked on this year. I also don’t know if I’ll work on it in 2026, it’s not a high priority. But I don’t want to move it from in-progress to on-hold. Let’s not talk about the denial I’m in. Maybe magic will happen and I will actually finish it this year?

The jigsaw pants I’d say are 75% done, I can’t wait for them to be fully done, I really like the pattern.

The rest are just current projects I expect to slowly work on or quickly finish at the start of 2026! (Ignore the censored ones, I don’t want my friends to see the gifts I’m working on (which will be very very late for Christmas, again let’s not talk about it. If they don’t know they exist, then they aren’t late!))

Planned

This is the most exciting category to me! I tend to get really overwhelmed when I don’t have a plan, because there are so many projects I want to work on. So this is my top priority list for 2026, it is very long and I may put myself on at least a 6 month yarn buying ban… because I do have the yarn for all of these projects.

The seersucker dress mentioned to repair is a somewhat fail of this year, I want to redo the top because it’s really not comfortable to wear. It is cute and technically wearable (which is why it wasn’t marked a fail), but I never reach for it as a result.

I also want to do more spinning, but I’m going to focus on my current spinning WIP first. My plan when the yarn is done is to do a musselburg since I don’t have to worry about the resulting gauge.

Roughly half of the planned knitting projects are going to be self-drafted, which I’ve been enjoying doing. Often I do refer to a pattern, but then completely resize it for a different yarn and to fit me better (eg. mittens usually come in very limited size ranges). If the name of the item isn’t the pattern name, then I plan on designing it myself. I did just buy the yarn for the Porcelain sweater and I am trying desperately to contain the motivation until I get some other projects done first.

The red gloves I’m really excited for after making my own mittens this year (two pairs, both inspired by free patterns but completely re-graded and re-sized for me/my partners hands). I want to design my own gloves that perfectly fit my hands… like a glove. I kind of hate that expression because I’ve never worn a pair of gloves that fit me well (I have pretty large hands for a woman? but narrow wrists so default sizes rarely fit). I got this beautiful red yarn with a bit of yak in it! although I’m not sure if I’ll hold it with an extra strand of mohair for added warmth. I want do a very very in-dept post when I actually make the gloves working through all my calculations. I’m trying to gather the motivation, and motivation breeds motivation so maybe this little (it didn’t end up short, oops) blog post will kick me off well.

I also want to do more sewing, although I still feel like more of a beginner (I did get my serger this year!! which feels like a big milestone, although I’ve mainly been doing thousands of flat-felled seams for my Jigsaw pants so it hasn’t seen too much use yet), so I’m excited to let patterns lead me for now. I would love to get more into the math of it in the future too though.

I also just got a rigid heddle loom (ashford 24") that I’m excited to learn weaving on! It has been stained and assembled but not warped, I need to learn how to do that. Ok now I’m starting to overwhelm myself again… too much crafting, not enough time. I wish I could just spend all day crafting, I’ve been a bit stressed this holiday break trying to get as much done as I can before work, but also trying to rest so I’m not burnt out when I get back to work.

But I’m excited to see how many of these I actually get done, I’ll definitely come back at the end of 2026 to compare.

New job is going well at least! Much better than last job.