2021 in summary.  What a title for a blog post! 2021 was one of the most intense and challenging years of my life, for many and varied reasons.  And unfortunately, with covid-19 infections sky-rocketing in Australia, this year is not starting off as we’d hoped.  I’m grateful that our hard lockdowns over the past two years did buy us the time to get well over 90% of the 12+ population vaccinated (so much less likely to get seriously ill) but it’s still so depressing.  The entire health care sector is incredibly stretched already, businesses are closed due to staff being unwell or in isolation, supply chains everywhere are interrupted, and people aren’t getting the medical care they need for their other conditions.  Home RATs almost impossible to come by and PCR testing is overwhelmed.  Aarrgghh.

I’m not going to talk any more about that now; let’s look at the sewing and crocheting instead!  I didn’t think that I’d sewn as much as usual during 2021, but it turns out that I did make quite a lot after all!  Almost everything in these collages should be somewhere on my blog; if you want more details have a scroll or do a search as I’m not going to individually link to each garment.

So, for me:

Some of these were sewn as ‘work’ clothes, but I’ve barely worked on site over the past year. I tend not to wear my work clothes casually, and vice versa, although of course there are some exceptions. Most of what I made during the year was successful, although there are a couple of items that will be reworked or given away.  As per usual, my wardrobe is overfull and I need to remove about half of it.  That’s difficult when I like what’s there!  I joined Stasia’s Style School during sixth lockdown, and need to continue working through the materials that it included so that I can better refine my style and my wardrobe contents.  I started off strong, but there’s still quite a bit to do.

Next, my sewing for others! I am clearly not a selfless sewer, as I sewed much less for others than for myself.

I did make a little more progress on some patchwork/quilt projects, but these have stagnated. Maybe they’ll get finished in 2022…

The crafty highlight of 2021 has been watching Clare and her crochet! She learned to crochet in January 2021, starting with a cardigan crocheted from different coloured squares. I helped her a little with getting comfortable with holding the hook and the basic stitches, then she just went for it! Many of the patterns she’s used were found via Tiktok or Instagram or Etsy. She did also use YouTube for assistance when needed. She now crochets some items without a specific pattern, instead mashing together different stitch patterns and schematics from garments that inspire her. She crochets when watching Netflix or YouTube, or university tutorials! As well as crocheting herself garments, she’s made plenty of items for friends as birthday gifts. It’s pretty impressive! I doubt that these collages include everything she’s made, but it’s a good representation.

And yes, her yarn stash now far exceeds mine.  She does occasionally share her creations on Tiktok @dacapitalcrochet if you are so inclined!

I do have some sewing plans for 2022, but as well all know only too well, plans can change.  I’ve done some cutting out over the past few days, and hope that I will find my sewjo again soon.