The last six years I have done an end of year summary, not just crafting items, but holidays and events. This is mostly for my own records.

The year in numbers

• 78 creative projects:
  • 39 felted
    • 14 baubles
    • 14 lampshades (10 x 20cm, 3 x 25cm, 1 x 35cm)
    • 8 fairies
    • 1 wreath
    • 1 pumpkin
    • 1 pincushion
  • 15 finished knitted projects
    • 3 hats
    • 3 gnomes
    • 2 cowls
    • 2 dishcloths
    • 1 jumper
    • 1 sock pair
    • 1 cardigan
    • 1 leg warmers
    • 1 blanket
  • 15 different breeds plus 8 fibres/blends spun (over 1.3 miles of finished yarns)
  • 7 weaving projects
    • 4 Inkle bands
    • 2 Tapestry
    • 1 sample
  • 2 sewn bunting
• 14 baking projects (including birth of my first sourdough)
• 52 books:
  • 21 read (paper or kindle)
  • 31 audiobooks
• 6 holidays
  • 3 cottage/glampod breaks with husband (Kingairloch, Fife and Skye)
  • 3 mini breaks with friends (2 x Anglesey, Dundee)
• 8 cinema visits
• 1 day out on Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP)
• 1 music concerts/festivals
• 1 theatre show
• 1 wedding
• 1 hair cut
• 1 afternoon tea

As usual, I have included at the bottom a yarn incoming -v- outgoing summary. You may wish to skip down to that section, as the monthly summary is really for my own records.

I share this yearly summary here because it’s lovely (for me) to have to look back on, it helps remind me which year things happened and I may inspire others to do the same . (I draft this post during the year and add the totals at the end of the year.)

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Bullet Keys

Reading: 📚 Reading (📖 book 🎧 audiobook)
Crafts: 🧶 knitting (unless crochet specified), 🕸 weaving, 🌀 spinning, 🗡 needle felting, 🧼 wet felting, 🧵 sewing
House: 🧹 decluttering, 🏠 house related,🐕 dog related, 👩🏻‍🍳 baking, 🌱 gardening, 🛠 DIY
Social: 🏄‍♀️ SUP/kayak, 🎭 theatre, 🎟️ cinema, 🎫 concert, 🏡 holiday rental, 🗺 holiday, 🚂 train trip/holiday
Self Care: 🧘‍♀️ yoga, 👩‍🎓 course or workshop , 👩‍⚕️ medical related, 💇🏼‍♀️ haircut, 👩‍💻job

January

📚🎧 Non-Fiction: (1) At Knit’s End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, (2) Why has nobody told me this before? by Julie Smith. Biography: (3) The Tw*t Files by Dawn French
📚📖 Non-Fiction: (1) Ghosts: The Button House Archives

🧼 2 x 20cm lampshades for specific customer
🧶 Carmel Beanie in Texel Chunky
🌀 dyed purple Shetland, 4 x baby camel and silk advent colours (peachy pink, green, greyish blue, peach)

🚂 trip to Cheshire, Anglesey and Wirral visiting friends and lunch with parents

🧘‍♀️ Adriene’s 30 day yoga (well managed 26 days in a row)
👩‍⚕️ smear and blood test

February

📚🎧 Non-Fiction: (4) Ghosts: The Button House Archives (yep I own 2 copies so read and listened to it). Biography: (5) The Salt Path by Raynor Winn. Fiction: (6) You and Me on Vacation by Emily Henry

🧶 Just Wiggle It cowl and 2nd Bisbis beret in handspun merino/alpaca
🌀 Devonia (Exmoor, BFL and Wensleydale) Nature’s Cuddle blend (llama, merino, yak and silk)
🗡 pin pot cushion top

🎭🎟️ NT Live : Vanya

👩‍💻 resigned from office job

March

📚🎧 Fiction: (7) The Retreat by Sarah Pearson, (8) Snow by John Banville.
📚 📖 Fiction: (2) Keep Her Secret by Mark Edwards

🧶 All Work, Gnome Play (Gnorwen), Gansey Afghan
🧼 6 x 20cm shades
🗡 6 x Baubles, 1 x Wreath
🌀 Icelandic

👩‍🍳 Jam biscuits

🏡 Pier Cottage, Kingairloch and £££ dinner at The Boathouse

April

📚🎧 Fiction: (9) Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. Biography: (10) The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
📚 📖 Fiction: (3) Long Time Dead by T M Payne, (4) The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, (5) Both of You (US title Woman Last Seen) by Adele Parks

🧶 Gnome-Made Gifts (Gnova), Dish cloth
🌀 2 x baby camel and silk (blue and blue/yellow)
🕸️ Diamond Stripe sample in WYS Exquisite, bought frame loom and finished two tapestry samples

🧹 Donated some bedding, yoga wheel, mini air hockey, pine mirror, small odds and ends and dropped off some textile recycling items.  Decluttered some old bits from the garage.
🏠 Craftroom – Painted and got a new IKEA desk, sold old one and changed room around.  Picture shelf fitted.
🐕 Ylva had lump on foot removed
🌱 Planted vegetable and flower seeds
🛠 jet washed patio and path

May

📚🎧 Fiction: (11) The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood, (12) Broken Light by Joanne Harris.
📚📖 Fiction: (6) Just Between Us (US Title is Two Dead Wives) by Adele Parks

🧼 3 x 25cm seascape shades
🌀 darkest blue and 3 x yellow baby camel & silk advent (FO full advent)
🌀 Lonk, Lleyn, Charollais, Jacob & Coopworth breeds.
🌀 Guild day at Dundreggan Rewilding Centre
🕸️ bought (2nd hand) 3rd 10” heddles size 7.5 and 10 dpi

👩‍🍳 granola
🛠 painted picnic table, jet washed part of fencing

🏄‍♀️ SUP with Jo
🎟️ IF

👩‍💻 restarted office job

June

📚🎧 Fiction: (13) The River’s Edge by Joy Ellis, (14) One Last Secret by Adele Parks, (15) Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood

🧶 Where Ever I Lay My Hat (Gnemo), Waffle dish cloth and purple stripe socks
🧼 2 x 20cm seascape ceiling shades, 1 x 35cm seascape shade
🕸️ bought (2nd hand) 3rd 10” heddles size 12.5 and 15 dpi
🌀 Coastal colours merino/alpaca/camel/silk
🌀 hand combed Suffolk and Boreray fleece samples.
🗡 8 baubles (4 sea, 4 land)

🛠 painted 1.5 gates and some fence panels

🍰 birthday afternoon tea
🚂 Last mini break with Helen, to Dundee, including Japanese themed afternoon tea at V&A, Verdant Works, RRS Discovery, day trip to Edinburgh to see the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

👩‍⚕️ Noticed some shoulder tip pain

July

📚🎧 Fiction: (16) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
📚 📖 Fiction: (7) The Darkest Water by Mark Edwards

🧶 Quick Sand #3, Leg Warmers
🌀 hand combed Blue Texel, Castlemilk Moorit, Lincoln Longwool, Romney, Suffolk and Zwartbles fleece samples
🌀 Breeds: Blue Texel, Boreray, Castlemilk Moorit, Devon, Exmoor Horn, Lincoln Longwool, Romney, Suffolk, Zwartbles breeds
🌀 WoW Bee-you-tiful custom blend, Merino/bamboo I blended myself
🧵 bunting

🎭 Anton and Giovanni dance tour
🎟️ Despicable Me 4
👰🤵 wedding – Steph and James
🍽️ Dinner at Coul House Hotel for husband’s birthday
🎫⛺️ Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival

👩‍⚕️ stopped being able to raise my left arm
💇🏼‍♀️ hair cut at Scizzor Sisters

August

📚🎧 Fiction: (17) The Nothing Man by Catherine Ryan Howard, (18) Looking for Andrew McCarthy by Jenny Colgan. Biography: (19) This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay, (20) Undoctored: The Story of a Medic Who Ran Out of Patients. Non-Fiction: (21) Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken.
📚📖 Fiction: (8) The Scottish Ladies’ Detective Agency by Lydia Travers, (9) A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, (10) Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris. Non-Fiction: (11) Seasonal Soups (recipe book) by Fraser Reid, (12) The Nordic Baker: Plant-based bakes and seasonal stories from a kitchen in the heart of Sweden.
*Moved book tracking from Goodreads to Storygraph

🗡️ 8 fairies

🎟️ Deadpool & Wolverine, Blink Twice

👩‍⚕️ Diagnostic Physiotherapist – diagnosed with Adhesive Capsulitis/Frozen Shoulder.

September

📚🎧 Fiction: (22) Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson, (23) Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer (re-read), (24) The Avocado Hotel by Bob Mortimer. Non-Fiction: (25) Ayres on the Air series 1-6

🧶 The Shift (#2) in handspun

🗺️ Trip south: Stay in Dumfries at Norah’s; stay at parents’; lunch with Elaine; long weekend in Anglesey with girlfriends, including Seaweed bath and Plas Newydd; brunch with Mike; and shopping at Gretna Outlet
🎟️ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
🚗 Day trip to Dornoch and another to Ullapool before trading in cars and became a one car family.

👩‍⚕️ Steroid injection in frozen shoulder

October

📚🎧 Fiction: (26) The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. Non-Fiction: (27) Be Useful by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
📚📖 Non-Fiction: (13) The New Rules of Menopause; a Mayo Clinic guide to perimenopause and beyond. Fiction: (14) Everyone in my family has killed someone by Benjamin Stevenson, (15) The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods.

🧶 Classic rib hat
🕸️👩‍🎓 Band weaving with rigid heddle class, I made a red and green Baltic band.
🕸️ First go at tablet/card weaving, blue, grey and red band.

🎟️ Joker: Folie á Deux

👩‍🍳 first successfully risen pumpkin muffins!!  Started my first sourdough starter…then started another as first wasn’t right. Delicious sourdough loaf, overnight sourdough apple cake and sourdough discard granola!
🌱 Trees: We had crabapple, 5 front conifers, larger corner conifer and front silver birch cut down. Then alder, back birch, row of conifers, decorate maple and two rowans reduced in size by professionals. Did some other pruning ourselves.
🌱 Veg garden tidying up.

👩‍⚕️ first mammogram, slight increase in movement of shoulder

November

📚🎧 Fiction: (28) Murder at the Fitzwilliam by Jim Eldridge. Non-Fiction: (29) A Slice of Fried Gold by Nick Frost.
📚📖 Fiction: (16) Lies, Lies, Lies by Adele Parks. Biography/Non-Fiction: (17) Landlines by Raynor Winn

🧶 Avena by Jennifer Steingass

👩‍🍳 Sourdough recipes: choc chip cookies, sourdough with sundried tomatoes and rosemary, apple cake, sourdough with seeds on crust
🐕 Ylva passed away 💔

🏡 Cunnoquhie Lodge, Fife (meal at Boar’s Head, delicious vegan ice cream in St Andrews and bird watching)
🎟️ Paddington in Peru

👩‍⚕️ frozen shoulder painful stage continued

December

📚🎧 Fiction: (30) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Non-Fiction: (31) The Secret History of Christmas by Bill Bryson
📚📖 Fiction: (18) The Almanac 2024 by Lia Leendertz, (19) The Christmas Book Hunt by Jenny Colgan, (20) Murder at the British Museum by Jim Eldridge, (21) Every Day Nature: How noticing nature can quietly change your life by Andy Beer.

🕸 Red and black tablet weaving, Minion tablet weaving

👩🏻‍🍳 sourdough crumpets and seeded loaves

🏡 Cuillin View, Elgol, Isle of Skye
🎄 Christmas at ours with MIL

👩‍⚕️ frozen shoulder continued

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Yarn Usage Summary 2024

At the end of 2023 I had 53.5 miles of yarn in my stash. By the end of 2024 I have 58.97 miles…oops! I had 8.59 miles incoming and used 3.13 miles!

Of the extra 5.46 miles I added to my stash, 1.37 miles was handspun by me. My shoulder has restricted any larger weaving projects and length of time I can knit, which has affected usage.

I have acquired some really beautiful yarns this year and have in mind some projects. Also I stocked up on New Lanark Yarn, since they’ve stopped producing. So this will be for projects in the next few years ahead. I certainly don’t need to purchase any new jumper yarn for the next few years! This year I had an advent that I’m absolutely thrilled with.

Knitting 24.06
Weaving 30.68
Homespun 4.23
Total miles 58.97

Overall I’m comfortable with what I have and know I’ll use it, especially once my shoulder is sorted.

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Final thoughts on 2024 and hopes for 2025

The second half of this year has really been affected by my frozen shoulder, regular readers must be sick of me mentioning it. It has prevented me from getting out on my SUP, stopped me being able to do my wet felting projects, wider weaving projects and has really affected my sleep and therefore energy levels.

I left my part-time job in February but then rejoined in May on reduced hours/days which has been working out well. Especially as it gives me some income to spend on holiday breaks with friends.

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During the year I switched from using Goodreads to StoryGraph to track my reading. Of the 52 books I read in 2024 there were 8 biographies, 12 non-fiction, 32 fiction. I will do a separate post about my year in books and paste in the graphs the app produces.

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My hope for 2025 is the return of the full, pain free, use of my shoulder and hopefully some better nights of sleep.

Thank you so much if you made it this far. I’m so grateful for everyone who has commented or Liked or just read my posts during the year. I wish you all a very happy 2025.

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