In 2013, or the year in review.

2013 has been a pretty good year for me and my family. I think that overall it has been filled with more joy and good things than last year. So now that the new year is quickly approaching, it's time for end-of-the-year posts! :) I personally love reading and writing posts like this, so bear with me if you don't share that sentiment.

This particular post will be about 2013 in general, the bigger projects that I worked on, and how I did on my resolutions. I'll post about my favorite books, movies, TV, and music of the year in later posts.

So, in 2013...

-I unexpectedly acquired my very first spinning wheel! I had no plans whatsoever to get a wheel, but one sort of dropped into my lap. The best part was that, because it was a trade, it didn't cost me any money...only some farm labor. :)

-I knit my first sweater. It was quite an ordeal and the finished product is still a bit too big, but that oversized sweater has given me a lot of confidence to try new things in knitting.

-I started experimenting with dyeing yarn. I did some natural dyeing and some playing around with Kool-Aid and food coloring.

And the biggest, most wonderful thing this year:

-I became an aunt! My brother and sister-in-law had their first baby in October. Stella is the sweetest baby girl and I love being her auntie. :)

As you can tell by three of the above highlights, I spent most of 2013 completely obsessed with yarn. Knitting it, spinning it, dyeing it, etc. So unfortunately, my sewing fell by the wayside a bit. I did end up sewing six items of clothing this year, though that would sound a lot more impressive if five of those six weren't knit t-shirts. :) Oh, well. I wear those Renfrews all the time, so I'm glad I made them. It's interesting how the six items worked out: two stripes, two polka dots, and two solid colors. Oh, and I just remembered that I made myself some pajama pants! So that brings my total to seven. :)

{Striped shirt, pinkish purple shirt, polka dot Hawthorn dress, polka dot shirt, gray shirt, striped short-sleeved}

I did make two baby quilts for my niece, so I felt like they should be mentioned, too...

{Crib quilt, Country Time quilt}

But knitting...I did a lot of knitting. To be exact: six pairs of socks, two baby sweaters, one adult sweater, one Dalek, one pair of gloves, two pairs of fingerless mitts, one pair of baby mitts, two hats (one baby and one child-sized), a pair of baby booties, five cowls, one child-sized scarf, and one shawlette. Whew. I'm not going to link all of those, but you can see them in my Ravelry projects.

{First baby sweater, purple baby sweater, my sweater}

I'm not really going to get into my spinning or embroidery, but you can click on either one to see my blog posts about those topics for the year.

Now that I've talked about the things I did accomplish this year, let's discuss the things I didn't accomplish....my resolutions! :) As usual, I started off doing really well, but then things went downhill.

I didn't meet my goal of reading 80 books. That's because from about August or September on, a lot of reading time was spent knitting. At the time that I'm writing this, I've read 65 books, and I might finish another one or two by the end of the year. That's nearly 30 books less than last year, but I'm trying not to worry about it too much. Reading 65 books in a year is still really good, right?

I also didn't read all of the unread books that I own. And because I bought so many books, that number jumped from 68 to 97. Oops. I didn't reread the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I started rereading Jane Austen's novels but stalled when I got to Mansfield Park (my least favorite of hers). I did read her unfinished novels, though! My spending limit on books got broken a few months, too. I didn't watch all of the unseen movies I own. I was getting ready to say that I did pretty well with my DVD purchasing limit, and I did with actual movies. But not with TV shows. Because I completed my Doctor Who DVD collection this year (which was quite expensive) and bought the first four seasons of Monk (which was pretty cheap).

Sewing resolutions: I didn't use up all of my apparel stash. But I did use several pieces! And I accomplished the "use three new clothing patterns" goal: I used the Renfrew pattern, the Hawthorn dress pattern, and a new Simplicity pattern for my pajama pants. As for making myself a bag that I really love, I bought the pattern and the fabric, but I haven't actually made the bag yet. :)

My yarn/knitting goals, not surprisingly, were nearly all completed. The only one I didn't do is learn how to crochet. I made myself a pair of socks (two, actually), knit myself a sweater, spun enough yarn for a small project (the third cowl here, and I've spun enough for a couple more small projects...they just haven't been knitted yet), and experimented with natural dyeing. Yay! I don't feel like such a failure now! :)

And my other random goals: I kept a purchase notebook until about October, and then I got so far behind that I just gave up. I didn't walk outside (aka exercise) regularly after about June or July, when it started being miserably hot and I had to start worrying about ticks and snakes. I was terribly inconsistent with memorizing one Bible verse a week, and for some reason with journaling as well. I didn't really learn how to cook, though I did have a bit more luck with planting some things in the garden. I started off doing really well with the saving $10 a week and giving some money to a charity/good cause each month, but then I had to pay for a computer repair and a $300 car repair and after that I was really bad about saving or donating extra money.

This one didn't make my actual list, but I was making a conscious effort to not buy new clothes this year. And I think I did really well...the only items of clothing I purchased all year were three Doctor Who shirts when Threadless was having a sale. (I do seriously need a new pair of jeans now, though.)

What were some of the highlights of 2013 for you? If you make yearly resolutions, how did you do with yours?