For the second half of the year I made the shift from working with fabric to wool. 

 

My crocheting adventure started with my blanket and has now ended with these tiny little guys I have made.

The blanket took about five weeks and really helped me learn the importance of tension. Keep consistent leads to a blanket with no stress in it. I am personally really happy I started with the blanket first because it taught me so many simple things that would be imperative to my later projects.

The next project I worked on was extremely helpful with learning how to read patterns. Making the little taiko drums taught me how to work into the round and the importance of counting my stitches.

 

 

These two project were the base of my learning. Without them I feel like I wouldn't be where I am now. From there I began to experiment with other patterns. I made 9 octopuses and sold 3. I began finding random patterns online and recently I purchased two pattern books to really experiment and have fun! :D

Overall I'm really happy with the skills I learned this year. I picked up a lot with my sewing and crocheting. This class provided me a lot of extra time to really work and experiment on subjects I've been really wanting to try out.

 

 If I had to pick my favorite projects I did this year, for sewing it would be my cat bag:

And for crocheting it would have to be my dorky Wada Don:

Overall, I'm really happy how this year turned out in this class. It was a nice quiet space to work on what I wanted to work on instead of being told what I should want to do. I know the demand for dorky plushies and tiny little animals aren't high but, I really enjoy making them. Each one I finish gives me a sense of accomplishment and whenever I give one away to someone, the fact they usually like it so much makes me happy! :D

 

I plan to continue both sewing and crocheting for as long as my hands still work! :D