My blanket is getting big. The next time I show you my monthly blanket progress it will be for a new blanket. My plan is to continue sewing daily squares on this blanket until it is square again. After that I’ll add an i cord border.

I finished the Darwinian Evolution scarf last week. It is now blocked and ready for January. I love how the scarf looks. I hope it gets a lot of use.

I’ll be spending New Years Eve caring for sick kids, knitting, trying to bead, reading, and playing board games with John. I might even go crazy and stay up until 11.

However you choose to ring in the New Year, I hope it is a good one.

I have made some progress on beading. I now have a progress keeper that I’m proud of. I’m going to keep at beading, because I think it will eventually be relaxing. Now that I have a beaded project I can use I am feeling much more confident.

I hope next week I’ll have more progress keepers to show you. Maybe I’ll even figure out the one of the fancy beading stitches.

One of my favorite knitting podcasts is the Corner of Craft. Hannah makes cute beaded progress keepers that I have been eyeing for a long time. She has some tutorials on her channel, so I figured I should give bead weaving a shot.

I’m crafty. I was a camp counselor in college, so I have experience weaving pony beads. I have bluprint, so I have access to detailed bead weaving classes. I figured I could tackle weaving progress keepers in an hour or so.

Ha!

Beadweaving is hard! I’m up to about 3 hours of practice, but I have made nothing. Just bead jumbles.

It has been a long time since I’ve tried something and failed. I want to quit. I have gotten in the habit of only doing things in my comfort zone when it comes to crafting. I want to enjoy trying new things, and I want to start seeing failure as part of that process.

I am not going to give up. In 2020 I will learn how to beadweave and make my own progress keepers. It is going to take a lot longer than I thought it would. It is going to be a lot harder than I thought it would. I am going to stick with it.

Wish me luck.

Are you trying any new crafts in 2020?

This is my favorite sweater. I basically live in it. It’s the Fable Cardigan by Kate Gagnon Osborn knit in the Fibre Company Terra. It is a comfortable cardigan and I love the color.

I’m showing you this sweater so you can see that I have a type when it comes to knitwear. I finished my Farmhouse Cardigan by Amy Christoffers knit in Cascade Eco+ on Thursday. To say that I love it is an understatement.

I haven’t sewn buttons on it yet, only because I’ll see my Mom at Christmas and she will sew the buttons on for me. I really hate sewing on buttons. I like how long the cardigan is, it covers my butt, so it will be my go to sweater for when I’m wearing leggings.

I hope you are finishing your projects this week.

Ten million years ago I started working at an insurance company (OK, fine, it was in 2001). I had a crush on the cute supervisor by our training room. That cute supervisor, TC, went on to become one of my best friends. He was an usher in our wedding. He comes over for dinner once a month so we can catch up.

Tonight we changed it up – we went to dinner at what is becoming my favorite bar (it is the cafe side of a natural foods store). John stayed home and put the kids to bed. TC and I had wine and chatted. We made plans for getting our kids together. We made plans to get a group of friends together for a game night. We had a really nice time.

I’m so thankful for 18 years of friendship with TC. When we met we were both young single people. We would hang out until late at night drinking and watching football. Now we have a nice dinner and we are home by 8 pm. It is so nice to have friends that grew with me and continue to grow with me.

FYI if you are single and in the Des Moines area I feel that you should know that TC is a really nice guy who is available.