My 2024 - Year Review

The last 2024 was an interesting year. Gaby finished her higher education and now both of our children are full time working adults. Meanwhile, a bit on a whim, husband and I enrolled into a professional education program and now both of us are working and studying :) - so the world goes around. Therefore the year was pretty intense and exhausting for me, with lots of work and lectures and exams.

Still, I tried to find some balance and I actually managed to indulge my hobbies - I assembled a puzzle, made a paint by numbers picture, sewed 33 clothing items and even knitted a pair of socks and a hat.

Here is a collage of the more interesting and engaged things I made: the two pairs of jeans, two hoodies, plenty of dresses, some blouses and husband's cargo pants.

Despite being so busy, we also managed to travel a lot. We did our first real climb abroad - Mt. Olympus, we had a sea vacation on the Aegean sea, we travelled to Vienna and in the country, we even added two more peaks to our collection of Vitosha's peaks above the two thousand meter altitude.

So, what comes next? We'll continue with our professional education and I hope we'll be able to pass our exams with flying colors, as we did last year (I've always been a straight A student, I just can't help it :) 

We'll definitely continue with our weekly hikes and our travels in the country and I hope for at least one trip to Vienna and one to the sea-side. Our tent is still unused, so maybe we'll dare overnight in it, just once?

I'll also continue with my German studies and I'm nurturing again the idea of obtaining a certificate, maybe. I am tempted to enroll in a course, but I just don't see a realistic prospect of clearing additional time for a proper course, so in all probability I'll stick to Duolingo and the tiny steps of progress it can provide.

Hobby-wise, I will sew - I am still very passionate about that, probably knit a little from time to time, I have another paint-by-numbers picture to finish and I might do another puzzle. I might start posting more about cooking - although I rarely show my experiments and adventures in the kitchen, I've gradually made cooking one of my major hobbies, to the delight of son and husband :) and I read and interpret recipes from all over the world all the time.

Happy New Year, dear friends and readers of the blog und jetzt geht's los :)

My 2023 - a Year Review

Time for the annual review of the past year. It's funny how much of the memorable part of the year is actually in these photos - hobbies and travelling, the rest is mostly filling.

In 2023 there was, however, more of the filling and less of the crafting. I had a lot more work and less time for hobbies, in the evenings I was mostly tired and watched films or tv series without a knitting project in my hands. In fact, 2023 is the first year in a really long period of time, in which I haven't knit a single stitch. I didn't assemble any puzzles, I didn't do any cross stitching, I even didn't sew for months. What I did, besides work and household, was study German on Duolingo, read books in German, watch films in German with German subtitles. Still, I did sew a few things - 7 hoodies and jackets, 12 knit blouses, 1 nightgown, 1 silk blouse, 1 skirt, 3 pairs of long and short joggers, 2 pairs of jeans and some lingerie and boxer shorts. Down I've chosen a few, that I consider my more intricate and successful makes.

I didn't have much time for my hobbies and because of work load I postponed again my travel to Vienna, but we still found the time to hike and travel this year. The most memorable travel was our road trip around the country with Gaby and her boyfriend, and the most memorable hikes were our trips to Rila, Pirin, the Balkans and Osogovo mountains. We tried some new trails, climbed a couple of new peaks and ate a lot of crumbles and Tyrolean tarts, made with hand-picked wild berries.

 

Every year in my year review I usually state a few goals for the new 365 day period, which I usually spectacularly fail to meet.  Thus last year I planned for a certificate in German, but I didn't even finish the Duolingo course (because I started a second reverse course). I expected to finish my yellow sweater and knit at least one more sweater for Gaby (nope). I planned to expand my sewing skills and make dresses, coats and jeans. I did that a bit - the silk blouse was quite intricate and I made two pairs of jeans, one is still to be photographed and blogged, however no dresses and definitely no coats. We didn't go to the Black sea coast and we didn't overnight in a tent. 

Looking back, this 2023 review is more like a list of things I didn't do, but a day has only 24 hours and most of my hours this year were filled with work.

I love looking back at my goals for the year in my year reviews, it reminds me where my head was at the beginning of the year, even if I never follow through. So, this year I imagine I will continue with my German on Duolingo and might finish one of the courses (if they don't add new parts meanwhile, I hope they do, there's so much more grammar and vocabulary to be learned). 

I plan to continue hiking and this year the idea is to travel more often to Pirin and to try the tent finally on one of these trips. We also plan to continue our collection of Vitosha's +2000 m high peaks, so far we've got 4 out of 12. And we have an idea for a hike abroad - we plan to climb Mt. Mytikas in the Olympus mountain in Greece. I also want to visit an European city and to go to the sea, at least for a couple of days.

As for crafting - I will definitely continue to sew, it's a bit of an obsession with me, and this year I hope I will try silk dresses and coats, and probably a new pair of jeans. I also want to knit a sweater, at least one, and I already have an idea in my head, which is promising. I'll return to assembling puzzles from time to time and I even want to try painting by numbers. 

I am really curious what will come out of these small New Year wishes, not resolutions.

Happy New Year, friends! Stay healthy and enjoy life!

My 2022 - a Year Review

2022 was a productive, but actually a bit of an unusual year. Until I went through my pictures, I had actually no idea I had sewn so many blouses and hoodies in 2022. It was probably an unintentional reaction to some fancy dresses and skirts I had sewn in the previous years and which I have rarely worn, but this year I stuck almost entirely to practical items made of knit fabrics.

One of the items of the year was the hoodie - I made a total of 8 hoodies, three for myself, three for Gaby, one for husband and one for Gaby's boyfriend. In this category I have also added the two light denim jackets I made for myself and for Gaby.

Then there are the blouses - I made nine blouses and tops for myself, all of them are things I wear and love.

In 2022 I also sewed a lot for Gaby - I made her ten new tops!

And I also made some joggers and pants, mostly for myself, as I needed to update my sports wardrobe. The most interesting and complicated item I finished in 2022 was a traditional dirndl for Gaby.

While sewing all the things, I almost stopped knitting. The only sweater I made was a gift for my mother, most of which I had knit the previous year. However, I did experiment a lot with sock yarn dyeing and some sock knitting. I have enough socks already, but I love knitting socks and I don't feel so much like knitting sweaters, so I suppose I'll continue filling in my wardrobe with hand dyed socks.

In 2022 we went on a lot of hikes, we tried some new trails and revisited a couple of old favourites. The collage shows some of the more interesting places and notable hikes we had this year.

So, plans for 2023? The only actual goal I have set to myself is to finish the German Duolingo tree and to try for a certificate at the end of the year. B1 would be ideal, but I might settle for A2 for 2023.

As for sewing and knitting, I should try to get out of the knitwear comfort zone and go back to more complicated woven fabric items, like dresses, coats and jeans. I expect I will finish my yellow fisherman sweater and I have at least one more sweater for Gaby in mind.

We haven't been to the sea for a while, so in 2023 we plan a couple of days at the Black sea shore. We also plan to try camping in a tent - we'll see how it goes, I'm a bit skeptical. And I hope we'll manage to organize a short trip abroad - there are so many other European countries we haven't visited yet.

And of course, most of all, I wish we'll all stay healthy and happy.

2021 Review

A bit late almost mid-January - my traditional review of my blogging, making, traveling and generally living in 2021.

The year was unusual in one respect - I almost stopped knitting. I had been obsessed with knitting for decades and I have heaps of sweaters, cardigans and accessories. However, as I have mentioned many times on the blog, I am more of a process than a product person, I revel in the immersion in the creative process. During the years my imagination has been taken by cross stitching, knitting, crocheting, yarn dyeing and lately - by sewing. The serger I bought last year gave me a vast impulse towards sewing with knits and this is what I've been doing mostly this year - out of the 66 items I sewed in 2021, only 11 were made using woven fabric. I made 25 tops, 9 pairs of joggers/leggings/shorts, 7 pajamas, 7 pairs of trousers, 5 dresses, 2 skirts, 1 hoodie and 10 pieces of underwear. I also did quite a lot of household sewing - lots of new bedding, tablecloths, curtains and cushions, which I usually barely mention on the blog. And I knitted one sweater, two shawls, three pairs of socks and two hats.

A random sample of some of the things I made, which required more skills and time:

Although we did hike and travel in 2021, I've noticed that we mostly stayed within known territory - the only new trail we walked last year was a long traverse (21 km) of Lozen mountain from Pancharevo to the village of Lozen, all other hikes were along well-known and trodden trails. True, we've been hikers for a long time and gradually all trails near Sofia are becoming well know to us, but we should try some new hiking challenges in 2022. 

Some of our more memorable hikes and the pinnacle of my travels in 2021 - my three days in Vienna:

In 2021, quite on a whim, I subscribed to Duolingo and I have now a streak of 352 consecutive days - soon it'll be a year! I started with Spanish, added German in October and now I am alternating between German through English, Spanish through English and German through Spanish. The latter is quite challenging and sometimes, when I'm tired, I end with a salad of German and Spanish words, but I like challenges :). I plan to continue with my daily linguistic mind games and hope to break through the wall that the German vocabulary and ridiculously complicated grammar are still posing in front of me.

So, that's all folks. 

It wasn't a bad year, all things considered, hopefully 2022 would be better :)

2020 Review

2020 was a very productive year for me. This year I embraced my passion for sewing, bought a serger, started working with knit fabric and became more confident working with flimsy viscose and gorgette fabrics. I made a lot of items, more than 100 if we count all the lingerie and hand-made jewelry. Some were failures from the start, some proved to be uncomfortable or unflattering, but most were more or less successful and have enriched our wardrobes. 

I've chosen just 5 sewn items I am quite proud of:

Although most of my creative energy this year went into sewing, I did continue to knit and made a couple of hats, a big shawl, a few pairs of socks and these five sweaters, all of which are loved and worn: 

Even though the year was marked by quarantines and lock downs, we had our share of traveling and hiking. Probably the most memorable - our extremely lucky visit to beautiful Malta just before all the madness began:

In August we made a five day traveling journey through Northern Bulgaria, visiting my extended family. We enjoyed it so much that we hope to repeat it this year, as there are so many other beautiful places in our own country that we would like to visit (again):

My greatest joy - hiking in the mountains. This year the weather, especially in the transitional seasons, was surprisingly mild and pleasant and we traveled a lot to the nearby mountains and climbed a lot of peaks, some of them repeatedly. The most memorable hikes:

To the Seven Rila lakes in late June. I adore this place and hope to return to it every year.

To peak Malyovitza - one of the more difficult peaks of Rila, this time we climbed it in the fog.

Ruen on my birthday - it was a great hike and I was very happy to celebrate my day on the peak and in the Osogovo hut later in the evening.

Our Christmas hike to Cherni vruh - that was an adventure to remember :)

Although the year was difficult and stressful, we and all of our extended family and friends were lucky to escape the virus and to stay healthy and comparatively sheltered. I hope 2021 will be a good year, we will all stay healthy and be able to enjoy life fully and freely.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR FRIENDS!

2018 Review

I love these year reviews popping all around the Internet and I can't skip my own. I actually kind of  refer to mine as a sort of a diary of the year. As I get older years fly by with greater and greater speed, blink and you've missed one, so these reviews help me keep track.
As this is a crafts blog mostly, first a review of the items I made this year:

Six sweaters, mostly for Gaby. This year I've been obsessed with Italian bobbin yarn and I've bought many more bobbins to try. And I expanded my dyeing experiments to lots of large scale projects too - three of these six sweaters were made out of hand dyed yarn:

I knitted three big shawls, all out of hand dyed yarn. I plan at least one or two more this year:

I didn't knit many hats this year, as we have plenty I did in 2017:

2018 was definitely the year of socks, I love them as small projects to knit while watching movies and in between big projects, and as I not only knit, but also wear them (as does Gaby), I plan to make more socks in 2019 too:

I also sewed some real wearable shirts this year and two backpacks for Gaby, which are in active use. Sewing is the sphere I want to expand my skills in 2019:

Travel and tourism - we hiked a lot this year, though we climbed no major peaks. The most memorable hikes we had were
the climb from Bistritza to Cherni vruh and back (23 km, net elevation gain of 1260 m)

Seven Rila lakes through Zeleni ridge

and the Scary lake (Strashnoto ezero) on Rila:

And of course, the pinnacle of our travel life was our trip to Bologna and Florence in Italy:

New Year resolutions :)

• In 2018 I still wanted to study Spanish, but I lost interest in repeating the same lessons and quickly abandoned it. For 2019 I feel more like brushing up my Russian. Recently I came upon the youtube channels of some brilliant Russian speaking knitters and I've spent hours watching and knitting and training on the elliptical. So, combining 3-in-1, by watching Olga Kondratyeva's channel I intend to increase my knitting skills, revive my knowledge of Russian and keep my body in form :) We'll see how it goes.
• I totally failed on my goal to organize two and three days hikes with sleep over in mountain huts. I'm keeping it as a goal in 2019.
• I want to travel even more, both in Bulgaria and abroad. Another small trip to a big European city (I'm thinking Vienna) is a must.
• I want to continue dyeing and knitting and to expand my designing abilities and my experience with new yarn.
• And I want to sew more and more complicated and wearable garments. I want to make more clothes in 2019 and to learn more about different fabrics.

But most of all, I hope for a happy, peaceful and successful year, filled with love for my family and joy from my hobbies.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR FRIENDS!

2017 Review

I thought I hadn't done much this year, as I knit only 5 sweaters, but piling up all the scarfs, hats and socks I made too, plus some sewing and all the yarn dyeing, I was actually very productive.

My most favorite FO are those 5 sweaters:

This year I knitted A LOT of hats. Half of them went to friends and relatives as gifts:

I also made scarves, shawls and a snood:

I dyed a lot of yarn, which I put into socks:

And I did some sewing - three jeans bags, which are actively in use, a pettycoat and a wearable dress for Gaby:

We didn't travel so much this year as I would have liked, but we hiked a lot and we climbed 17 mountain peaks. The most memorable:

The mass hike on Strazha :

The two days in Rila to the Seven Rila Lakes and peak Otovitza

Peak Kom in the Balkans:

Peak Malyovitza in Rila:

I was a bit hesitant whether to declare any New Year resolutions or goals, as my last years' seem to be a collection of things I was determined NOT to do in 2016 :)

But still, let me try again:

• Study Spanish. Instead of finishing the course I totally abandoned it and now I feel I have forgotten everything I had learned. Minimal goal - a lesson per week
• Organize two and three days hikes with sleep over in mountain huts. Minimal goal - three such hikes (peak Botev in the Balkans, something in Rila, something in Pirin)
• Travel more abroad. Minimal goal - organize a small excursion to a big European city - plane tickets, accommodation and sight seeing without the help of travel agencies or guides.
• Knit more from hand-dyed yarn, including bigger projects like sweaters and large shawls. Minimal goal - two sweaters and one big shawl out of yarn, hand-dyed by me.
• Sew more wearable garments. Minimal goal - a shirt and a dress.
• Exercise on the cross-trainer. Minimal goal - three times a week, 10 min counts

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018!

2016 Review

I can't skip the review of my crafty 2016, so here it is - a collage of the things I made last year. One of my goals for 2016 was to try new yarn and this I did - I've been ordering Italian bobbin yarn online. I'm so glad I dared to step into the land of bobbin yarn - it makes such a difference after years of knitting the same colors and textures of the narrow range of yarns offered in our yarn shops offline.
My first cone yarn adventure was Gaby's poncho, which I knit with baby alpaca - so soft and warm, an amazing yarn. I also knitted with cotton and linen band yarn, a Bulgarian cotton and viscose band yarn, which so far shows very good wearability and a luxury wool and silk yarn, ordered from a Turkish online yarn shop. And for my 2017 yarn adventures I've stacked a dozen of cones of Italian bobbin merino. Exploring new yarn is as much a pleasure as experimenting with new patterns.
Six sweaters, one big shawl and a number of accessories - my hands were busy this year:

As for my other hobby - hiking and traveling - in 2016 we visited three countries - Serbia, the Check Republic and Greece and climbed twelve mountain peaks in eight mountains, most of these for the first time. The highlights of our hiking adventures:

 Todorini Kukli in the Balkan Mountains

 Peak Ibur in Rila Mountains

Peak Bezbog in Pirin Mountains

and my favourite - Malyovitza in Rila Mountains

It's always fun to come back to your New Year resolutions. Reading mine for 2016, it seems I've accomplished only half of what I've had in mind and some of my goals were actually worth pursuing.

• Spanish - I did study Spanish for 3/4 of the year, gradually dropping from four lessons per week to one lesson per week until October, when I just dropped it. This year I plan to resume the lessons, finish the course and start a new, more advanced one. I love learning languages.
• Exercise my left hand - I lost interest in that and I don't think I'll continue, for now.
• Exercises on the cross trainer - this I did with variable success. I managed to loose a couple of kilograms I had gained last winter and due to the cross trainer and mainly to our running routine in the park this summer and autumn I felt in my peak form. But winter stepped in and I'm quickly loosing my muscle strength and durability - so yes, that's a goal I'm keeping for this year too.
• Try new yarn and dye more yarn - most of my knitting last year was with new yarn and I'll continue and expand that experience. And I'm curious to experiment with dyeing too.
• Hand made jewelry - I made a crochet bracelet, which I have to finish and blog about. I also bought some jewelry materials, so all I need now is inspiration.
• Sew a garment - never did that. I only refashioned an old maternity dress and sewed a weapon bag for Gaby's aikido practice. In 2017 I would really like to do more sewing.

And a new goal for 2017 - be braver. I'd like to overcome my fear of driving and at least give it a try in the summer. And another goal - plan and organize a sightseeing excursion abroad on our own. Apart from our sea holidays in Greece, so far we've always traveled with agencies and guides, but I'd like to venture it without an organized group.

So, that's it. I love new beginnings and New Year's Eve is probably one of my most favourite holidays, with the (often short-lived) burst of hope and will-power to do better and step out of one's comfort zone. I wish you all a happy, healthy, peaceful and successful 2017!

2015 - The Recap

A collage of the knitting that went on this year on the blog - mostly cardigans for Gaby, it seems. Alex still firmly refuses to wear hand-knitted clothes, while Gaby wears cardigans and sweaters to school almost every day and enjoys them, sometimes bringing me compliments for my knitwork from her schoolmates.

The year may seem not that productive as the previous years, probably because I also did some cross stitching, which I haven't finished yet, lots of puzzles and quite a lot of hiking and traveling. We hiked many places and climbed quite a few peaks on Pirin, Vitosha, the Balkan mountain, Ruy, Rila, Plana, Cherna Gora. Among these are the five mountain summits we climbed this year:

Ruy (1706 м) - husband and I took part in the International Climbing of  Mt. Ruy. 

One of the difficult climbs, with some extra steep elevation

Cherni Vruh (2290 м) - the yearly climb of Vitosha's highest, 

this time the entire family present

Vihren (2914 м) - the highest of Pirin, the most extreme climbing this year

Manastirishte (1338 м) - the highest of Plana, more like 

a walk in the park than mountain climbing, very relaxing hike

Tumba (1129 м) - we had to travel to Cherna Gora twice to find its highest peak,

 but I'm glad we did, as the place is very pleasant for hiking

And a few New Year resolutions or rather suggestions, craft and non-craft related:

• Resume learning Spanish. My goal this year is four 30 min lessons per week. I've actually started this week and I'm already four lessons ahead.
• Exercise using my left hand. I'm a right-handed person, but I've decided I want to develop some left-hand skills, so I started some basic left-hand writing exercises, brushing my teeth with my left hand and eating with my left-hand, when I remember to practice. My aim is not to become ambidextrous, but rather to develop my brain and to have fun, learning something new.
• Exercise on the cross trainer for 15-20 min every day. I've been doing this for the past couple of weeks, skipping a day here and there. Easily achievable, and still - rarely done, and we've had the machine for almost 10 years now.
• Try new yarn and dye more yarn. Though I prefer seeing and touching and feeling yarn before buying it, I'll have to start ordering online
• Try my hand at hand-made jewelry
• Sew a garment. I've been piling fabrics and Burda magazines, it's high time I dared and cut into them.

But no matter whether I follow the above or not, I hope 2016 will be a healthy, productive, successful and happy year for all of us -  my family and you, my friends!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!