On The Ending of This Design Anniversary Year

It has been some time since I last blogged, and I cannot believe that we are all facing (thank goodness!) the end of 2021.

To say that the second half of this year was personally momentous would be an understatement. My life fairly exploded (in the best possible way): I made a major move to a different city to start another year-long service project in a team leader capacity. I left the majority of my life for the last 17 years back at my old living space, save what I could mail (and easily handled box sizes would allow), since COVID all but eliminated the ability to rent a vehicle of any sort and professional movers were budgetarily out of contemplation.

I do love this winter's snow!

Then there is the settling into a new place: getting to know things and having to initiate conversations with new people and explain one's life all over again. Since I am a fairly private person who values my autonomy, the latter is personally extremely difficult, despite the fact that everyone else has no problem talking to me about most anything, and which I take as an extreme compliment. Failures of language abound. Perspectives become, at minimum, skewed; at maximum, down right wrong. Relational minefields are unintentionally planted and weaponized. Getting to know the new position still seems like a piece of cake compared to everything else.

All this derailed, as you might expect, the best made plans for my 10 year design anniversary. While I still published new designs (most notably for this year's 5th (!) Progress, Hope, and Happiness summer collection), there were far fewer than I wanted. COVID, of course, also had a hand in that decreased creativity. 

This is going to be a cardi for me.
It is an oh-so-squishy
combination of my hand-dyed
bling base + baby alpaca silk.

I also had big plans for increasing the hand knit and crocheted portion of my wardrobe. That, too, fell by the wayside, although I am doing my level best to end the year on a hand-made-for-me note (after having made something for each of my team members - and almost all of them delivered on time, a true feat indeed). 

Of course, then there's the hand-dyed yarn portion of my business, which was active until the end of August. I am reassessing bases, given all of the COVID-related supply chain issues. if anyone wonders why the independent designer and hand-dyed yarn landscape is constantly in flux (and especially

This year's wee 
(but mighty) tree.

right now),well, it should really be no mystery.

In the end, no matter the scope of change in the second half of this year, it remains the simple pleasures that have brought me much joy. As I have previously blogged, this year's seasonal decorating was again its own sweet interlude, just as arranging my new space and simple, yet tasty, acts of cooking. Throw into the mix some memorable meals with old and new friends, as well as team members. There's little doubt that, despite the fact I am my own largest work in progress, this year has seen some fairly major changes, and it's all good. 

As in previous years, after January 1st I shall be stepping away from social media for a few weeks to contemplate and recharge. I wish everyone a very happy new year - pandemic life has robbed us of so much, so let us usher in 2022 with a renewed sense of hope.