it’s a new year! hello 2026. i’m not going to say “happy new year”, because… it’s complicated.
there’s a lot of unhappiness out there. but all we can do is look for the wee bits of calm, joy and color amidst the bleakness…
i do love the rejuvenation of a new year. i love winter, and it’s dormancy and hibernation and resetting. i’m not one to choose a word, or even a theme, for the year. usually. but currently i am really focused on the concept of finishing. as in, finishing projects. this is not something i’m good at. i’m good at starting projects. i’m good at the middle of projects. i’m afraid to even count how many WIPs i have going. or to figure out how old the oldest one is.
all i’m saying is, FINISHING is going to be a goal, a mantra, a religion for me this year (and maybe forever? too soon to tell). i have finished two things so far already in this week-old year, and i like how it feels.
the first was this sweatshirt below, the red fleece with blue scrapplique (i just made that up), finished earlier this week on 1/1. i had started it the previous day, New Year’s Eve, 12/31/25, in a co-working session with my pal Katherine. we have a common goal every year of steadily producing a stream of handmade artful clothing pieces to sell at the teachers’ market at Medomak Fiberarts Retreat. and in general we never even come close to what we would like to have. but we keep trying to figure out ways to keep building our collections all year long.
the other project pictured here was also completed this week. i started it on 1/1/25. it’s the first time i have completed a 365-day daily project. if you know me, you know i LOVE daily projects, and participate in quite a few of them. usually they are 100 days or less. i had started other year-long daily projects in the past, but never succeeded at making it the whole year without falling off.
i know that for me, the key to sticking with a daily project is to keep the minimum time required pretty short, like 10-15 minutes a day. i can work longer if i want to, but i need a low commitment time to succeed. so for this project, i embroidered one dot every day. they range from about 5/8″ to 1″ diameter. the idea was to use all different stitches or patterns, but after a while it was hard to figure out if i was doing something new or repeating, so i didn’t worry about it and just kept going. i used many kinds of thread: perle cotton, sashiko, floss, sock yarn. i really enjoyed the playing and experimenting and watching the density increase slowly. if i knew how to make a time-lapse video i would!
anyway, i didn’t really intend to ramble on quite so long. i just wanted to set my intention for the year to keep my energy set on F I N I S H I N G, and to say it out loud for some accountability. i’ve already begun a new daily project for the month of January, and another begins on 1/16, and another a month or so after that. so i’m certainly not finished with starting new projects!
have you ever done a daily project? did you make it all the way through?
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