2022 was a rollercoaster of a year, friends. I lost loved ones. I couldn’t dodge COVID any longer, and I feel like I lost a couple months of my life to illness. Dear friends of mine went through extremely difficult times…
But there were plenty of good times, too! My two best friends got married! My husband and I went on some most excellent adventures! I dove deep into fiber art, and I realized again that it really is my happy place!
2022 kicked off with some extreme sweater making. Now, if you know me, you know that I am all for the quick payoffs, and sweaters – well, they’re a long game thing. I learned a thing or two about patience making these. I also told my husband to make sure he enjoys his one of a kind sweater because it might be a good long while before I’m ready to make another one!
My crochet adventures continued with the only pattern I was able to publish this year: the Hillside Fairy House Hat. Pattern writing is a completely different skill that I’ve had to develop in recent years. As a crocheter of almost 30 years, I know the frustration that comes with a poorly written pattern, and I try to avoid that for others. And I really wanted to do this one justice as it’s been my lifelong goal to be a resident of Hobbiton!
The real story of 2022 was felting. I had dabbled in wet felting before, but always starting out with a crochet project made with wool yarn. This year, I decided to branch out. I wanted to make some fantastical hats, and the best way to achieve the look that I was going for was wet felting over a resist with raw wool.
I was a bit ambitious for my first attempt and determined I wanted a hat inspired by the viscid violet cort mushroom to coordinate with my Renaissance faire costume. So I watched a few tutorials and decided to just go for it. This process was a lot of things. It was therapeutic, it was satisfying, and it was an exercise in patience, which is a quality in which I am sadly deficient. It all worked out in the end, if I do say so myself. Even with the addition of approximately one million gills!
Of course, the hat was not the end of my adventures in accessorizing. For the same costume, I made a kind of mossy, witchy shawl using the same wet felting techniques. This outfit was a hit! I used the felted pieces again at Halloween and won second place in a costume contest! I lost to a human Lunchable, which feels right, somehow. I couldn’t let my husband attend Faire un-hatted, so I felted him up a hat to his own specifications. So. Much. Yellow!
I revisited wet felting again to make up another costume. This time, I wanted to make some wolf inspired pieces. I started with the hat and added another shawl, some arm warmers, and some leg warmers. This time I incorporated some needle felting into the hat to create some texture using wool locks. I branched out a little bit and made the necklace and hair corsets, too!
As much as I love wet felting and intend to come back to it next year, needle felting might be the surprise hit of the year. I made many, MANY small creatures, gnomes, mushrooms, cryptids, and Grinches this year and almost all of them have been sold! I am particularly proud of my felting endeavors, and I’m here to tell you that practice makes all the difference if this sounds like something you might want to try in the future. Sample your wools, see how they work together. Test the number of layers. Be prepared to have to go back to the drawing board. But hang in there because it’s worth it. Felting is magic.
In other fiber news, I had some pretty good sized spinning projects in 2022, and I’m proud to say I think I levelled up! I still have loads of learning to do, but I got lots of yarns that were pretty close to what I had planned, so I’m calling that a win. I also tried some more art yarn techniques. I want to do a deeper dive into that in 2023.
And to close out the post, and the year, I have some little odds and ends that I knitted that I can’t leave out because look how cute! And of course there were fiber festivals and craft fairs and art projects galore!
I think that’s all, though I’m sure I’m forgetting something. It was a jam-packed year, y’all. I thank you all for the continued support and inspiration. Thank you for every pattern, every shared post, every commission, and just for being generally awesome. Fiber art is what makes my soul sing, and I’m able to keep doing it because of you. A very happy new year to you. May it bring you inspiration and joy!
Wolf Bite Fiber Works 