A teal blue lake at sunset with trees and mountains in front of a pink sky.

A Little Reflection

In college I trained to be a K-8 teacher. I only practiced that career for a few years, but one of the most valuable things I learned was how to press pause and intentionally consider how things have been going. For school that meant that “Reflection” was an integral part of every lesson plan and implementation. First, come up with or review the curriculum and goals, then teach it, then reflect on how effective it was and what could be improved.

I found that process to be so powerful that I’ve made it a part of my life and business ever since. So here’s my 2022 reflection.

What projects did I accomplish?

For my knitting pattern business, “accomplished projects” mostly means published patterns. But I’m going to add in here that I was working on a much larger project that I’ll talk about more next year. (Most of the time, the public-facing stuff you see is only a tiny portion of what folks are actually doing in their lives, of course.) So even though I don’t feel like my public output was huge, I was doing a lot of behind-the-scenes things.

I published three patterns this year.

Closeup of Andrea's shoulder viewed from the side with an intricately cabled blue gradient shawl wrapped around her. There are gradient pink flowers along the edge.

A Garden Wedding Shawl

This was such an unusual project for me because I basically took all my usual hesitations and threw them out the window. The project I ended up with was more complicated and finicky than anything I would normally put out into the world, but it turned out to be a wonderful challenge. It gave me a chance to consider how I would make those tricky elements approachable. What could I do to make big charts more usable? How could I encourage folks to knit colourwork back and forth in rows? I’m really proud of how the pattern turned out, not just in how the design looks, but also given how knitters have responded to the experience of making it. They’ve told me it was challenging but extremely rewarding.

When I design, I get a lot of satisfaction from solving technical problems and creating objects that please me aesthetically and practically. But this project had the added joy of being developed as a part of a much larger endeavour, which was creating the perfect clothes for my sister’s wedding. I designed and knit a shawl, yes, but there was also just so much sewing. Being a part of her ceremony in such a tactile way was so special. Have a look back at the wedding photos to see how it came together. So many of the clothes pictured were made by my sister, me, or someone close to us.

This was a very unusual collaboration for me and Catherine of Gauge Dye Works too. We normally have quite a lot of back-and-forth in creating the colours and designs, but this one was much more directed by me, asking Catherine to create just the right colours in just right sequence. I was so grateful that she was game for my intense project and that she suggested that worsted weight might be better than fingering. She was very right. It’s kind of a designer’s dream to be able to have yarn that allows a vision to come to life so precisely.

Kiya sitting on the top of a park bench reading a bird book. She's wearing brightly striped socks with textured sections.

A Checklist of Birds

My second published pattern was another collaboration with Catherine and I have to give her a huge amount of the credit for this one. We conceived of the idea for these socks together, but the main design concept — literally create the Checklist on the top of the socks with knit and purl stitches — was her idea. She even knit the first prototype. And she did a very fun activity on Instagram to get knitter input on which birds to include. I absolutely love how the colours turned out and I think it’s so super charming that the socks are coordinating but not matching. Again, thank Catherine for that! (As I type, I have these socks on my feet and they bring me a lot of joy.)

These socks are really an expression of me and Catherine put together. They’ve got data visualization, one of the main special things that Gauge Dye Works does. And the colours were mostly originally inspired by bird photos that I took! When we first started collaborating, I don’t think either of realized how perfectly our interests and passions would align, but I can say it really worked out.

Aside from being a love letter to bird nerds, I designed this pattern to be usable over and over again. If you like knitting your socks toe-up, just omit the charts for that vanilla sock project you can have in your knitting bag at all times! The construction is great for any self-striping yarn and I’ve already made myself a pair of Solar System socks.

Kiya sitting on a stone bench covered in yellow lichen. She's wearing teal and grey floral socks.

Climbing Flowers

I worked on florals a lot this year. I think it started while I was designing the colourwork for the Garden Wedding Shawl, but right about the same time it was spring, so I was outside photographing wildflowers. Being in a wildflower meadow with a camera is so mesmerizing I have to almost force myself to stop. It’s truly something I cherish and look forward to every year. But even after spring and the shawl, I never stopped fixating on flowers. I knew I needed to design more with them.

I played around with a lot of motifs for Climbing Flowers, thinking I wanted a wild, all-over look. After many not-quite-right chart attempts, I realized that I already had what I was trying to create. It was in my book. So I opened up AlterKnit Stitch Dictionary and sure enough, the Traveller’s Joy motif was exactly what I had in mind.

The construction of the sock was another fun challenge because all-over colourwork isn’t very stretchy. So my fist sock prototype didn’t fit properly. The lesson was that this kind of sock needed some shaping and even a gauge change, which is not something I usually do in my patterns. It turned out just how I was hoping.

I have many more floral ideas for next year too, so I’m hoping I’m not alone in my love for them.

Two cakes of yarn on a lichen-covered rock. One is deep teal and the other is variegated purple and yellow.

Other Business Projects

I do most of my business tasks myself, so I’m going to take a quick minute to celebrate some of what that entails:

Sent out a newsletter to my beloved subscribers at least once a week. Thank you so much to those of you who get my letter! (If you want to sign up, here’s the link.)
Shared my work and loves on Instagram. At its best, social media sharing is another very fun creative outlet for me. I love sending my nature pictures and knitted work out to the world. I also experience zero guilt for the times when I’m just not in the mood, so don’t post or participate for awhile. This coming year I’m looking into the possibility of getting a team member on board to help me be more consistent for business purposes, but I don’t worry about it too much. (Here’s my favourite nature image that I shared on Insta this year. Hummingbirds were a theme!)
Supported my customers. I answer pattern-related questions by email very regularly. It takes a lot of time referencing patterns I may not have looked in ages, but it’s important for me to offer this service. If you have a pattern question, you can send it to contact@andrearangel.com.
Kept my books and did all the other business-y stuff needed to keep things going. Admin work is a big part of my job that’s invisible to other folks, but a business can’t run without it.
Practiced photography. I was so grateful to get to work with Kiya this year on the Checklist of Birds and Climbing Flowers socks images. She is such a pro and I’m so proud of the work we made together. I also continued playing with nature photography. Improving my photography skills is definitely a long-term goal and I hope to be able to photograph all my own work in the future.
Created a “Catalog”/shop on Facebook/Instagram. That means folks can now shop from my website directly through social media. I hope this makes my work more approachable for knitters who like shopping that way!
Blogged. I’ve really increased my blogging this year and I hope to keep that up next year! I so appreciate every visit and comment. It’s great to be able to share not just work stuff but also my nature photography. Thanks for being here!
Created new tutorials. Have a look at my Tutorial page to see if there’s something you might want to learn about!
Worked with technical editors and testers to make my patterns as good as I can. This is a big shout-out to my generous and thoughtful testers, my technical editor, Susan Moskwa, and my copy editor, Jessie Kwak!

2023 Intentions

In 2023 I’d like to focus on creating new work that I’m excited about. I want to ask for help more so that I can save my creative energy for design. As always, one of my big goals in life is to be a person who pauses to see the world, to appreciate my part in it, and to practice gratitude.

How about you?

I don’t really like new year’s resolutions or the vibe around becoming a “new you” that happens this time of year, but maybe you’d like to stop and consider all the things you were able to accomplish in 2022, feel proud of those things, and set an intention for the coming year. Just writing this has given me a feeling of agency and empowerment, so I hope that for you too.

One more thing — A big Sale!

A big part of celebrating a new year is always my January 3 birthday sale! It’s my biggest sale of the year and if you want to stock up on patterns for 2023, it’s a great chance to do that and support my business. If you’re the kind who likes to plan ahead, have a look at my shop and add patterns to your cart now so you can check out when the sale starts. Sign up for my newsletter to get a reminder or just come back here on January 3!

Thank you so much for being here! I’m so honoured that folks choose to read my blog, knit from my patterns, and look at my pictures. I appreciate you!

2022 Year in Review