My 2016 Peacock Feather designs. Clockwise: Mayil Peacock Feather, Pavo Peacock Feather, India Peacock Feather and Nemali Peacock Feather.*

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about and planning my crochet design goals for 2017. I've come to the conclusion that I really long to train my design "muscle" more and strengthen it in all kinds of directions. Of course I'd still love to design peacock-inspired items but I want to broaden my horizon and learn new techniques and design motifs that are a bit more versatile than peacock feathers. I'll tell you more about it in a short while. For now I thought it would be nice to look back and take stock of what I worked on in 2016.

For 2016 my goals were to publish a new paid pattern every month, do a few commissions and post some free patterns here on the blog. I didn't really plan this very well and kind of went with the flow, which resulted in a lot of procrastination and a feeling of not having done enough. So just now I made a few collages of all the designs I finished and that really helped in being a little less disappointed with my creative output. I may not have achieved the one-paid-pattern-a-month goal but I really like seeing all the items together and I am pleased with what I've created. There are actually a few more things I designed but I can't show them yet because two are commissions to be published in the first half of 2017 and for seven (!) others I still have to decide on a few small design options and finish writing and photographing the patterns. (I can't believe there are actually a total of nine more designs in addition to the 14 in the collages.....I had to keep changing the number for the ones I haven't finished yet because I had forgotten about quite a few).

Here's a collage of all the coasters I designed this year. The top left one is the Peacock Feather Petals Coaster; next to it are the Peacock-Style Pineapple Coasters (which is a free pattern); then bottom left are the Firework Coasters, a commission for the gorgeously-styled YARN book-a-zine; and bottom right is the Flower Patch Coaster, which is very textured with some of the petals standing up.*

This last batch of four is quite a miscelleneous group. The first design I published in 2016 was the Peacock Eye Necklace, a free pattern here on my blog; next to it is the Pop-Up Stool Cover and Peacock Feather, which I have to say is possibly my favourite design of the year; bottom left is another commission, this time for Little Box of Crochet; and the fourth one is the Little Feathers Garland.*

Then to round off, the two cushion covers I made. The one on the left I made over the summer and is also a free pattern; the one on the right was a commission for Crochet Now Magazine. It's called the Loopy Charm Cushion and can be found in Issue 6 (September). I will be releasing the pattern for it in my shops soon.

It was good to look back on all the work I did and I think it's really a shame that I cannot publish any pictures of my commission work for 2017 and the designs I've nearly finished. That would have given a complete overview of my (unplanned) design direction of the last 12 months.

Have you taken stock of your makes yet? It would be so nice to see your overviews, so if you like, please leave a link in the comments.

Happy New Year to all of you! May it be healthy, creative and peaceful.

Love,

Christa

* The links all go to my Ravelry shop but I sell the same patterns in my Etsy shop too.