WIPocalypse 2020 - the start of a new year!

We are supposed to introduce ourselves and our projects and list any goals for the coming year in this post.

To start an introduction. I'm Carol a recovering stitchaholic who has been sidelined for a few years by injuries to my left wrist --- first I broke it and had surgery (and a plate) to fix it about three years ago. I recovered from the break, regained the use of that hand after extensive physical therapy, and finally and recovered my stitching mojo in 2019. So I started to stitch again (in March of 2019). Then, last July, a tendon that had been  rubbing on that plate (or to be more precise, one one of the screws that held the plate on the bone) and ruptured. It's remarkable how valuable that thumb is and how much trouble it is to have a non-working one! More surgery for a tendon graft and more physical therapy. The hand is almost back to normal, although that thumb will probably never be as flexible as it once was.

So for goals.  One goal, really. I hope to start stitching again this year.*

As for projects, they will be as follows:

WIPs/UFOs from years past:

• Elizabeth Almond's "Save the Stitches" blackwork sampler, started in late February of 2014 and put away in April of 2015​
• "Biltmore", a kit I purchased at the Biltmore Estate in July of 2014 and stitched on briefly in the coffee shop at that estate. I have stitched on it once or twice since then but made little progress from my sole published photo - in fact it has regressed a little since much of the work I did in that coffee shop had to be frogged. This piece also lives in my travel bag
• "Love Is.., an intended first anniversary gift for a niece which has missed that deadline and may not make the second as well at there ate I am going. Started in September 0f 2016 and was put away when I broke my wrist, brought out briefly in February of 2017 as a test run of my wrists ability to hold the frame, and put back after an hour and less than four backstitched letters - no shown here (and/or frogged letters!)

A WIP from before the tendon rupture:

• the key fob for Michael Powell's "Beach Huts Scissor Keep Kit"

Of course, my stash is still littered with nearly finished needlepoint which requires only backstitching and blocking to be finished, as well as one crewel piece, at least one large blackwork round-robin and some quilt tops. Odds of me getting to those are slim to none... And I'm not even counting pieces which are ready to finish-finish. Maybe someday...
While WIPocalypse is a SAL devoted to cleaning up one's WIP/UFO stash, I think I really will need to take on some new starts, simply because!  So I signed up for two freebie SALs (you have to sign up for each, and one has a private Facebook group for getting the charts). Both are stitched in relatively small chunks which, hopefully, won't stress me out and give me a break from the BAPs in my WIP listing:

• the Homely Houseplants SAL from Stitchonomy's One Year of SALS which technically starts in February 
• The Year of Blackwork SAL from Peppermint Purple which started January 1.

In addition, I have been collecting the sampler SALs from Linen and Threads for three years now and possibly could start one of those (no deadlines since theses SALs are technically over as SALs...).

*And I have, three nights of 1.5 or more hours per night so far! Lots of hand cramping on night one; lots of needle dropping on night two and lots of nerve pain on night three. But I persevered!