Needles at the Ready

I love how every moment of every day we get a chance to make a fresh, new start. But there are few moments as poignant as the beginning of a new year and I especially love the feeling of possibilities that the change of calendar brings - the feeling that a fresh page has been turned and anything can happen. 

Even the projects I began in 2012 and carried over into this year will develop and come to their full potential (I hope!) and completion as 2013 FO's.

Remember this post? 

I'm happy to say that I did become more organized and I'm mostly pleased with my completion of, or progress towards, many of my knitting and life goals last year. I'm also thrilled about the ideas for knitting and designing I have to work on this year, and I certainly have concrete ideas for what I'd like to accomplish. But I'm in somewhat of a different mood this January, so accordingly I decided to think a little differently when deciding on my 2013 goals. My goals for this year are: 

1. To love more
2. To share more
3. To forgive more
4. To be more thankful
5. To be more kind
6. To work hard
7. To have fun

I believe that some of these goals will be easier to reach than others, but I hope I can incorporate creating and relating into all, or most, of them. So with needles at hand, I stand ready and look forward to 2013 to be an exciting year of knitting (and crochet, spinning and other fiber-ous pursuits) adventure, learning and life.

I hope you are excited for 2013 too, and I wish you a very happy knit year!

Blueprint for Knitting

Since about the middle of last October our life around here has been frantic at best. Both knitting-wise and personal life-wise things were cranked up to boiling level and continued so through the holidays and until the end of this week when all of my previous knitting projects and a stint on jury duty were finally concluded. 

 

Since the first of the year, I've bound off the back of my gray hoodie, swatched a huge batch of stitch patterns (I love swatching), and begun another new pattern project - one that was really easy to pick up and put down during aforementioned jury duty and that, in light-weight yarn, would last a while. I'll try to get some photos and post more about it soon. 

We've finally received enough snow to matter here, and I can call this weird season Winter. I'm  hoping we'll soon have enough snow that I can try out the snowshoes I received as a Christmas gift. 

Our climate, although not fabulous, is nice and in the temperate range. We usually only receive a few weeks of extremely cold or hot weather through the year. But along with much of the US, we've been experiencing even milder than normal conditions, which was fine with me considering all the running around we've been doing.

Now that life's a teensy bit calmer, I'm taking time to chill out, knit some fun projects and clean house. And, um, I haven't yet packed up the Christmas things... But hey, it's 2012 and I'm excited about the possibilities the year holds!

This guest-blogger post from the Designsponge.com blog suggested a 'blueprint' strategy to get organized for the new year. 

I am using this idea, rather than traditional resolutions, as my outline for what I'd like to accomplish in 2012. 

One of the things I plan to do right away is hold another giveaway, so check back in the next week or two for details on that (I just need to photograph the loot), it's going to be a good one!

I can't wait to move on to to more of the things on my checklist - I'll be sharing a lot of them here throughout the year - and I'd love to know what knitting or craft-related goals YOU would like to achieve this year. As always, I really love to read your comments. 

Peace, blessing and happy knitting to you!

Knitting into the New Year 2011

 

The toasts have been made and Auld Lang Syne has been sung for yet another New Year's eve.  I hope everyone had a joyful and safe celebration.

Every January 1st I feel as if the new year were a fresh, blank calendar page waiting to be written upon.  I get a little thrill at the prospect of setting new personal life and crafting goals for myself.  Not resolutions exactly, but challenging points that I want to aim, stretch and reach for.  

 

Some of these I set and might or might not have accomplished in 2010, but I want to increase or renew for this new year as well, including publishing more knitting patterns, learning new and unusual methods of constructing knitwear, and experimenting with designing my own stitch patterns.  

 

I'd like to get back to making more sweaters and garments as mine are looking sadly worn this winter.  I also want to spin regularly (and use my handspun for projects), and crochet a little every month.  

 

Can I stick with these goals for the year?  I believe I can, and will enjoy the process of trying to, but only time will tell.  

One thing I know for certain is that if I don't first set out, I cannot finish.  I like this quote from Horace, the Roman lyric poet (65 BC-8BC):

"He who has begun has half done.  Dare to be wise; begin!"

Happy New Year everyone, and may your 2011 be filled with love, joy, peace, prosperity and lots of knitting and fiber-y adventures.  Go forth and knit!