One year from now, when the 5th Knitting & Crochet Blog Week rolls around, where do you hope your crafting will have taken you to? What new skills, projects and experiences do you hope you might have conquered or tried?This could be anything from mastering a technique (broomstick lace, entrelac, etc), trying a new yarn or skill, or a long term wish to crochet only from your stash, or knit every stitch in one of the Harmony Guides. Maybe you have no desire or plans for your craft at all, no new element of knitting or crochet that you dream of mastering, in which case write about why that might be. In a year's time participants will be asked to look back to see if they achieved any goals, no matter how general, and see which house conquered the art of looking forward.
Looking forward has always been a big part of the new year on my blog. For the past few years I've been setting goals, for 2013 my goals are ...
Quantities
- Spin 5lbs of fluff
- Use up 10 miles of yarn
- Create 40 items (knit, crocheted or woven)
- Knit 15 pairs of socks
- Knit an adult sweater for myself
Techniques
- Complete a project in Tunisian Crochet
- Learn and complete a project that uses Broomstick Lace
- Learn and complete a project in Brioche Stitch
- Learn and complete a project in double knitting
- Complete a tatting project
- Give stranded colorwork another try
- Complete the sampler in The Weavers Idea Book by Jane Patrick
- Complete a weaving project using overshot techniques
- Compete a weaving project for something OTHER than a scarf or cowl
- Spin a semi-woolen yarn (long draw from a combed top)
- Spin an “art yarn”
- Spin a laceweight yarn
- Give needle felting another try
- Give DPNs another try
Yarn and Stash
- Use my handspun yarns in knitting, crochet and weaving projects
- Use more yarn than I stash — More specifically get my stash ratio to less than 1.0 for 2013 and try to get my lifetime ratio to less than 2.0 by the end of the year (as the end of 2012 it was 2.43)
- Destash yarns I don’t absolutely love and probably won’t ever use
I've already accomplished a few of these goals, well I've knit a brioche scarf, woven a pickup stick sampler scarf, and I've finished 3 (nearly 4) pairs of socks.
A few others I've already tried and discarded, like giving needle felting a try. I tried again and ended up giving away my needle felting supplies. Also, double knitting, unless I find a project I love I didn't really like the technique.
So for the purpose of KCBW, my goal for the year is to make sure that I enjoy my crafting and that I didn't push aside my enjoyment of fiber to meet some artificial goals. Also, to make the Mascot Projects that I wrote about on Day 2.
And as another successful Knitting & Crochet Blog Week draws to a close I have to give a big shoutout to Eskimimi for putting together a fantastic blogging event, here's to year 5!