Ringing in the new year with a new knitting project! Banded Turtleneck by Kathy Merrick from Vogue Knitting Magazine Fall 2010. Using Jamieson's Shetland Aran and Clara Yarn Shetland 1.0 yarn and loving it!
This time of year has many of us acessing of how the previous year went and how the new year will move forward. Which got me thinking I'd do a little recap here on my knitting in 2015 while sharing my vision for future knitting in 2016.
Year of 2015
Knitting Projects - 42
Yards Knitted - 19,734
Yards Spun - 1564
Ending Stash Yardage - 27,566
It was quite the bonny year for finishing knitting projects. The Knit Girllls Stash Dash really motivated me to finish/fix a couple of my husbands' vests while also getting a lot of my gift knitting done for Christmas. Stash Dash 2015 ran from the middle of May until the middle of August. I completed 19 projects during that time. It was a fun challenge, although I didn't get a lot of gardening and house projects done last summer since I was pretty much solely focused on knitting. That really was the only downside.
I toyed with not buying yarn and didn't do too well at that, but I did do a lot of yarn stash assessment. After attending this retreat run by Stephanie Pearl - McPhee (I know I keep mentioning it, but it was such a game changing event for me) I learned a lot more about yarn, and figured out what qualities are most important to me. My number 1 quality I want my yarn to possess is durability as I really want what I knit to have a long life. Now, lots of things factor in durability, twist, strength of fiber, length of fiber etc. etc. But basically yarn marked "wool" and not a specific brand of wool such as "merino" are usually more durable as they are a mix of many wool fibers. Shetland and other long wool breeds are also more durable and less likely to pill as the fiber has more twists per staple length than a short hair cashmere would. So, I really looked at my stash and sold off what wasn't durable to my standards and added in more yarn that was, namely a lot of Shetland found it's way into my stash. I'm feeling a lot more content with what I have and since softer less durable yarns are what is popular now their siren call isn't affecting me as it once would have.
Year of 2016
My main goal for this coming year is to be more mindful. More mindful of what pattern I am knitting, what yarn I am using, and the when and during time that I am knitting. Sometimes I switch to auto pilot or get too caught up in what is coming next to really enjoy the current moment. So, I'm going to slow down and focus more on quality versus quantity this year.
My project goals for the year 2016 are to knit another sweater for my mom, a vest for my husband, and 2 sweaters for me. Anything more will be grand, but I'm not going to plan so extensively this year as I feel it pushes me along at too fast a pace.
My stash goals for the year 2016 are to make it smaller. That's why I thought I'd keep track of yards in the stash which I can track through my stash page on Ravelry. I have all of the yarn for the above projects so I don't need to purchase more, but I won't come down on myself if I do add in a few skeins. Knowing myself as I do, I think another idea to help me not purchase more yarn is to not go to any festivals this year. I get wrapped up in the moment and can't help buying. And really, I still have un-knit yarn from the last few festivals I went to last year. So, a year off seems prudent as I am the type of knitter that when I have too mush stash gets overwhelmed and bogged down. I like some stash, but too large a stash and guilt overtakes the fun.
I have no spinning goals for the coming year as I haven't really been in the mood to spin for a while now. Thus, I'll just wait and see how the year pans out.
General goals for the year are to get more home improvement projects completed, focus more on my son's homeschooling and focus more on doing things together as a family. I'm really looking forward to the year ahead of me and I hope you are too.
Your goals sound great. I like the idea of being more mindful and slowing things down. I think sometimes it's easy to get so caught up in finishing a project so you can cast on the next one that you stop enjoying what it is you're doing.
ReplyDeleteOver 11 miles in yarn knitted is very impressive!
What lovely goals and it sounds like you'll have a lot of fun rediscovering all the treasures in your stash!
ReplyDeleteI only allowed myself to buy 'souvenir' yarn last year - so when I went away I could get enough yarn for either one pair of socks or a hat. It worked really well and my stash decreased a lot!
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