The Year Ahead

So 2019 is here! We welcomed it without much (any) fanfare, New Years has never really been my favourite celebration but it is a nice excuse to make a few plans and think about what I'd like to achieve craftwise this year.

First up the Boo Knits 2019 Challenge. Once again I considered not signing up for this, this year's challenge will involve knitting 12 Boo patterns, but in the end I decided to go ahead but to not make it a priority to actually complete it. If I don't feel like knitting shawls I won't but I don't want to miss out onjoining in if I do actually end up knitting the required amount of Boo patterns throughout the year. This year the challenge is being kicked off by...

Moving Forward, the New Year Mystery Knitalong which I cast on for this morning so I'm already making a good start. This one requires 4 or 5 colours of fingering weight yarns that form a gradient. I'm using DROPS Baby Alpaca Silk, which I've used and loved for a shawl last year, in 5 shades from white to purple. I switched round the order of the shades a couple of times and I'm still slightly torn but at this point it's sheer guesswork what will work best so this is what I'm sticking with now.

My big important knitting project for the year is another baby blanket. Thanks to my sister my lovely collection of nieces and nephews is set to grow by one around May time this year so I will be quietly working away on a blanket for him/her. My sister has been known to frequent these parts (hi Jess!) so I won't be saying any more about this project until it's finished and handed over.

For sewing my main aim is to actually do some! I've been in a bit of a slump but I have several projects I really want to get done so I'll be making a special effort there. I really want to finally nail a pair of jeans that properly fit, I want to make another coat and I have a large number of dress patterns I want to try.

I also want to get more in the way of spinning done this year. Really I need to take a look at my setup and work out how to make it easier to just hop and and spin for a bit without having to drag everything out and then put it away again when I'm done. Basically I am lazy and I just wont bother if it feels like an effort and that is something I need to fix. I find I get so much more done if I can just snatch 10 minutes here and there rather than trying to find a whole chunk of time, but my equipment needs to be ready and waiting for me to do that.

And that's it. I don't like to put too much pressure on myself, but it's nice to have a vague plan for the things that I would really like to get done in a year. This way I don't dissappoint myself and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised by what I do achieve by the end of the year.