Out With the Old and In With the New

With 2010 drawing to a close and January 1st just a few days away, I’ve been giving some thought to my knitting goals for 2011.  I ended up feeling well enough after all to knit Alison’s slippers and finish sewing Morgan’s doll clothes before Christmas so I am beginning the new year with more or less a clean slate.  As I look back at my list of knitting goals for last year I am happy to see that I was able to meet many of them, the most important of which was to finish the Great American Aran Afghan in time for my parents’ anniversary.  However, despite my best intentions, I did not “let it go” as much as I would have wished.  Even though I generally limited myself to only one SKA project each month, I found myself involved in other KAL’s and pushing myself to meet their deadlines.  In the process I put off (yet again) knitting many other projects I have wanted to knit for a while.  As a result, this year it’s all about the queue.

Drum roll please…

1.  Limit my involvement in organized KAL’s.  I will continue to participate in Chrissy Gardiner’s CSK and attempt to knit each month’s new pattern but with no fixed deadline I can work at my own pace.  I may join in other KAL’s as the spirit moves me but my goal is to avoid overcommitting to arbitrary deadlines.

2.  Cut back on yarn clubs.  There are so many yarn clubs out there that entice me but like KAL’s they prevent me from knitting other projects.  I am currently enrolled in two bi-monthly clubs and will likely participate in the next tea version of “Sip ‘n Stitch” but so far I have resisted joining any other upcoming clubs for this year (even though they sound really good).

3. Participate in the Stash and Burn “Sock Stash Knitdown”.  While at first glance this appears to contradict Goal #1, this KAL is extremely flexible. with its sole objective to use up twelve skeins of sock yarn in 2011.  I’ve decided to take it a step further and have matched up yarns with sock patterns I’ve long admired but have never knit.  So far I have almost thirty combinations from which to choose but I am committing myself to knitting only twelve over the course of the next year; if I knit more than that, it’s a bonus.

4.  Knit two pairs of socks for Cameron before the end of winter.  I gave him yarn for Christmas with this intention.  Otherwise…

5.  Engage in more selfish knitting.  It’s okay to give non-knitted gifts.  Lots of people do it.

6.  Knit more sweaters.  I say this every year but this time I mean it. 

7  Knit more shawls.  There are so many beautiful shawls and I want to knit them all.

8.  Buy less yarn.  I have a lot of beautiful yarn and I should be knitting it instead of acquiring more.  I’m not going “cold sheep” or declaring myself on a yarn diet but I will try to be more conscientious about my purchases.

In a nutshell, the objective this year is to get more joy from my hobby by limiting deadline knitting and casting on more of those “must-knits” from my imaginary queue.  While I will most likely always do some gift knitting because I enjoy it I will try to balance it with some “selfish” knitting.  After all, as I keep reminding myself, knitting is supposed to be fun.