Can you believe January is here? The fact that I am writing this and it is January 23rd blows my mind even more. This year had brought some interesting days for me. So far I have had my first really bad ear infection and then yesterday I feel off going down the steps of my porch. I feel hard and bruised several parts of my body. As I write this I am sitting with a heating pad on my neck and shoulders because I am so sore. However, despite the issues I have had there is always one thing I can turn to beside my family and faith. I love them don’t get me wrong but there is a certain comfort crafts in general bring me. So this year I have several plans for my crafting goals.
Planning and Goal Setting:
I am a very OCD person and love setting goals and writing them down. I love when I check them off and can get that visual pleasure of seeing them done. I keep up with goals and to do list in two ways. One is my Filofax personal size Malden wallet. This is a planner/wallet in one. I got it last year and can not even imagine how I got by without it in the past. I post a picture above of the wallet I use. You can click on either picture and be taken to the Amazon page. I personally own the purple but I want a brown also 🙂 I have my planner wallet set up with card slots at the front to hold credit cards and discount cards, a notes section where I keep up with goals, calendar that I use a color coding systems and write day to day task and chores, credit card balance and payments so I always know what I owe and Checking account register.
I also use a Dry Erase board in my craft room that has my goals for the year on it. It is on the door across from my desk so when I am sitting in my desk I can look up and its starring at me reminding me to get them done.
The third step in my crafting organization is using Ravelry. I create project pages for upcoming knit and crochet project and keep all my stash in Ravelry so I know what I have and can link it to projects. For more info on how I use Ravelry Click HERE. You can see my project page above, if there is not any picture I have not started it yet. Those are just things I want to make in the next month or so. I also have yarn and pattern ready to go in project bags that are hanging on my bag tree. The different bags are a mixture of ones I have bought and ones I have made. There are a lot of free sewing patterns out there but some great ones are like the FREE Craftsy class Bag Making Basics with Kristin Link. If you are not a member of Craftsy I recommend you try it out. I love their classes. I have several and will be talking about them more in a minute.
I also organize my stash by weight of yarn and if it has a project in mind for it our not. Most of my yarn I buy with a project in mind but there are some that I have no idea what they will be. I wanted a way to go in there and look through what I do not have planned and pick something out if I come across a project that I need to make.
So now that I hit the basics of how I organize and plan lets get down to what I want to do in 2016.
My Goals:
1. Finish my Spark Story socks. I had to go down in needle size from a US 2 to a US 1 so I ripped them both out and am starting over. You can see that info and yarn info here.
2. I want to do my first color work pattern. I have picked out the Lerwick Roofline by the Plucky Knitter Designs. I have created the project page and attached the yarn I plan on using.
3. I want to do my first Lace Weigh Project and again I will be turning to Craftsy. I have already bought the amazing class from Mastering Lace Shawls Class by Laura Nelkin. However there are other classes I want to try like My First Lace Shawland Save Our Stitches: Fixing Lace Knitting Mistakes.
4. I want to spin more. I have a rather large fiber stash and for those that want to build their spinning skills Craftsy has a class for that too. Well several classes actually. This is one I want to try out Foundations of Spinning
5. I want to finish my sons cross stitch star wars by Cloudsfactory.
6. Knit double the amount of donation gifts as I did last year. I am choosing http://www.knittedknockers.org/ to knit for. I have bought some Cascade Ultra Pima to knit my knockers.. and have already knit a pair for my aunt. Did I mention the yarn is on sale at Craftsy 🙂
Wrapping it Up:
I love Craftsy so much the classes are a great way to learn a new skill. We have done the Free Pizza Making Class as a family and the hubby and I have done the Complete Knife Skills, with Brendan McDermott (FREE mini-course!). I have about 26 classes a mixture of free and paid for ones and there are so many more I want to try. I hope you take the time to check them out and take a class. Learn something new and open your 2016 to a new world of growth and possibilities.
Right now Craftsy is having an online class giveaway you can check out the details here.
