Knitting Goals for 2014

I’m a big believer in setting goals, not really making resolutions. Resolving to eat better or knit more socks is fine in theory, but for me, to actually see the kind of results I want, I need to be incredibly specific, which in my mind is antithetical to resolutions. But with knitting it’s a little tricky—how much time will I have to knit; should I even bother with a specific goal number of projects knit? How much yarn is really feasible to get out of my house? Etc.

I know I say this every single year, and that I am not alone in saying this every single year, but things have really gotten out of control. I have more than 160 projects in my queue that are ready to be knit—the yarn is in my stash and the pattern is in my library. Of those projects, eleven are sweaters or cardigans, and I can’t even begin to count the number of socks or scarves.

A friend gifted me Fortune Bay for my birthday, which was super awesome as she’d been with me when I bought the yarn for this at Rhinebeck in October.

So, goal number 1 is to knit the stash: no buying yarn (unless I need a skein or partial skein to finish a project in progress). I had an influx of yarn at the end of 2013 (mostly gifted skeins of yarn from an indie dyer friend, another skein won in a KAL challenge, and one that I did purchase but I purchased it as part of a kit, with the remainder of the kit going to someone else as part of a swap package), so I’m really set for that new yarn smell for a while. I’m still aiming to knit out a marathon’s worth of yardage (this has been a thing for me for the last few years, always thwarted by incoming yarn). It just gives me a (very crazy) goal, but no sweat if I don’t make it.

Number 1b is to knit the queue. As I mentioned earlier, I have a large number of patterns that I could start knitting any day.

Goal number 2 is to knit at least one thing for someone else every month. I’m primarily a selfish knitter, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with knitting for yourself first and foremost—you’re putting in the work, why not reap the benefits? I knit a bunch of gifts in December—actually now that I think about it, none of the projects I finished in December (and there’s a big FO post that needs to happen, with terrible photography) were for me—and it was kind of nice to know that the project I was making was tailored to someone else and not going to live in my house, which is full of handknits. I don’t have people in mind for every single month just yet, but I’m pretty sure that I can find some enthusiastic recipients for random knit items throughout the year.

Goal number 3 is to finish WIPs. I have my double-knit scarf, my crochet scarf, a pair of knee-high socks (I did finish one of those last year), a second sock that I’m knitting in a trade (my friend is spinning up some fiber for me in exchange for these socks which really wouldn’t take me long to finish if I’d just do it, dammit), and my mom’s cardigan. I’m just tired of having these projects “hanging over me” on my projects page. They need to be done! So they will be done. Sometime this year.

So those are my knitting goals for 2014. Did you make any goals?