Goals and Dreams for 2016

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 Shawl and 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.

For any legal info please check out this tab . I am a craftsy affiliate, however this does not affect my feelings twards craftsy or their products. I have learned several things from their classes and currently taking the Knit Faster With Continental Knitting (w/Lorilee Beltman) and used the Entrelac Knitting Class  to make my Entrelac Cowl which can be seen in this post.