Image Details: ‘Delorean’ by The Plate Market, via Flickr.

Day Seven (Sunday April 28th): Looking Forward
One year from now, when the 5th Knitting & Crochet Blog Week rolls around, where do you hope your crafting will have taken you to? What new skills, projects and experiences do you hope you might have conquered or tried?

Last year I set myself several things I would like to learn in the coming year, as part of the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2012. I decided, whilst writing this post, that it would be fun to look back and see if I had managed to achieve any of them. I do feel like I have progressed in my knitting ability during the past year and have attempted projects with wild abandon, without any regard to how difficult they were going to be. I must also confess though, that I have not looked back at those goals set last year until now. So, what did I plan to learn?

1) Fair Isle
2) Adult size jumper, for me
3) Dye some yarn
4) Handspin yarn for a project
5) Learn to do TAAT socks

How did I do?

1) Fair Isle: Epic fail. Didn’t even try any.

2) Adult size jumper, for me: Cast on Owls by Kate Davies, decided that expanding pregnant frame not suited to form fitting jumper of previous size and elected to leave it until after eviction of the little squatter. Left the project in the UK after Christmas as I needed the luggage space for baby paraphernalia.

3) Dye some yarn: Thought about it, read about it, didn’t do it. I planned to attend a yarn dyeing course with Carlé from Nurturing Fibres, however the course unfortunately did not run in the end.

4) Handspin yarn for a project: I haven’t touched the wheel in a while. I really need to start using it as I can’t really justify it’s current existence as a rather beautiful ornament. I think possibly aiming for 10 minutes a day might be the way forward for this.

5) Learn to do Two At A Time socks: Epic fail. Didn’t even try it. Did do a couple more pairs on the old DPNs though.

I found that in typical Bee-like fashion, I got distracted by other projects, such as doing a podcast! I also found that, by having such a wide scope on the goals, I didn’t actually get there because they weren’t broken down into small enough, specific steps. I have therefore decided to slim down this year’s goals to just one and I have already chosen which project I am going to do and when I will start it. If it is finished in time, I may then move on to the other two reserve projects. This way, I have a much more specific path in mind, so it is harder to become distracted from the goal. I am also going to blog about these projects once per week such that you can all keep me on track.

White and Colourful by Suuf. Image used with kind permission of Suuf, All Rights Reserved.

1) Fair Isle. I am going to complete the White and Colourful hat and mittens project, written by Suuf on Ravelry. She kindly sent me the charts for her self-designed/adapted project, and I intend to start this in August when we return to the UK and finish it by Christmas. This will give me time to clear down my ongoing wips in order to concentrate better on this project.

2) Adult size jumper for me. I am going to get the Owls out of hibernation when I return in August and work on this when I am not in the right frame of mind for Fair Isle! The plan is to finish this before next year’s KCBW.

Box of Chocolates

3) Two At A Time socks. I have the Box of Chocolates yarn and I am going to do Carlé’s Vanilla Sock pattern on Ravelry. As I have it with me now, so should I finish my ongoing wips, I will allow myself to cast them on.

What are your crafty goals for the coming year?

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