Getting Back on the Proverbial Horse

After last week's goal review session and a quick perusal of my Ravelry notebook, I've come to a few conclusions.

Conclusion the first:  an annual planning cycle doesn't feel very useful to me right now.  Time is wily and so are my interest and focus.  I am thinking about a quarterly approach for 2026 -- basically the opposite of what I did for 2025.  2026 goals will have more focus, more structure, and a much shorter time horizon from conception through to fruition.

Conclusion the second: it's a good thing I like socks.  I wonder if I can take what's great about them (portability and ease, for example) and apply that to other things I might like to make?  I live in Tennessee so I don't need a ton of hats, but it's worth thinking about anyway.  I really do like socks though, so if it ain't broke, maybe I don't need to fix it.
 
Conclusion the third: I do not finish blankets at the same rate that I start them.  I have all different kinds going - dead simple, complex, knit, crochet, Disneyland-threw-up levels of scrappiness, highly structured colorways … I have a blanket WIP for pretty much any whim or occasion.   I would like to start rotating a few towards finished, so my planning for next year should take that into account.
 
Conclusion the fourth: I have a few not blanket or sock WIPs (I know! I was shocked too!) and I'd like to move them along before the new year. 
 
To that end, I've picked my cabled socks back up and have started doing a four-row repeat a day.  I'm treating it as a bit of a road test for the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Self-Imposed Sock Club method.  It's a clever bit of business where she pairs yarns with patterns (that's the sock club part) and then she knits about 10 rounds a day.  Much like the advent socks lots of folks (myself included) like to knit in December, if you keep that schedule up you have a pair of socks at the end of the month without hardly trying.  I could see this as a helpful way to get patterned socks knit faster than the heat death of the universe.
 
As for the cabled socks, four rows a day won't finish them fast, but it will finish them.  That's better than what I was doing, which was picking up the project bag and moving it around every couple of weeks without ever actually touching the knitting.  I'm on the gusset increases for the second sock of the pair, so once I've turned the heel and wrapped up the cables, I can just go "whoosh!" and they'll practically finish themselves. 

I should clarify - these socks are lovely, and no hardship to knit.  The cables are dead simple, and the rest is just knits and purls.  I just … wasn't.  So now I am, and that's a win!
 
Other focus projects at the moment are a vaguely Christmassy star-shaped afghan, the current backpack sock, and I also spontaneously decided to cast on Joji Locatelli's MKAL shawl "One Love" -- I'm really enjoying both the pace and the pattern.  Glad I jumped in!

I'm toying with the idea of a bit of giftmas knitting, so we'll see where that goes.  I also have more ideas for December knitting than I have December, so I need to figure that out soon too.

Checking in on What I Said I Wanted

Long-time friends of the show know that I like to do a bit of goal-setting and planning about my crafting.  I remain allergic to resolutions, but I do love a list.

Back in late December of 2024, I sat myself down with a cup of tea and a notebook and gave the coming year a good think.  Sometimes I really enjoy very detailed lists and other times I set a few guidelines or intentions and call it a day.   This past year I was leaning far more heavily into the vague than the specific.  Sometimes it just be like that.

 

So, without further ado - here's what I thought I wanted to do 11 months ago, what I've really done so far this year, and what I might still prioritize as we wrap 2025 up.

 

1. I would like to continue to work on cross stitch as well as knitting and crocheting.

Am I on Track?  Not really, no.  I was going strong right through about March or so, and then suddenly my interest kind of fizzled.  Admittedly based on limited data, it looks like I'm kind of a seasonal stitcher?  Over the past two years I've been quite interested in cross-stitching across the winter months … which is wild since my vision is kind of dodgy and apparently the urge strikes during the darkest part of the year, go figure.  My brain is a wild and wonderful place, I tell you.

What's left for 2025? I'm not too fussed about it, to tell you the truth.  I am enjoying what I am working on, and I expect the urge to stitch will return at some point.  One thing I may do is pull out the Christmas tree ornament that I was close to finishing and see about getting that on my tree this year.  After that, who knows?

 

2. More Socks

Am I on Track?  Assuredly.  Socks are the only thing I'm consistently knitting these days. I've finished 12 pair for the year and am on track to finish a few more.

What's left for 2025? I'll finish up what's on the needles (a vanilla pair in festive colors and a cabled pair in a lovely dove gray).   I am also planning at least one and maybe two pairs of advent socks…which means I need to prioritize the two active pairs in November, now that I think of it.  The cabled socks don't "have" to be finished in 2025, but it would be nice.

the story thus far...

3. Get new glasses

Am I on Track? Totally, and it really did make a difference in my crafting (as well as all of the other parts of living, like being able to see the computer monitor to do my job).  I also discovered that taking them off completely helps for really close work, but that strains my eyes somewhat so I try to do it sparingly.

 

What's left for 2025? Nothing - this one is a one and done for the year.  Woo hoo!

4. More out than in (stash management)

Am I on Track?  lol

What's left for 2025? I don't have any active stash acquisition plans for the rest of the year, beyond another One Row mini skein delivery in December.  I did quit my Yarnable subscription earlier this year, so I'm no longer getting that monthly deposit in the yarn bank, but between a couple of fiber events earlier this year, advents, blanket kits, and the occasional wild hair, my stash continues to grow.  A grip.  I need to get one.

 

5. Sweaters.  Start with stash and queue.

Am I on Track?  Again, no.  And at this point I'm starting to wonder who I thought I was going to be in 2025, because my track record this year is not great.  At least in terms of hitting the goals I set last December anyway.  I've gotten lots accomplished, but not a lot of what I said I wanted to do.

What's left for 2025?  I started a sweater vest earlier this year and I'm more than half done with it  -- I'm going to focus on getting it wrapped up and then start some swatching to see if I can't get excited for a January 1 cast on.  I still want to knit (or crochet!) sweaters for myself, and Lord knows I've got the stash.

 

In Summary

I should have just put "Haul off and start another 16 blankets" on my goals list for the year.  I'd have been closer to the mark, if we're being honest.  I am ungovernable.

 

One thing that definitely threw a monkey into my wrench works is that I quit my long-time wizard-based internet crafting game at the end of March.  I've planned so much of my crafting around the rhythms of the House Cup for the last ten years - when I quit it left me a little adrift, I think.  I spent the rest of the year just working on whatever I felt like, whenever I felt like it.  I'm not mad, and probably needed the break, but I think I need to decide if I'd benefit from some light structure in my crafting, after running amok for 6+ months.

 

I really do have a silly number of blanket WIPs.