Goals!

I had very good intentions about blogging again at the start of January especially because I wanted to jot down my knitting goals for 2016. Clearly, those intentions stayed intentions, but I suddenly realized that Lunar New Year is just around the corner so I'll mark this much-loved holiday with notes about my aspirations with yarn and needles.  More than anything, I'm going to keep my goals super simple this year ~ I'm often way too ambitious with my wish list and end up feeling more disappointed than proud.  

So, here they are ~ three simple but still challenging goals I want to achieve:  

(1) I plan to choose my projects much more carefully.  What this means is that I'm going take my time assessing a pattern before it jumps onto my needles.  I don't know about you but I sometimes get I caught up in the frenzy of a popular project that inundates my IG feed and cast on with abandon.  Granted, they often are truly gorgeous, but they aren't always my style or something I would easily (or happily) add to my wardrobe.  So, I'm going to enjoy seeing everyone's beautiful pics, but I'll do some research on the whole project before I decide if it's worth my time, effort, and money.

One such project is the Wolf River pullover which I've been wanting to knit for a while.  I love the stitch pattern that covers the entire body of the sweater and I've been wanting to add a chunky, oversized pullover to my wardrobe for a while.  I've already finished the front, back, and side seaming so I should be able to wear this beauty really soon.

(2) I plan to push myself to try new techniques.  I will definitely spend time perfecting things I already know but what I really want to achieve this year are new-to-me methods like intarsia and set-in sleeves and steeking(!).

(3)  I plan to explore new-to-me yarns.  I don't usually knit in the suggested yarn for a project either because I'm too inpatient (and run to my stash first) or I get cold feet about spending money on yarns that I've never tried before.  In my quest to choose projects carefully, I know that knitting with the suggested yarns will make the whole experience that much more wonderful.  So, I hope I'll be sharing some thoughts soon on yarns that I've only seen you knit with or read about and will now experience first-hand.

An unofficial fourth goal is to create a capsule wardrobe which will mainly consist of hand-knit and hand-sewn garments.  This would be a huge goal if I accomplish it so I hope you'll cheer me on as I would love to do a recap in December of what I made.  

Now onto knitting those sleeves....