I don’t know about you, but personally I have some bad habits when it comes to my knitting and especially when it comes to yarn! So, this year I’m setting myself some Knitting New Year’s Goals to remind myself of throughout the year and hold myself accountable.
I’m sure I’m not alone in some of these habits, hopefully some of you will be inspired to change the way you currently go about your knitting.
Yarn Stash Declutter
The first and for me the most pressing, is a yarn stash declutter. I’ve said it before in a blog post on here but I really do have enough yarn to stock a small shop..
This is for a few reasons and not only because I have a yarn buying addiction! I’ve been obsessively knitting and crocheting for over four years now, and when I first begun my journey I had no idea about different kinds of yarn, fibre, weight etc and so bought a lot of stuff that I later came to realise wasn’t what I actually enjoyed using.
I’m not sure if this is just me, but all sorts of people I have some remote connection to come out of the woodworks to offer me yarn that they’ve either inherited or found from childhood etc. Being a yarn enthusiast I find it very hard to say no to these offers and so have accumulated a lot of yarn this way. (I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, I just wish people knew that I don’t have any will power when it comes to yarn!).
There’s of course many other reasons I could use to justify why I have so much of it, but I won’t bore you with this and I’ll get on to how I plan to declutter.
Firstly I should mention I do sell my pieces so for this reason can’t be as ruthless when it comes to decluttering as I’d like. With my personal stash though, I will be ruthless.
I plan on only keeping yarn that I have enough of for a project. I have so many random skeins and small balls of yarn that realistically just isn’t enough for a project. I will be saying goodbye to these..
I will only be keeping fibres that I actually enjoy wearing.
To be honest, these are really the only criteria. That will however narrow down my supply.
I should mention where I plan on giving the yarn that doesn’t make the cut. I usually donate what I don’t want to charity shops. Not all charity shops take yarn but it’s easy enough to find the ones that do. I also have a mother and sister who both knit so they’re often keen to take yarn off of my hands.
I’ve also donated yarn to nurseries before where they use it for arts and crafts with the children.
Yarn Buying Habits
I’ve started putting this in to practice already, but one of my knitting New Year’s Goals for 2024 will be to only buy yarn when I’ve completed a project, and only buy it if I know what I’ll be making with it.
I’m like a magpie when it comes to yarn, if I go somewhere new and see it I have to buy it. Usually it’s just one ball though, which has meant over the years I’ve collected an assortment of odd balls of yarn that aren’t enough to make a whole project with. I’ve learnt my lesson and will stop doing that this year.
Washing Hand-made Pieces
This is something I am very lazy with. So one of my knitting New Year’s Goals will be to get out ALL of the pieces I’ve made and wash them all in one go. A lot of the more summery pieces I’ve made have been sat at the bottom of my laundry basket since the end of summer waiting to be washed (shameful – I know). This then happens with the wintery pieces when summer comes around.
So this year I will be washing everything in one go, then packing it up appropriately to protect any woollens from the pesky moths. I’ll also be doing my best to wash pieces when needed rather than letting them sit in my washing basket or extended periods of time.
Learning New Techniques / Challenging Myself
I think this is an area where people are split in to two polar opposite camps. Those that like to knit ‘safe’, and those that like to challenge themselves with new techniques and skills. Personally I fall into the first category.
I’ve been knitting for almost four years now and have still never tackled cables, or done much lacework among multiple other techniques I’m constantly telling myself I need to try and then never do.. I just get complacent and knit things I know I can do easily!
So, naturally one of my knitting New Year’s Goals for 2024 is to challenge myself to make things with techniques I’ve not tried before. First on my list is the Moby Sweater by PetiteKnit.
1 WIP at a time!
I feel like this is another thing that people are split into opposite camps about. Those that have one WIP (work in project) on the go, and those that have multiple. I am most definitely the latter.
I’m terrible for starting a new project whilst I still have one on the go. This then results in losing motivation for the first project, which ends up in my dreaded half finished WIP box.
2024 is the year of one WIP at a time so I actually finish every project that I start.
No doubt there’s a hundred other things I could list in here but for now, these are the most pressing thing’s I’d like to change. Maybe I’ll write a blog post at the end of 2024 to reflect on these Knitting New Year’s Goals and see how I did.
If you can relate to any of these, or have any of your own Knitting New Year’s Goals let us know in the comments!
Happy knitting for 2024! Megan x
No products in the basket.