With the end of January already approaching, we wrap up out Stitcholution series. We’ve gotten the selfish knitting bug out of our system and it’s time to plan out what we really want to accomplish and time to make the time to do that.
Making Time
Making time is hard, especially when each day only ever comes with 24 hours. Take a look at your weekly schedule and see where you can save time each week that you can in turn put towards your stitching. It can be as little as 15 extra minutes a day. Try taking that time in the morning as you’re getting ready for your day or in the evening once the household chores are done and the kids have gone to bed. One of my goals for the year is to spend less time on my devices, and particularly social media. The time I have spent on Facebook would have been much better served knitting away on a project. While I *love* Ravelry and talked at length about it’s useful features last week, I spend an awful lot of time searching and planning projects that I don’t have any intention to make in the near future. Again, that’s time better spent actually stitching. So I challenge you to take a magnifying glass to your schedule and see where you can shave a few minutes to designate solely to what you really love to do.
Setting Goals
We’re now a month into the year but there are still eleven more to go. How on earth do you plan out everything you want to do? One great goal, especially if you just want to dedicate more time to stitching, it to stick with that 15 minutes a day. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when working on something steadily. Other people enjoy the 12 projects in 12 months concept. You see this quite often with shawls or sweaters, but the idea is easily extrapolated to whatever you desire. For 2016, some people are expanding the concept to 16 projects in 2016. One especially great goal if you typically do a lot of holiday stitching is to spread them over the year. That way you can still knit what you want while making a dent in your gift stitching list. Over on our Ravelry board we are having a very loose sock knit-a-long for the year where many of us want to simply knit at least 6 pairs of socks. I write down all my crafting goals for the year in a Word document on my computer that I update and refer back to throughout the year. While I never accomplish everything, it’s a great way for me to spell out exactly what I’m hoping to accomplish. Some of my 2016 goals are 6 pairs of socks, 7 shawls or cowls, and 3 hats. I encourage you to find a system that is achievable (because setting the bar too high is often discouraging) but pushes you to be productive and yet enjoy the process.
Happy stitching and please share your 2016 goals and ways you carve out time to stitch.