So 2017 was quite a year for me personally. My sweet little Ladybug was born in July making our family truly complete. And, in the midst of settling in as a family of 5, my husband and I both had work developments that have also taken some getting used to. While I’ve been able to keep up with my love affair with all things yarn, crochet and knitting, I’ve not been able to keep up with chatting about it.

I’m hoping to change that in 2018, which makes me think of New Year’s resolutions. Personally, I’m not big on resolutions. I do like setting goals, though. With each goal, I think about what I ultimately wish to do (my dream goal, which is usually way too ambitious), what I think I could really accomplish (my more realistic goal, which is usually still more ambitious than life will allow), and my "I will settle for" goal (or, in other words, what progress towards the goal that I would find acceptable). This last one is usually the much more reasonable goal to set. 

Here are 6 of the goals I have for 2018, all three versions, and my hope that maybe...just maybe...I'll be able to say on New Year's Eve that I completed one.

1. Make Sweaters

The Dream: Make 2 sweaters - 1 crochet, 1 knit

More Realistic: Buy yarn for 2 sweaters; finish 1

Settling for: Buy yarn for 2 sweaters, begin 1 and finish all but the sleeves (probably); select pattern for the second sweater.

2. Knit Socks

The Dream: Knit up the 20 skeins of yarn that I have for socks.

More Realistic: Knit 1 pair of socks per month

Settling for: Finish a pair of socks for both my boys (one pair has been half-made for over a year now, so that really shouldn't be that difficult) and one pair for myself; choose patterns for the other skeins.

3. Crochet Shawls for Special Family Members

The Dream: Crochet 4 shawls

More Realistic: Crochet 4 shawls

Settling for: Crochet 4 shawls. This goal NEEDS to happen. I already have the yarn and I just need to pick out the patterns and get them started. Depending on the design, this really shouldn't be too difficult for me to accomplish. If I do nothing else this year, I need to at least do this.

4. Continue to pare down the stash

The Dream: Sell all the yarn I have on my destash list and work up half of my stash.

More Realistic: Sell off half of the yarn on my destash list and work projects only from the stash that I have on hand.

Settling for: Continue to sell off as much as possible; work from stash as much as possible; add new yarns only when I have a project in mind instead of finding myself in the "ohhhh...that is pretty...I really REALLY need it" cycle which just has me adding to my already glorious stash; end the year with less than with what I started (I will not admit that number here).

5. Design More

The Dream: Design all the patterns on my "to design" list (more than 20).

More Realistic: Design half of the patterns on my "to design" list (about 10).

Settling for: Design more patterns than I did last year. I came out with 3 new designs last year, so that goal number for me is 4. I really hope that I'm able to do more than that but hey...this me being real with myself.

6. More writing about my yarn adventures

This is another one that just needs to happen for obvious reasons :) I will do the best I can to write every week.

So what I'm up to now...

Back in November, I ordered the 25 Days of Christmas kit from Rising Tide Fiber Co. Every day through Advent, I opened a lovely little silver box that contained a 40 yd. skein of gorgeous and vibrant colored Talbot Fingering yarn to work up the included Christmas Technicolor cowl. It's a basic pattern that's perfect for TV knitting. Melissa's keen eye for color shows through with her 25 color choices. Each one plays off the last so well that it stays exciting between its tonals, variegateds and speckles. I wasn't able to keep up with each day's knitting due to some other crafting commitments as well as a bit of Christmas crocheting, but I'm on Day 8 as of today and have it sitting next to me when I have a minute or two to knit it.

And speaking of Christmas crocheting...

Each year, I crochet ornament for my boys' teachers. I think this is the 7th or 8th year that I've been giving the ornaments as gifts. This year, with an infant and all the other life we have going on, I needed to keep it simple. I picked the Christmas Present Ring Ornament by Doni Speigle, and it was perfect!

That leads me to one more goal for the year: choosing a Christmas ornament NOW and making one every week so I have them all finished come next Christmas.

Yeah...right...keep dreaming, Aimée!