Happy Knit Year! — The Unapologetic Knitter

How embarrassing is it that it's taken me a WEEK to post my "Happy 2015" post? Oh man... so embarrassing. But I do have an excuse. To use the words of Ewe Ewe Yarns' Heather Walpole: "I had the death flu".

Okaaaaay... it wasn't the flu. It was a cold. But when you say 'cold' people think "yeah, yeah, just a cold... can't be that bad". All kidding aside, I was a zombie for 3 full days. I tried to knit and couldn't. I did get some cross stitching done since it takes less concentration (for me, anyway) but mostly I vegetated, watched movies, and let the Hubband do the cooking. He really does that. I'm pretty lucky!

Anyway, BEFORE I got sick I had all these plans to share my lofty goals for 2015 in the hopes that you, my lovely readers, would help keep me on track. So here's what my "To Do" list for 2015 is:

Make one new pair (minimum) of socks each month. This is a major stash-busting protocol for me. I cleaned up my stash a couple of days ago and OMG I have a sock yarn problem. I have 6 baskets of sock yarn. *hanging head in shame and mumbling* No... I'm not kidding. I've got two pairs on the needles already so that feels like a good start.
Release a new pattern every month. Whether free or not, I want to get some good stuff out this year (but definitely some free ones... stay tuned!). Specifically I want to get a shawl pattern out. It's something I want to perfect.
Make sure I send out one newsletter a month. I think this will be hard for me. I always worry that I'm being pushy when I send out newsletters so I'm trying to use it as a platform to SHARE things rather than ASK for things.
Blog regularly, not just for KAL's. I like to highlight not only what I'm knitting, but what YOU are knitting. So if you're excited about something you've knit (whether it's my pattern or not), or you've learned a new technique from my newsletter that helps you complete a project, send it on in to me and I'll share your accomplishments here.
Stop comparing my successes (or failures) to others. This will, by far, be the hardest goal for me. I constantly base my measure of success by others and feel like this needs to stop in my life. If something feels like a success to me, I should accept and celebrate it rather than compare it to other peoples' bar to see if it measures up. I just gotta be me, right?
Continue to promote others. You may have noticed, if you follow me on Instagram, that I've started to catalogue not only the name of the pattern I'm sharing in each post, but the yarn as well. I hope it doesn't become annoying, but I think it's important to celebrate the achievements of others through my work. Not that I want to tell you what to do, but I'd recommend doing the same so we can all share the goodness!

I think these are all relatively achievable goals. My general outlook towards 2015 is to promote kindness, generosity, love and achievements. I can't choose just one word for the year, as I know many people have done (and I admire all of the words chosen since they're so delightfully positive), but I do think that these 4 works above are my goals. Here's to fewer bad days, better knitting and a more positive world (even if only in the knitting community which is already pretty freakin' awesome).

So, in a celebration of my past knitting achievements, here's a snapshop of my year in knitting (I dare ya to sit through the whole thing):

Did you sit through it? Yes, that giant margarita counts as an accomplishment in knitting... kind of.

So, to kick off the year right and celebrate our future accomplishments, how about a little start-of-year giveaway, shall we? I want to know what your goals are. In the comments section leave your Rav name and your word(s) for the year or some of your goals and I'll randomly draw a winner to receive a pattern of their choice from my Ravelry store.

I hope 2015 is a wonderful year for you, your families, and, of course, your knitting. I look forward to knitting with you all, whether on my upcoming Zoey Cardigan KAL or just your pics on Instagram. Have a wonderful year lovelies! And please be sure to keep on me with my goals!

XO!