Last year, I thought it’d be nice to restart this blog. If you’re unfamiliar, I started this in January of 2020. By January 2021, I’d decided to start my YouTube channel, Tiny Desk Knitting, so it that seemed like enough of a replacement that it was okay to let this just sort of fall by the wayside. But I do find myself actually wanting to write about knitting and spinning sometimes. Perhaps the act of writing makes me feel more accountable. I’m not sure.

Last year around this time (New Year’s, huge surprise), I thought it’d be nice to try and get back into blogging. I tried. It didn’t go well. I posted exactly two times. Once about my resolutions, and once about a cardigan I made in March. I told the world that I wanted to be more vulnerable. The main way in which I wanted to do this was by releasing knitting patterns, and I actually did do this! I mean, I released two, which was not exactly what I had planned, but it wasn’t terrible.

For my day job, I work with students at a research university who are struggling academically. This could mean that they’re pre-med and they absolutely must avoid a B at all costs, or that they’re failing everything because they really just need to change their major, or, more likely, something in between. And one strategy I often use to help students find their feet is to set some goals. Tangible goals. Not ‘get a 4.0.’ I mean, yes, that’s a tangible and specific goal, but it needs more planning than that. For goals to be effective, we usually have to get out the metaphorical magnifying glass and ask, ‘okay, but what medium goals make up that big goal? What small goals make up the medium goals? What action steps make up the small goals?’

One of my biggest resolutions in 2024 is to start taking more of my own advice. I honestly think everyone could stand to take more of their own advice. When my students get anxious about a test, for instance, I tell them to try and verbalize, or write down, their anxious thoughts. Then I ask them to pretend that a friend is coming to them with these anxieties. Finally, I request that they give their ‘friend’ (in reality, just themself) a pep talk. They can’t be mean to a friend. They build them up. And I say, okay, there’s your confidence right there. Take your own advice.

Right. Back to goal setting. I’ve realized I need to take my own advice more often, especially with goals and habits. In November, I got really obsessed with streak calendars. I told my students that a really helpful way to build habits was to keep a streak calendar. It’s surprisingly motivating to check off that you completed a goal. I tried this for myself, too, to put my money where my mouth was, in order to get that Giant Green Cardigan finished. It actually worked.

So one goal I have this year is to use a streak calendar to work on all of my big lifts. I have a list of them, and instead of spending six months to a year on each one (because I usually get bored after a week or two and then they spend a couple of months in time-out), I’d like to actually try and work on them a little each day. That’s one goal.

Another goal? Always have a handspun project on the needles. It’s not that hard. I love knitting with my handspun.

Goal number three: publish all my sock patterns, and maybe some colorwork patterns, too. I realized pretty quickly that if I was going to do this, I needed an ACTUAL plan. So I came up with one: spend the first week of 2024 knocking out at least four of them with Jordan. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Then, in the first week of February? We’ll knock out another four. And so on until they’re all done.

Goals can be a reach, but they need to be achievable. And because, at the end of the day, knitting is still my hobby, I don’t want to make my intentions list too crazy. The only other thing I’d really like to do is to try and actually write a blog post every week! My plan for this, much like Tiny Desk Knitting, is to make sure it gets done at the same time each week. I’m not sure yet what time that’ll be, but I think I’ll figure it out. I’d like to write about a variety of things: design challenges, unexpected joys, technical aspects of knitting and spinning, what I love about teaching others to knit and bringing them into the fiber community, and finding meaning in projects. So, stay tuned. I plan to actually try and keep up. Will I fall of the wagon by February? You can place your bets now. (I’d say there’s at least a 50/50 chance).

I hope you are all finding time to craft this week, staying warm (or cool, if you’re in a different part of the world), and chasing joy with every ounce of energy you have. That’s always been the mantra by which I try to live.

Chase joy.