Progress on my creative goals for 2017

As we’re at the end of February, I thought it was time for me to review how I was doing so far with my personal creative goals for 2017. So here they are and how I’m doing with them…

Attend at least two workshops

Having attended Alison Ellen’s workshop a couple of weeks ago I’m definitely well on target to achieve this.

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Knit Lovely Husband a Christmas jumper

As it took all year not to knit him one last year, I was worried about this goal when I set it. I did take the small amount I’ve done to work on a few weeks ago when we travelled up country, but couldn’t do any, because the needles got snapped while it was in the boot of the car.

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I am however planning to make this my main in the dark/windy road knitting once I’ve finished my drop stitch fringe shawl, so fingers crossed for a finish this year.

Learn something knitting related each month

So far so good. In January I learned the slopped shoulder bind off and in February how to casting on a flat circle without creating a hole in the middle.

One I made earlier in brown

Knit for ‘pleasure’ at least three times a week

I’m editing this shortly after publishing as the lovely  Tialys  asked, what I was knitting that wasn’t for pleasure? I dread to think what she thought the answer might be! What I meant was not knitting for the DYC, which is pleasurable, but not knitting for the heck of it and is sometimes a bit fraught when designs won’t go the way I want them too.

Anyways back to the goal…

While I haven’t been counting, I think I’ve done well with this. I started my curl just before the end of last year, but most of what I have done has been this year…

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I knitted a pair of mitts in January…

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…I’ve finished the back of my cable cardigan and knitted most of both sleeves…

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… and I’ve nearly finished my drop stitch fringe shawl…

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Make a knitted bag

I haven’t done this, but there’s still plenty of year left.

Make a gift a least once a month

On target with this one. I made a hat for my friend in January and knitted cacti collection for Lovely Littlest in February. These also add my tally of knitting for pleasure projects.

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Become and remain UFO free all year

UFO socks are finished and I haven’t slung anything else on the UFO pile since.

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Creative play

One goal I had last year and I believe should be a constant in my creative life is to ‘indulge’ ‘creative play’ – experimenting and exploring with no particular goal in mind. Somehow this goal hasn’t made it to this year’s list, but it should have. I haven’t done any of this apart from in Alison Ellen’s workshop, so I’m now setting a goal to indulge in creative play one afternoon a month for the rest of the year.

All in all I’m pretty pleased with my progress.

Have you set goals for this year? If so, how are doing with them?

 

20 thoughts on “Progress on my creative goals for 2017”

    1. Ha Ha! Yes that does sound odd, now I think of it 🙂 I meant, and explained when I originally set my goals, that knitting for The Dartmoor Yarn Company was pushing out my personal knitting and although I enjoy doing it, it isn’t the same as knitting just what you fancy. It also definitely feels like ‘work’ when you’re trying to design something and it won’t go right. Think I’d better go and edit this post in case I give the impression there’s some sort of sadomasochism involved in some of my knitting!

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    1. Thank you. Certainly didn’t realise I’d done so much knitting this year – which is one of the reasons I set goals, because they don’t just give you a boot up the bum when you’ve done nothing, they also stop you being hard on yourself when you have done stuff. Look forward to reading about your goals if you set some.

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    1. I’d forgotten them too apart from the learn something every month. So it was a pleasant surprise when I reviewed them. Hope you’re as pleasantly surprise when you check on yours.

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    1. I don’t think anyone should set goals unless they want to and even a goal setter like me has times when they don’t set them, because they can be very counter productive at times. Pleased you like the hat 🙂 Look forward to seeing the completed canvas! 🙂

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  7. Since you brought it to my attention, a few UFOs have emerged from the depths and I will endeavour to work through them. I love your “one Christmas gift a month” goal. It’s a goal I’d do well to set myself.

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  9. Going great guns I should say. Knitting for pleasure is completly different. In my case knitting for pure fun rather than a garment for a grandchild which is the nearest to work I get now. Not sure where a mermaids tail fits in. I love the mittens, you have a real way with colour combos. And creative play, we just forget to do that don’t we in the need for a finished product.

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    1. It’s funny isn’t that even in the things we do for enjoyment there are levels of how much we enjoy them. Although when Lynn asked what knitting not for pleasure meant, I had visions of knitting with barbed wire or something!! 😉 I’m terrible at being product focused, but playing is such fun and I usually learn something.

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