Your Guide to Setting New Year’s Knitting and Crochet Goals and Choosing Projects
A new year is dawning and with it comes the special excitement of new beginnings, new goals, and new projects. While we may not know what the year will throw at us, we can have the constant of knitting and crochet – in whatever form – at our side to lighten the mental burden or at least pass the time!
In this article we’ll look at the way in which you can set your knitting and crochet goals for the year and how you can choose the perfect projects for 2022.
How to Set Your Knitting and Crochet Goals for 2022
We’re sure that you, just like us, have a whole bunch of crochet or knitting (or both!) goals for 2022. The question is, how do you know which of those goals you’ll actually be able to reach before the clock strikes midnight on 31 December 2022. The answer? By making your knitting and crochet goals SMART goals.
How to make SMART goals for your knitting and crochet projects
You may have heard about SMART goals in the context of business and employee evaluations, but the SMART method of goal-setting can also be used for any type of goal in your life – even craft goals!
Let’s have a closer look at what S.M.A.R.T. stands for before showing how this can be applied to your knitting, crochet, and craft goals.
SMART stands for:
S – Specific: Choose a goal that is specific, for example “finish the garter stitch shawl I started in June”.
M – Measurable: Your goal should have a definite ending, so instead of only saying that you’re going to work on a project, break the project down in steps and finish those until your whole project is completed.
A – Achievable/Attainable: Make sure that the project is something that you’re able to do. For example, it shouldn’t be a project like yarnbombing your whole street in a day when you’re working all alone to make the knitted elements.
R – Realistic: Taking the yarnbombing example, you have to be realistic and look at whether you can actually make all the elements you’ll need to yarnbomb a whole street when working by yourself.
T – Time-bound/Time-limited: Give yourself a time limit for completing the task. For example, you need to finish your garter stitch shawl by 28 February.
Keeping track of your projects
Keeping track of the projects you’re busy with, that you’ve put on hold, or still need to make (for example for gifts) can be tricky – especially if you only have the list in your head. Rather than trying to remember the whole list, write it down in such a way that you can refer back to it at any time you need to (so don’t write it on a till slip that you need to remember instead).
You can do a type of craft project brain dump in order to get all the projects you’re busy with, want to make, and the project you need to make on one page. Whether this page is made in a paper notebook or an app like Evernote is completely up to you.
This list you can then either keep as-is and simply tick the projects off as you go along, or you can make the list as elaborate as you want. For example, you can use separate pages in your notebook for the projects you’re busy with (your WIPs), the projects that are on your “wishlist”, and the projects that you need to make as gifts or for charity.
If you work in an app, you can make each of the projects a task or a page (for example in Notion you can create a whole database or Kanban board!) and give it a deadline to keep them part of your SMART goals plan that you came up with for 2022.
You don’t need to use a specific app to keep your projects all in one place, though. You can also use software like Microsoft Excel, LibreOffice Calc or Google Docs to keep a spreadsheet with all the relevant information of the projects you want to work on.
Finishing all those WIPs (or saying a final farewell to them)
When you’re going through the projects that you’re busy with – your WIPs – it’s also a good time to decide whether you actually still want to finish the project at all. Perhaps your taste has changed and you no longer like the pattern as much or you don’t like working with the specific yarn you’d chosen.
Being honest about not wanting to finish specific WIPs will save you a lot of time of feeling guilty for not finishing them. Rather spend that time that you would have used feeling guilty about the pile of WIPs to make new projects that you’re excited about in yarn that you love!
Stashbusting as a way of setting goals
Is your yarn stash getting out of hand? Then make stashbusting part of your goals for 2022.
Instead of buying new yarn or crochet thread for every project, use those that you already have first (even though the others are tempting – we know!). You can also use your stash yarns to learn a new knitting or crochet skill like Tunisian crochet, loom knitting, or machine knitting.
You can even use your stash to practice different knitting stitch patterns or crochet stitch patterns by making swatches with the yarn that you no longer like or only have a little bit of.
Next, let’s look at the ways in which you can choose your knitting and crochet projects for the year ahead.
How to Choose Your Knitting and Crochet Projects for 2022
Choosing the knitting and crochet projects that you’ll work on throughout the new year is a lot easier when you have an idea of the number of items you need to make for yourself or for gifts and when you know which WIPs you’re finishing.
Here are some tips for choosing your ideal crochet and knitting projects of the year.
Stashbusting Projects
Once you’ve gone through your yarn stash to see what you have, you can decide on choosing patterns that you can make specifically with that type or weight of yarn. This will not only help you use up your stash – or at least part of your stash – but will also give you a way to make projects without spending a lot of money (if any) on yarn.
Wishlist Projects and Gifts Galore
You can also use your stash yarn – or some special new yarn – to make all or some of the patterns you have on your wishlist(s) on sites like Ravelry and LoveCrafts. So many times we put off making a specific pattern because we’re waiting for the “right time” that we end up not making that project for years or even making it at all.
Team up your wishlist projects with yarn from your stash and there you go – a match made in yarn heaven. You’ll barely have to spend any money to make your projects if you use your stash. Haberdashery and maybe even a nice new set of needles or hooks will be all that’s needed to complete perhaps even a year’s worth of wishlist projects.
You can also team up yarn from your stash with projects that make for ideal gifts for friends and family. If you use yarn you already have, you also don’t have to waste time waiting for new yarn to arrive if you use yarn from your stash.
Tip! If you’re looking for knitted or crocheted gift ideas, have a look at other posts on this website for casual and semi-formal clothing items and accessories, home decor, and animal plushies.
CALs and KALs and MCALs and MKALs!
Still not sure which project to choose? Why not join a designer or group of designers and crocheters or knitters for a crochet-along or knit-along. In these CALs or KALs you have the chance to make the same project along with a number of knitters or crocheters. Not only does this give you a chance to make a great project, but it also gives you the chance to meet other crocheters and knitters in the textile arts community.
You can even take part in a mystery crochet-along (MCAL) or mystery knit-along (MKAL). When you do one of the mystery projects, you’ll know what you’re making – for example a shawl – but won’t know how it looks until you’re done. What a fun project to do when you get stuck!
Here are some 2022 CALs and KALs that you can be a part of:
- 2022 Crochet-Along by Arunima Goel
- The Motif Jump Start CAL
- For this one by Rose City Yarn Crawl you can choose the MKAL or MCAL option
- Another MCAL to sign up for that includes prizes
- A KAL by Carol Feller
- Here’s a link to the Project Linus CAL and KAL
What are your knitting and crochet goals and projects for 2022? Why not share them with us in the comments – and don’t forget to show us what you make on the KnitPal Facebook group!
